2014 Football Attendance Worse Since 2001

[FazaUSF]

And it will continue to get worse until our football leadership changes. We've got winners now for an AD and MBB coach. Have had winners for WBB, soccer, and lots of the other sports. Last piece is football. Wouldn't be surprised if more of the same in 2015 threatens to dip us below attendance minimums, at this rate.

[slick1ru2]

Maybe it's called the Power Run for how well it runs fans away from the program.

[Superhippy]

In all honesty the terrible attendance this year is actually a good thing.   In the NFL teams like the Bills and Browns sell out every single game no matter how terrible they almost always are, and in turn management doesn't feel the pressure to put a winner on the field.    In college you have teams like Texas A&M, Tennessee, Ole Miss, and Texas that even though they are consistently mediocre to bad, they continue to draw 80k plus fans, and in turn there isn't a huge sense of urgency to win.    Yes their fans b*tch and moan but that doesn't mean anything as long as the $$$ are still coming in.

 

Taggart's contract along with the fact that we are still paying Holtz, make it so we can't fire him this year.  That's just the reality of the situation.   What the horrible attendance does though is give Harlan the ammo he needs to tell Taggart that he needs to fire his entire coaching staff and essentially relinquish control of certain parts of the team to other coaches.    That's essentially what the best coaches in the country do anyways.  Nick Saban let's Kirby Smart run his defense leaves it be most of the time.   Right now he is letting Lane Kiffin do his thing too.   He understands that his job as head coach is to oversee the entire team, not micromanage part of it.   Taggart doesn't get that at all.

[usfgrad84]

My feeling is that wit the factors of losing, boring football and being in a "lesser" conference, actual attendance will probably be stuck in the 15k to 17k range for another year. Could be worse next year with a weak schedule.

We can't do anything about the conference we are in, but I think attendance can get into the mid 30s, on average, if we can win and create an exciting offense. People will come out to see a fun, entertaining product.

I think it will also be a boost if we had at least one marketable, dynamic player. It helped build attendance when Andre Hall was near the top of the country in rushing and it was fun for people to watch when Grothe was scrambling around, making dynamic highlight reel plays. At least people knew their names.

Right now ow our team is like watching a soccer game made up players no one knows.

[MaltLiquorBull]

I'd take boring any day of we come out winners. Most USF fans have forgotten what it's like to walk out of the stadium as winners. Used to be almost every game. Now it's 1 or 2 if we beat our FCS opener. Winning will solve it.

[usfgrad84]

I'd take boring any day of we come out winners. Most USF fans have forgotten what it's like to walk out of the stadium as winners. Used to be almost every game. Now it's 1 or 2 if we beat our FCS opener. Winning will solve it.

I think winning satisfies the core group of fans. It will bring back that group that doesn't want to shell out for season tickets until they see improvement. Just winning, but in boring fashion will help marginally.

To build attendance you need to appeal to the more casual fan. For that next level of fan the game and stadium experience needs to be a fun event. Scoring 17 points by watching a guy plow forward for 3 yards at a time with nothing exciting to cheer about is not fun for a casual football fan.

[Skingraft]

[WoolyBully]

 

Do you really think USF could get over 50K for an AAC game like they did Big East games? I doubt it. (Outside of the UCF game) Probably 40's at best.

This is not denying losing's contribution, just wondering how large the crowd really could be in today's environment.

According to people on here, the opponent shouldn't matter. Not sure if I agree on that...

 

I disagree that the opponent doesn't matter. The opponent DOES matter. IF it was just the wins that packed the stadium, would not attendance be greater for the IAA games, given that (McNeese aside) those were pretty much guaranteed wins? However, during the BE years, the IAA games were less attended than the conference games. And look at how attendance is boosted for quality* OOC games. 

 

I think attendance has taken a hit for two reasons, maybe one more so than the other, but the relentless losing and relegation to a second-tier status. 

 

So, do we think season ticket sales will drop below the 9K mark for '15?

 

 

* now they would be P5 teams.

[Skingraft]

I am probably adding two seats to this upcoming year.  Penelope really enjoyed that last game, so I want make sure we have enough space for her to roam at the games. 

[fla331boy]

I think if USF was only a 1 or 2 loss team by the time of the UCF game, it would be over 40k, sure. And if USF is ranked when one of the quality OOC games area at Ray Jay, yes, over 50k.

 

LOL, not a chance over 40K with one or two losses. There are way too many discouraged fans and the only time we put people in seats are for big OOC games.

 

I think you are talking about pipe dreams right now with those figures and estimates and talks about being "ranked" but that just MHO.