TCU fan attendance

[jbhtexas]

So what you are saying is, even when our attendance was "bad" in recent history, we still brought more fans than TCU did on Saturday. Got it.

The main complaint against TCU in the discussion here is the qualitative issue of filling the stadium, not the quantitative actual attendance figures. Since ISU is a significantly larger school, quantitative comparisons are not particulalry valid. But I'm sure you knew that...

 

[cyhiphopp]

And the other people there will probably mostly be from the opposing school, not necessarily TCU.

This.

TCU will be packed for UT, Baylor, TTU, OU, and OSU games because all of the empty seats will be filled with the opposing teams fans. If we were closer to Texas there would have been even more ISU fans there and it wouldn't have seemed so empty.

 

[ISUAgronomist]

The main complaint against TCU in the discussion here is the qualitative issue of filling the stadium, not the quantitative actual attendance figures. Since ISU is a significantly larger school, quantitative comparisons are not really valid. But I'm sure you knew that...

Since actual number stadium seats are nearly equal the numerical comparisons are quite fair. But go ahead and apologize for Baylor and TCU here. We enjoy it. Wonder how soon TCU buys a tarp.

 

[cyhiphopp]

The main complaint against TCU in the discussion here is the qualitative issue of filling the stadium, not the quantitative actual attendance figures. Since ISU is a significantly larger school, quantitative comparisons are not particulalry valid. But I'm sure you knew that...

ISU was never ranked #15 and percieved as a potential "National Power". TCU has been a BCS buster for quite a few years and has been a trendy pick. You would think all of that would have gained them enough bandwagon fans to have decent crowds for every conference game, even ones against ISU.

 

[redrocket22]

Having sat through the Missouri debacle (both fan turn-out and the game) in 2005, I am reluctant to criticize any fanbase for attendance.

 

[redrocket22]

That is an insanely favorable ratio. 63-37.

At ISU it is 43-57 female-to-male.

I think we need adopt TCU as a sister school. A student exchange program sounds like a great idea.

 

[jbhtexas]

Since actual number stadium seats are nearly equal the numerical comparisons are quite fair. But go ahead and apologize for Baylor and TCU here. We enjoy it. Wonder how soon TCU buys a tarp.

"Actual number of stadium seats" (whatever that is) is irrelevant. ISU now publishes JTS' capacity as 55,000; TCU publishes AGCS' capacity as 44,358. Those number are not nearly equal.

 

[Cycsk]

This started as a concern for TCU to be well-represented as a member of the Big 12. Lots of empty seats for their Big 12 home opener, regardless of Fall break or playing us, was probably not what TCU or the Big 12 wanted. Hopefully, a steady flow of good teams will help build up their fanbase and its attendance.

 

[ISUAgronomist]

Since you've been here since 2006 you know what "actual number of stadium seats" is for JTS. Just a reminder it's less than 44,000 which is less than AGCS.

Top 15 team couldn't even bring its fans to the game. Whereas our "bottom dweller" years ago still had more butts in the seats.

I hope their program and administration has higher hopes than that and will find a way to get their fans in the seats rather than opposing teams.

 

[Al_4_State]

For those with the attendance superiority complex, you might want to take a look at ISU attendance from as recent as two years ago (CPR's second year). Particularly the last game where ISU was fighting #15 MU for bowl eligibility. The announced attendance was about 42,000, and by the looks on TV, There were probably about 35,000 actually in attendance. Was it cold? Certainly, but according to this thread, cold shouldn't matter.

And then the year before that, again with ISU fighting to get bowl-eligible, #18 OSU played in Ames to an announced crowd of about 40,000 (ESPN in town, nice fall day), and by the looks on TV, there were maybe 35,000 there (probably closer to 30,000). I believe the predominant excuse given on that occasion was that is was nice day so kids had to go home to combine corn (check the archive). To CF's credit, that excuse was called called into question.

