EMU's Gross Attendance Inflation

UK Peregrine · Post by **UK Peregrine** » Fri May 20, 2005 12:13 pm

Eastern Michigan took attendance estimates to a whole new levels with their reported attendance figures being up to 134 percent above actual attendance in some cases. It's a pretty interesting read and here's acouple of highlights from the article.

While the attendance for the Sept. 2 season opener against Buffalo was recorded at 17,750, the university's ticket office calculated attendance at 8,810 - a discrepancy of 8,940.

Attendance for Eastern Michigan's nonconference game with Idaho suggested a turnout of 18,920. The ticket office number registered 7,187 - a discrepancy of 11,733.

The six-game home schedule drew an average of 16,060 per game, according to the athletics department. The ticket office's per game average: 7,244.

Last season was the first time the NCAA mandated that Division I-A schools average at least 15,000 per game to maintain its standing. In April, the college athletics governing body tweaked its attendance policy, which now requires that schools meet that attendance figure - either through actual attendance or tickets sold - every other year.

http://www.mlive.com/eagles/aanews/inde ... 211020.xml

Schadenfreude · Post by **Schadenfreude** » Fri May 20, 2005 12:52 pm

The Eastern Echo should be proud. They started that whole investigation with a long story with some pretty incredible detail.

Exaggeration probably goes on, but I doubt it happens to the same degree elsewhere in the MAC.

Those photos Falcon fans took of the Northern Illinois-Eastern Michigan game last year seemed absurdly out of line with the official count.

NWLB · Post by **NWLB** » Fri May 20, 2005 6:16 pm

They must have hired somebody that was working at Toledo's athletic department during the mid 1990s.

GAAP, we don't need no stink'n GAAP.

bgmaggot00 · Post by **bgmaggot00** » Sat May 21, 2005 12:01 pm

Case in point. When my roomate and I went to the EMU-NIU game earlier this year, the posted attendance was something in the 5-7,000 neighborhood. NO ONE was at the game. We were guessing that they had approx. 1,000 there, and thats a high estimate in my book. I've got a pair of pics on my comp, but no way to post them up here, sorry. They've got a nice stadium, and not too horrible of a team, but it was sad. Jeff
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Schadenfreude · Post by **Schadenfreude** » Sat May 21, 2005 12:03 pm

bgmaggot00 wrote:Case in point. When my roomate and I went to the EMU-NIU game earlier this year, the posted attendance was something in the 5-7,000 neighborhood. NO ONE was at the game. We were guessing that they had approx. 1,000 there, and thats a high estimate in my book. I've got a pair of pics on my comp, but no way to post them up here, sorry. They've got a nice stadium, and not too horrible of a team, but it was sad. Jeff
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There are a couple pictures in the archive that seem to bear out what you are saying.