A record crowd of over 110,000 watched Penn State beat Nebraska today... Wow. That's gotta be one of the largest crowds at any kind of world sporting event (motorsports excluded) in recent times.
Michigan had 111,491 on 8-31-02 against Washington. They get even more for Ohio State and Michigan State.
that is not a whole lot really.... the azteca in mexico city gets 115,000-120,000 for important matches. the largest recorded crowd was 199,854, for the brazil v. uruguay world cup final in the maracanã municipal stadium in rio de janerio, brazil in 1950.
Re: Re: 110,000+ in Happy Valley No, it is a whole lot...in recent times. 1950 is a little older than what I would call recent. Yes, I realize that there are other college teams that get 100,000+, and we all know about Azteca. But that's it for the Americas. I guess there's Brazil too, but their attendance numbers don't seem to be readily available, and wasn't the capacity of Maracana dropped quite a bit when they put new seats in? Other than that, crowds of over 100,000 are pretty rare. When's the last time there been a crowd that big in Europe? Nou Camp's big, but it's really the only massive stadium (90,000+) that I can think of in Europe off the top of my head. Africa, who knows? I'm sure they've had huge crowds, but how many people actually pay to get in? Asia has King Fahd stadium in Saudi, a big stadium in Iran, India, Malaysia...but how often are they filled. Stadium Australia's huge, but again, how often is it filled?
All this is bull shite. You dont think that ANY top team in Europe would sellout a 500K stadium if it had one? They dont expand their stadiums for different reasons. One being able to raise price thru availability. Other times is physically impossible as many Europeans cities are cramped and there isnt enough land. Most teams arent like US teams and would move at the drop of the hat to the suburbs where they have massive hollow stadiums. Also in many latin American countries there is problems with violence and also poverty. People arent going to go to a game if they cant feed their families.
Good points. But I'm not so sure about the top teams in Europe being able to pull in 100,000+ regularly. Barca doesn't sell out Nou Camp all that often do they? Inter and Milan usually play in front of big crowds, but not sell outs unless it's a derby. Bayern's usually a few thousand under capacity in Munich..... See what I'm saying? If it was impossible to get get tickets to a regular season Inter game or something, then I'd say you're probably right, but most of the "big" teams still have some tickets to spare on game day. I have no doubt that many of those teams could sell a couple hundred thousand for a big cup game or something, but just not on a regular basis. I suppose you could argue that they play more games, which is a fair argument. But you can't deny that it's impressive when some of these college football teams get a good streak of games with 100,000+ True.
it is impressive, no doubt but as you said... college football teams play 6-7 home games a year. pro teams in europe play what? 20 home matches a year?
Re: Re: Re: 110,000+ in Happy Valley i could go back further... notre dame used to get attendances of 120,000 back in the 1920's for their college football games.
It bugs me a bit in college football in that having the biggest stadium is a real big deal to some schools. Tennessee had the biggest stadium in the country then Michigan expanded their stadium to go ahead of them. When Tennessee found out they expanded their stadium to go ahead of Michigans. Then Michigan expanded again to go ahead of Tennessee so they'd have the biggest in the nation again. It's friggin' rediculous. Penn State expands their stadium every 10 years or so I believe Beaver Stadium originally had 40,00 seats watch them add 5,000 more seats 10 years from now then when they do Michigan will find out and add 10,000 seats somewhere to their place.
I think Michigan Stadium can be expanded up to 125,000 without any trouble. And maybe 150,000 with some tinkering. And they'd probably fill it every week. Which just proves that the Legions of Satan are minion.
The Big House You're essentially correct. Michigan Stadium was the largest (at 101,701) for decades (it was built in 1927 for a capacity of 72,000.) Tennessee expanded Neyland Stadium to 104,079 and held the attendance records for a year, after which Michigan made some modifications to boost it to 107,501. Since announced attendance includes not only tickets sold but also ushers, the press, security, standing room only, the band, and guests (like high school players on their recruiting visits) attendance is usually in the 111,000 range nowadays. This Saturday's game against Utah will mark the 170th consecutive game of over 100K. Michigan played in front of a mere 93,857 against Indiana in 1975.
Re: Re: Re: 110,000+ in Happy Valley Nou Camp used to hold 120,000 until a few years ago when they made it an all-seater. It was filled to the brim quite often and always for the big games. Benfica's Stadium of Light also held 120,000 not too many years ago.
The $$$ from Beaver Stadium funds the entire athletic department. As Penn State has increased seating capacity they have added teams (eg -Women's Soccer).
$40/ticket x 105,000 tickets sold x 6 home games = $25 million a year = entire athletic department budget