A Look At 2011 Per-Game Home Boston College Football Attendance
by Brian Favat on Sep 26, 2011 12:00 PM EDT
in Boston College Football
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PrintWith half of the home 2011 football schedule now in the books, let's take a look at BC's per-game home attendance through the first three games of the season.
Here is the official attendance for the Eagles' first three home games:
Sep 3 vs. Northwestern -- 37,561
Sep 17 vs. Duke -- 35,812
Sep 24 vs. Massachusetts -- 30,176
Clearly, attendance is on the downslide after starting the season 0-3. In fact, if the season ended today, Boston College would have the lowest per-game attendance (34,516) over the last 18 seasons (since Alumni Stadium was last renovated before the 1994 season).
Thankfully, the season doesn't end today and BC has three more home games against Wake Forest, Florida State (Thursday night) and N.C. State. But will attendance get any better during the second half of the season? Let's make some back-of-the-envelope projections here.
Using historical per-home game attendance figures for BC's three remaining home opponents (from 1994-2009), we can get a sense of what attendance will look like for the rest of the season.
Oct 1 vs. Wake Forest -- 38,276 (average over 5 games)
Nov 3 vs. Florida State -- 41,149 (4)
Nov 12 vs. N.C. State -- 38,900 (4)
If these averages hold, BC will end the year with a per-game home attendance figure of 36,979, or 83 percent filled to capacity. That number doesn't look all that bad until you consider this would be the third lowest per-game average over the last 18 years. Only the 2009 season (35,716) and the 1997 season (36,288) boasted a weaker per-home game attendance figure.
The reality, however, is that BC will likely come in under those per-game averages for the Wake Forest, Florida State and N.C. State games and may finish with the lowest per-game attendance figure since 1995. BC may also finish not much higher than the 1993 average home attendance figure (33,198), back when Alumni's capacity was just 33,298.
What I find even most disturbing is the per-game home attendance trend per head coach. During the 1994, 1995 and 1996 seasons under Henning, the Eagles enjoyed some of the highest home attendance totals in the three seasons immediately after Alumni Stadium's last major renovation, averaging 44,315 over 11 home games.
Tom O'Brien gave this program some of its most successful seasons in program history during the early 2000s and fans responded by showing up at Alumni. Over 61 home games, TOB enjoyed a 40,135 per-game average. Jags did TOB one better, refusing to accept 8-9 win seasons and 40k attendance figure ceilings and averaged 41,513 per game over 14 home games.
Sadly, Coach Spaz is not enjoying the same success at the gate as his predecessors. Through 17 home games, Coach Spaz is averaging just 36,597 fans per game, an average that could get even uglier should the Eagles find themselves with only a couple of wins heading into the final home stand against Florida State and N.C. State.
An unfair comparison? Maybe. This season's 2011 home schedule was a once-in-a-decade pile of suck with Duke, Wake Forest and N.C. State all hitting the Heights this season, while the Eagles' one marquee ACC game -- Florida State -- is on Thursday night. The economy is in the toilet. There are more home games now than there were just a few years ago.
Even with all the excuses, the fact remains that Boston College home football attendance is way down, and has the potential to get much worse before the season is out. Does this fall on the head coach? The AD? Your thoughts?
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Give a cheer! (from your couch at home!)
Low attendance, means low $$ and it means change we can believe in is coming — soon
Fans are voting with their feet and not attending.
Loss of revenue combined with future projections of loss of revenue is exactly what will get GDF motivated — even more so than his crazy ego!
A loss of 8,000 fans per game x 6 home games = 48,000 seats. If BC could net $30 per person from tickets, food, merchandise, that would equal a lose of $1,440,000 per year. Ouch, and this is a conservative estimate.. Probably a lot of other costs too — less desirbale for TV, less desirable for bowls.etc
GDF can do math. A better coaching staff will create a better product which will pay for itself.
GDF: change will make you a winner (shamelss and insincere GDF ego stroking will work too)
we'll know more come this weekend
parent’s weekend. This is make it or break it for attendance. Thursday night game should be well attended if FSU is still ranked.
Fsu
I actually think attendance for fsu will be down. For one, Thursday rules it out for many out of town alums. That will be exacerbated by our record at the time (I’m guessing 2-6 or 3-5). No one will be excited to watch us get trounced.
by 31southst on Sep 26, 2011 2:04 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Agreed
I can’t make it up for the Florida State game this year. Thursday night makes it very difficult for the out-of-town season ticket holder crowd, which BC relies on heavily to fill Alumni.
Editor, BC Interruption
To add to the negativity: Only 6 games this year, which means there should be more per game since there is less opportunity to watch and people will work harder to get to games. And despite few great home games, only one was really a bad team that you’d expect low attendance in any given year (UMass).
BUT, it’s not relevant to compare to the mid-90s. The in-home experience is much better now with HD, people do more with their lives now (quick: last free Saturday on your schedule….. 1998?), and there’s more channels showing more games in a wider geography so people have a better chance of seeing the game without traveling to Chestnut Hill. In the 90s, the Red Sox were hit or miss, and the Patriots were hit or miss.
We should still be selling out a few times a year, but comparisons to earlier this decade carry more weight.
