Home attendance figures for all FCS teams

Back-to-back PL champs 2016 and 2017.... but need to get back to relevance in the national FCS scene.
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LU808
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Home attendance figures for all FCS teams

Post by LU808 » Sun Feb 06, 2022 4:49 pm

Pitiful PL vs typical OOC opponents

Here are the average home attendance figures for all FCS teams (playoffs are included):

Rank School Avg
1 Jackson St. 42,293
2 Montana 24,584
3 James Madison 19,631
4 Montana St. 19,176
5 Southern Univ. 18,698
6 Florida A&M 16,967
7 Jacksonville St. 16,809
8 North Dakota St. 15,101
9 Yale 13,263
10 Delaware 12,844
11 South Dakota St. 12,668
12 N.C. A&T 12,437
13 New Hampshire 11,576
14 Eastern Ky. 11,539
15 Harvard 11,201
16 Alabama St. 10,881
17 Youngstown St. 10,512
18 UC Davis 10,422
19 Alabama A&M 10,241
20 Missouri St. 10,156
21 The Citadel 9,982
22 Norfolk St. 9,965
23 Western Caro. 9,824
24 North Dakota 9,661
25 Furman 9,577
26 ETSU 9,508
27 Tarleton St. 9,204
28 Mercer 8,908
29 Illinois St. 8,574
30 SFA 8,349
31 Elon 8,254
32 South Carolina St. 8,206
33 Cal Poly 7,952
34 McNeese 7,903
35 Murray St. 7,844
36 Southern Ill. 7,742
37 Northern Ariz. 7,620
38 Sacramento St. 7,615
39 Ark.-Pine Bluff 7,567
40 Central Ark. 7,560
41 Grambling 7,532
42 William & Mary 7,511
43 Chattanooga 7,482
44 Abilene Christian 7,415
45 Sam Houston 7,283
46 North Ala. 7,175
47 Holy Cross 7,156
48 N.C. Central 7,022
49 Princeton 7,019
50 Richmond 6,940
51 Nicholls 6,855
52 Stony Brook 6,777
53 UNI 6,757
54 Texas Southern 6,710
55 Morehead St. 6,707
56 Northwestern St. 6,566
57 Howard 6,529
58 Villanova 6,513
59 Weber St. 6,404
60 South Dakota 5,816
61 Kennesaw St. 5,803
62 Tennessee Tech 5,756
63 Eastern Wash. 5,725
64 Lamar University 5,716
65 Lehigh 5,639
66 Austin Peay 5,617
67 Towson 5,561
68 Columbia 5,549
69 Dartmouth 5,480
70 Mississippi Val. 5,440
71 Bethune-Cookman 5,323
72 VMI 5,217
73 Southeastern La. 5,215
74 Northern Colo. 5,168
75 Campbell 5,164
76 Maine 5,051
77 Indiana St. 4,976
78 Penn 4,971
79 Rhode Island 4,892
80 Idaho 4,878
81 Merrimack 4,860
82 Sacred Heart 4,854
83 Alcorn 4,833
84 St. Thomas (MN) 4,739
85 Dixie St. 4,728
86 Wofford 4,686
87 Albany (NY) 4,684
88 Southern Utah 4,591
89 Eastern Ill. 4,441
90 Davidson 4,225
91 UT Martin 4,208
92 Gardner-Webb 4,142
93 Morgan St. 4,049
94 Tennessee St. 4,023
95 Samford 3,949
96 Prairie View 3,827
97 Brown 3,752
98 Southeast Mo. St. 3,729
99 Cornell 3,682
100 Hampton 3,680
101 Idaho St. 3,674
102 Fordham 3,668
103 Butler 3,352
104 Portland St. 3,329
105 Western Ill. 3,282
106 Drake 3,176
107 Charleston So. 3,102
108 Monmouth 3,093
109 Central Conn. St. 2,926
110 Bryant 2,883
111 Lafayette 2,861
112 Dayton 2,692
113 Delaware St. 2,649
114 UIW 2,483
115 Valparaiso 2,480
116 Bucknell 2,415
117 Marist 2,362
118 Presbyterian 2,351
119 Georgetown 2,265
120 Robert Morris 2,150
121 Houston Baptist 2,148
122 Colgate 2,042
123 San Diego 1,987
124 Wagner 1,921
125 Duquesne 1,616
126 Stetson 1,221
127 Saint Francis (PA) 1,216
128 LIU 943


ngineer
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Re: Home attendance figures for all FCS teams

Post by ngineer » Sun Feb 06, 2022 4:53 pm

Those are not true figures for "attendance". Perhaps "tickets sold" would be a better description.
Richb-3
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Re: Home attendance figures for all FCS teams

Post by Richb-3 » Sun Feb 06, 2022 6:08 pm

I think that works out to 3,500 for not lafayette
Sundayamqb
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Re: Home attendance figures for all FCS teams

Post by Sundayamqb » Sun Feb 06, 2022 7:25 pm

I'd love to see some historical comparison, but based on a national comparison -- PU and the PL have woeful attendance.

But many of the top attendance figures come from state colleges.