We've had good home attendance for...well...1.5 years in a row now. If within the last five years, your school (of nearly 30,000 enrollment) has had to give "combining corn" as an excuse for a sparse crowd during a game when 1) the team is fighting for bowl eligibility, 2) a rated team is in town, 3) beautiful sunny, fall day, 4) ESPN is televising the game, you really have no business trashing other schools for bad attendance. It really makes you look silly...

I'm not sure why you're so adamant about defending bad attendance.

Since 2007, ISU has filled actual seats, and then some for almost every game. There are a couple exceptions ('09 OSU and '10 Mizzou), but by and large our fans have done an incredible job of turning out over the past half decade, ESPECIALLY when you consider our lack of historical success.

TCU has been a Top 10 kind of program over that period of time. They were undefeated and ranked #13 in the country. They were playing their first Big 12 home game, EVER. In case you haven't noticed, they had been working tirelessly for the past 15 years to land a spot in major college football. They finally got what they wanted, and the showing by their fans was still really, really weak. It shouldn't matter that the game was against a program that is perceived as a "bottom feeder". To take that kind of attitude is ridiculous.

ISU might be a bigger school than TCU, but all things considered there is no reason that Amon Carter Stadium should have been anything less than packed to the brim on Saturday.

I don't want to sound too down on TCU fans though. The ones that did show up were excellent hosts, and very nice to our fans.

 

[NebraskaCY]

For those with the attendance superiority complex, you might want to take a look at ISU attendance from as recent as two years ago (CPR's second year). Particularly the last game where ISU was fighting #15 MU for bowl eligibility. The announced attendance was about 42,000, and by the looks on TV, There were probably about 35,000 actually in attendance. Was it cold? Certainly, but according to this thread, cold shouldn't matter.

And then the year before that, again with ISU fighting to get bowl-eligible, #18 OSU played in Ames to an announced crowd of about 40,000 (ESPN in town, nice fall day), and by the looks on TV, there were maybe 35,000 there (probably closer to 30,000). I believe the predominant excuse given on that occasion was that is was nice day so kids had to go home to combine corn (check the archive). To CF's credit, that excuse was called called into question.

We've had good home attendance for...well...1.5 years in a row now. If within the last five years, your school (of nearly 30,000 enrollment) has had to give "combining corn" as an excuse for a sparse crowd during a game when 1) the team is fighting for bowl eligibility, 2) a rated team is in town, 3) beautiful sunny, fall day, 4) ESPN is televising the game, you really have no business trashing other schools for bad attendance. It really makes you look silly...

The biggest difference between the poor attendance at ISU and what I witnessed at TCU is that ISU would never try and spout off that it was a sold out crowd.

I was at the game and it felt and looked like those games you described. I agree that our fanbase also has struggled with apathy and attendance, but when at least 30% of the stadium is empty no university should be able to label it a sellout.

 

[jbhtexas]

I'm not sure why you're so adamant about defending bad attendance.

I'm not defending bad attendance. I'm pointing out the hypocrisy and foolishness of ISU fans trashing another school for not filling it's stadium for "big games", when ISU hasn't been able been able to do so as recently as two years ago.

Again, this "actual seat" thing is a non-argument. Does ISU only offer 44,000 (or whatever the "seat count" is) tickets for sale? When ISU sells out, do they only list the "actual seats" as the attendance figure? Of course not. You can't have it both ways (i.e. claiming the "low" or "high" number as best suits your argument).

 

[ISUAgronomist]

Gosh that game when we were ranked in the Top 15 and couldn't get people in the stands.....oh wait...

 

[Al_4_State]

I'm not defending bad attendance. I'm pointing out the hypocrisy and foolishness of ISU fans trashing another school for not filling it's stadium for "big games", when ISU hasn't been able been able to do so as recently as two years ago.

Again, this "actual seat" thing is a non-argument. Does ISU only offer 44,000 (or whatever the "seat count" is) tickets for sale? When ISU sells out, do they only list the "actual seats" as the attendance figure? Of course not. You can't have it both ways (i.e. claiming the "low" or "high" number as best suits your argument).

Our attendance was poor coming off of decades of terrible performance. We basically filled the stadium for every game during a 2-10 season in 2008. Our fanbase has been weak in the past, but it was no different than any other fanbase whose team usually lost.