For a college team in a very competitive sports market like Boston, attendance is going to be directly tied to the talent level/record of the team (unlike, say, Tennessee, where the stadium will be packed regardless of how good/bad the team is). Thus, I think the overall performance of the team is more important than who the head coach is when determining ticket sales.
That said, do I think Spaz is a large factor in BC’s suckiness this year? Definitely. But the blame should also fall on the players to some degree – keep in mind Spaz was the head coach last year as well and attendance, as far as I know, was fine. Of course, Spaz is largely responsible for recruiting players so much of the blame does circle back to Spaz in the end. I don’t think there’s any question BC needs to clean house in the football program before it can get back to the success levels it experienced with Jags.
Attendance has been down last few years, last season included
2009 – 35,716
2010 – 38,369
Even numbered years are have been propped up in the past by a favorable ACC schedule, and 2010 was slightly better due to Notre Dame coming to the Heights.
Home game attendance figures under Spaz:
2009
33,262 – Northeastern
25,165 – Kent State
40,892 – Wake Forest
40,029 – Florida State (ESPN GameDay was on campus … still couldn’t sell out)
35,261 – N.C. State
34,128 – Central Michigan
41,272 – North Carolina
2010
34,168 – Weber State
35,122 – Kent State
42,317 – Virginia Tech
44,500 – Notre Dame
36,078 – Maryland
37,137 – Clemson
39,263 – Virginia
2011
37,561 – Northwestern
35,812 – Duke
30,176 – Massachusetts
Editor, BC Interruption
Alumni could use an upgrade
As has been stated in other threads, BC attendance is more susceptible to outside factors than many non-big city teams. One way to goose attendance and improve the gameday atmosphere would be to put backs on the seats. I can understand the bleachers in the student section, but how are the 50 yard line seat license seats exactly the same?!! Metal bleachers with no backs? Not the way to woo the big money STHs. Alumni is showing it’s age, and should be refurbished to look more like the Yawkey complex.
by chicagofire1871 on Sep 26, 2011 1:50 PM EDT reply actions 2 recs
Agreed
There were certainly other factors at play back in 1994-1996 (including bringing better opponents to the Heights like Ohio State, Michigan, etc.), but BC sold out the first 2+ years of home games after the last Alumni Stadium renovation.
Think there is something to be said for the Field of Dreams-esque “If you build it, they will come” theory. Unfortunately, the current administration is of the reverse mindset, and will only build it if they come.
Editor, BC Interruption
Query?
Do the attendance figures cited mean tickets sold? or those actually passing through the turnstiles?
In other words, what does GDF care if the ticket isn’t used, so long as the seat has been sold? The money still goes into the till.
We need to know the number of season tickets sold and the number of “walkups”? That breakdown will tell the story. I expect these numbers may not be made public.
Eventually, the number os tickets being sold will drop as the product on the field deteriorates.
by Leonard E Sienko Jr on Sep 26, 2011 2:49 PM EDT reply actions
Concessions and gear
While the money is in the till for the ticket, every empty seat is a person who isn’t buying overpriced hotdogs and drinks or a t-shirt.
Also, considering the groupons and the individual tickets available for sale through the athletics website, I’d bet that there are quite a few seats per game that have gone unsold.
Can't make it
up there for parent’s weekend. My “Superfan” kid didn’t even go to the UMass game. She doesn’t know the rules but it was impressed on her that the Duke loss was an embarrassment. Which is not good. She just doesn’t care about football or the football team. If she thinks she can have some fun, she’ll go. If she thinks she has sometging better to do, she doesn’t. (Being from Orlando and getting destroyed by UCF didn’t help matters.) My point is, and others have made it— there are other things to do in Beantown and BC is going to have to be really, really good to win the competition for people’s entertainment $—even just the sport’s dollar. In tallahassee or gainseville, the Seminoles and Gators are IT. Oh yeah. I don’t blame Spaz.
Is your daughter resentful of “Superfan culture,” like 95% of my cultural diversity requirement class was?
Nah
she’s just not into football. she’s really happy to be in Boston for alot of things but football games a just a tiny slice of college life for her. she actually likes the whole Superfan thing-for a day every other week or so. She always leaves at halftime, anyway. Don’t they sing the alma mater after the game? SAhouldn’t she saty for that? Wish I was going up this weekend. Have relatives in Newton and would have enjoyed a game with cuz.
As I said on ATL’s site…
It’s even worse than you portrayed. Every season ticket account got 4 free tickets to NW/Duke/UMass. This combined with the groupon…
The market is just so saturated with cheap tickets that you literally can’t give them away. There’s literally no reason to be a season ticket holder as you can always get in for well under face.
_
As stated here, BC is in constant competition for entertainment $. They need a salesman. A crappy, boring coach who coaches an even more boring style of football has put the die hards to sleep.
Is the basic problem
that BC (the school/administartors/powers that be) don’t really care about football and it just filters down from there?
Economy is killing it right now
Tech had the worst 5 week stretch of attendance in 55,000 capacity history the last 5 straight home games… Yes, we played Duke, Kansas, and MTSU in that span but there’s still something to be said that a top 25 CPJ team can’t outdraw Chan Gailey.
I write stuff From the Rumble Seat.
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