Just looking at this makes me wonder: Are the private schools have-nots compared to the public ones (in terms of competition, too)? Should private schools compete against public ones?
ngineer
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Re: Home attendance figures for all FCS teams

Post by ngineer » Sun Feb 06, 2022 9:13 pm

20 years ago we were averaging 10,000 a game. Obviously, we were on the greatest run of sustained success our program has ever had. Tied to that, was the fact that 'times' were different. The internet had not yet,sucked the attention of the populace--especially the "youngsters"; tailgating was still " a cool thing" to do; the student body has changed in culture--many other 'things' to do, they don't 'bond' together to support their fellow students (attendance sucks at ALL sports by the students), more nerds, less jocks. The location of the stadium is irrelevant. 20 years ago, Goodman was in the same place. Some correlation with the demise of the Greek system? See lack of 'bonding', above. Let's not forget all the games are on TV and the internet--for free. Drink beer and casually keep tabs on the game from the comfort of your dorm, frat or bar. It's not just Lehigh. Look at that list of one time proud programs that drew crowds several times larger. There is the distinct concern of many 'traditions' going by the wayside, as traditions are only sustained by continued involvement. The newer generations don't have to take on OUR traditions, but they aren't creating any new ones of their own that I can see. Attendance is down nationwide, and was dropping before the COVID pandemic....I could go on...
LUEngineer
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Re: Home attendance figures for all FCS teams

Post by LUEngineer » Wed Feb 09, 2022 6:13 am

Well stated ngineer & the non Lafayette attendance as stated is substantially less & real world attendance at games other than parents weekend is probably more like 2000-2500 in the past 5 years.

Holy Cross does demonstrate that a winning team does still generate some enthusiasm to bring people out. Lafayette attendance is pretty much the same as Lehigh now for games other than Lehigh.

There is no question that their beautiful on-campus stadium is a great setting for FCS college football.
Hawktalker
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Re: Home attendance figures for all FCS teams

Post by Hawktalker » Tue Feb 15, 2022 5:31 pm

I'm pleasantly surprised that Lehigh is number 2 in the Patriot League and ahead of the Ivies except Yale, Harvard and Princeton.
The rivalry game every other year boosts attendance for sure but Lehigh hasn't had a winning record since 2016 and hasn't had a local "star" player for quite some time. That would certainly help attendance.
But for the reasons others have posted, the days of regular 10,000+ crowds are gone for good
CHIP72
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Re: Home attendance figures for all FCS teams

Post by CHIP72 » Mon Feb 21, 2022 5:10 pm

FWIW, below are the home attendance figures for games I've attended at Lehigh, Lafayette, and Penn since 2004. (I like to track the attendance of the games I've attended.) I've also attended multiple games at Villanova, Towson, Delaware, and Georgetown, but I've either haven't attended enough games at those places to show an accurate trend (VU, TU, UD), or the capacity of the facility was a limiting factor at some games (GU).

LEHIGH
*09/11/10: 8,168 (vs Villanova)
*09/10/11: 7,519 (vs New Hampshire)
*10/06/12: 5,025 (vs Columbia)
*09/07/13: 6,386 (vs Central Connecticut State)
*09/27/14: 5,633 (vs Monmouth)
*09/19/15: 6,971 (vs Penn)
*09/24/16: 5,493 (vs Princeton)
*09/23/17: 5,060 (vs Penn)
*09/28/19: 4,511 (vs Merrimack)
*11/23/19: 13,292 (vs Lafayette)

The Mountain Hawks' home attendance definitely declined during the 2010s.

LAFAYETTE
*09/11/10: 7,635 (vs Georgetown)
*10/06/12: 6,821 (vs Princeton)
*09/07/13: 6,238 (vs Sacred Heart)
*09/27/14: 8,756 (vs Wagner)
*09/19/15: 9,173 (vs Princeton)
*09/24/16: 7,441 (vs Villanova)
*09/23/17: 7,239 (vs Princeton)
*11/17/18: 11,028 (vs Lehigh)
*09/28/19: 4,911 (vs Penn)

Lafayette's home attendance held relatively steady during most of the 2010s, but the numbers are skewed a bit by many of the games being designated "Parents' Weekend" games. The 2019 game had much lower attendance than any game held before it.

PENN
*09/25/04: 16,572 (vs Villanova)
*09/18/10: 11,299 (vs Lafayette)
*09/17/11: 9,438 (vs Lafayette)
*09/22/12: 13,803 (vs Villanova)
*11/15/14: 5,386 (vs Harvard)
*11/07/15: 11,017 (vs Princeton)
*09/22/18: 4,445 (vs Lehigh)

Penn's attendance has clearly dropped since 2004 and even 2010.
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lfnadmin
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Re: Home attendance figures for all FCS teams

Post by lfnadmin » Mon Feb 28, 2022 3:00 pm

At one time, the only way to be "exposed" to a game was to pay a ticket and go. Now, a viral moment like a Lehigh football player laying out SFPA's punter can be "exposed" to the entire world on Twitter in minutes. How many fans paid to attend that SFPA game, maybe 5,000? (Full disclosure: I was there. I heard the impact and heard the breath taken away by everyone in attendance.) Yet it generated a viral moment that still lives today on Twitter and was seen by, conservatively, millions. That has value beyond ticket sales.

That's not to say attendance is irrelevant. It isn't. It's a source of revenue. But I do think it's overrated as a metric to determine interest in a program.
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