TCU was #13 in the country playing their first home game as part of a conference they have been fighting tooth and nail to be a part of for the past 15 years, and they still couldn't get more than 70% of the seats full.

If you can't see the difference in these scenarios, then the point is lost.

 

[c.y.c.l.o.n.e.s]

This.

TCU will be packed for UT, Baylor, TTU, OU, and OSU games because all of the empty seats will be filled with the opposing teams fans. If we were closer to Texas there would have been even more ISU fans there and it wouldn't have seemed so empty.

This makes me wonder two things.

How much are season tickets?
And I wonder how many of those season tickets were bought by fans of the other nearby schools. I can't see many TTU or Baylor fans doing this, but I could see Texas and OU fans buying tons of them if the price is right. Similar to what Nebby fans and Iowa fans used to do to get into Jack Trice?

 

[Bigman38]

I'm not defending bad attendance. I'm pointing out the hypocrisy and foolishness of ISU fans trashing another school for not filling it's stadium for "big games", when ISU hasn't been able been able to do so as recently as two years ago.

Again, this "actual seat" thing is a non-argument. Does ISU only offer 44,000 (or whatever the "seat count" is) tickets for sale? When ISU sells out, do they only list the "actual seats" as the attendance figure? Of course not. You can't have it both ways (i.e. claiming the "low" or "high" number as best suits your argument).

The only problem with that "hypocrisy" is you have to assume we weren't just as, if not more, disappointed in ISU fans when they didn't show up.

 

[cyhiphopp]

This makes me wonder two things.

How much are season tickets?
And I wonder how many of those season tickets were bought by fans of the other nearby schools. I can't see many TTU or Baylor fans doing this, but I could see Texas and OU fans buying tons of them if the price is right. Similar to what Nebby fans and Iowa fans used to do to get into Jack Trice?

A TCU poster earlier said that when they re-seated the stadium this season they gave people the option to buy up to 4 seats and that a lot of people bought up the extra seats to resell them. That would explain why all the seats were sold but, due to "bad weather", they were unable to sell off their extra tickets.


UT fans in particular will buy up those extra tickets in no time.

 

[CyFan61]

Since you've been here since 2006 you know what "actual number of stadium seats" is for JTS. Just a reminder it's less than 44,000 which is less than AGCS.

This is important to remember. If the published JTS capacity was the number of seats we have (which is something like 42,500?), Iowa State attendance as a percentage of capacity would be highest in the nation, or damn close to it. 130% capacity attendance.

 

[cyhiphopp]

I'm not defending bad attendance. I'm pointing out the hypocrisy and foolishness of ISU fans trashing another school for not filling it's stadium for "big games", when ISU hasn't been able been able to do so as recently as two years ago.

Again, this "actual seat" thing is a non-argument. Does ISU only offer 44,000 (or whatever the "seat count" is) tickets for sale? When ISU sells out, do they only list the "actual seats" as the attendance figure? Of course not. You can't have it both ways (i.e. claiming the "low" or "high" number as best suits your argument).

No, you can't have it both ways and we never do. We only count 55K as a sellout, even though there are 10K in standing room only.

We will also have people bust on fan turnout when it gets colder and not as many people want to sit on the hillside every week. Then our numbers will drop closer to, but still more, than actual physical seats.

You also have people who say we should never build the SEZ because we don't sell out the existing stadium enough, when we've almost sold as many season tickets as we have physical seats.

You don't have to have it both ways to recognize that last year we averaged 8,000 more tickets sold than actual seats in the stadium. That's impressive.

TCUs stadium has about the same number of actual seats as JTS. When they fill that stadium plus about 5,000 standing room only fans, as a 5 win team, for a matchup with a juggernaught #2 OSU team, in November, then I will give them props as a fanbase.

 

[HornyFrog]

If people truly wanted to sell because of weather they were competing against Tcu selling tickets for the student section. My comments about the +4 were mainly that people bought extras for a "just in case" scenario. We also have a lot of parking lot fans that don't come inside.