I don't know as I'm up to the level of detailed attendance reporting I did last year, but I may be up to periodic reports. For Friday, August 17's games, total attendance was 67,230, for an average attendance of 561 per game. This is slightly down from 600 per game last year, but then Portland did not play on opening Friday last year. The top 20 games in attendance were (home team listed first): 4014 PortlandU v NorthCarolinaU 2292 Furman v NorthFlorida 2084 Stanford v SantaClara 1838 GeorgiaU v UNCGreensboro 1821 KennesawState v AlabamaU 1524 OklahomaState v UMKC 1384 NewMexicoU v TCU 1311 MississippiU v StLouis 1243 FloridaU v MiamiFL 1232 Auburn v GeorgiaState 1225 Monmouth v Rutgers 1169 MissouriU v Memphis 1136 WisconsinU v NotreDame 1130 VirginiaU v PennState 1117 TexasTech v IdahoU 1063 CalStateFullerton v SouthernCalifornia 1047 MinnesotaU v FloridaState 1008 Purdue v Toledo 907 Navy v MarylandU 901 William&Mary v Duke
And I assume you do this for one of the reason's being is you like to point out Portland's attendance average? It is something to be proud of if you are a Portland fan.
I am going to the ND/UNC game Labor Day weekend in South Bend, IN. Curious as to what the attendance will be. I am also going to try to make it to the Portland/ND game on Friday Sept 7th in Portland. I'm sure there will be a good turnout for that one as well. How long is the drive from downtown Seattle to Univ. of Portland? Can I make it in 21/2 - 3 hrs?
Downtown Seattle (UW campus ) is normally 2:30 The time is highly dependent on Seattle area traffic. the good part is that if traffic is light, you can fly on I5. the bad part is that all of the traffic in the Seattle Tacoma area can get snarled. Once you get south of Tacoma there shouldn't be much problem unless the drawbridge over the Columbia gets raised. It usually isn't during rush hour. it has taken me between 2:15 to 3:45 to get from Portland to the UW campus, if that is a help. it's usually in the 2:30 range. I try to avoid rush hour. I would suggest you get a ticket online. It might be a sellout. there will be food carts before the game (bite on the Bluff) so you can wait to eat, and there will be fireworks after the game. it is the day students come back, so parking will be a little issue. allow time for that.
Proud they are. Portland in 2011 was the first team to lead the nation in attendance with a losing record.
As a longtime Portland fan, I'm proud of their attendance since when I started going long ago, it was nothing like it is now. I feel like I've been a participant in helping build their fan base. But, that's not why I started doing this last year. I think there could be much higher attendance at D1 women's soccer games. Portland and other schools such as Texas A&M have proved that. I think athletic department administrators and women's soccer coaching staffs -- and women's soccer fans -- should be looking at what the high attendance schools are doing and learn from them. So, I track attendance and periodically report on it as a resource for what can be done and who is doing a good job at it. It's along the line of, "Come on, you guys, you could do much better. Get with it!" It helps that Portland has great attendance, but that just makes it more fun for me. I also think it's worth looking at what average attendance figures are for the different days of the week, for scheduling purposes. And, it's worth looking at average attendance for home games versus neutral site games. Those are some of the things I report. Schools could learn that the early season tournaments tend to depress average attendance because half the tournament games are neutral site games and most neutral site games get much lower attendance than home/away games. The same probably also is true of conference championship tournaments at the end of the season where the tournaments are at a single location, although there may be non-attendance reasons for continuing to have them at single locations. Schools could learn that Tuesday, and Wednesday in particular, are poor attendance days for games. I wondered, before I did this last year, whether the ACC was missing out on attendance because it plays Thursday/Sunday rather than Friday/Sunday. My data indicated they might be missing some attendance, but not that much, as Thursday has the highest attendance after Friday. I also think it's worth looking at which parts of the country have high women's college soccer attendance, from a perspective of where women's professional soccer teams should be sited. Interestingly enough, if one looks at where college women's soccer fans are, it suggests that WPS put most if its teams in exactly the wrong area of the US. Here are the top 20 for Saturday 8/18 through Monday 8/20. All schools should be looking at what Portland is doing, with its highest average attendance for several years. But, looking at the figures below, schools should be asking, "What did Longwood and Stetson and Illinois State do for those games?" 2407 PortlandU v OregonState 1711 Longwood v VCU 1255 GeorgiaU v Furman 1200 Stetson v GeorgiaSouthern 1085 IllinoisState v IllinoisU 889 WashingtonState v Gonzaga 834 VirginiaU v Radford 758 OregonU v UAB 722 TexasTech v NewMexicoU 722 WestVirginiaU v WesternCarolina 709 PennState v StJohns 703 MassachusettsU v UCLA 698 ArkansasU v TexasU 675 FloridaGulfCoast v UCF 657 Xavier v Lipscomb 653 MinnesotaU v SouthCarolinaU 648 Auburn v HighPoint 639 NebraskaU v Drake 631 UCIrvine v TexasA&M 626 SetonHall v Iona
You can find attendance for each match by going to the "overview" section for each match and looking on the right under "statistics" For example, the USA-China match today shows an attendance of 3559 http://www.fifa.com/u20womensworldcup/matches/round=258175/match=300200425/index.html That would be in second place for a college match this year.
Very impressive 2700+ in Dayton, OH last night for Fox Soccer's Game of the week, a 2-1 double-OT win over #19 Boston U.
Thanks for that link. I think they are counting security, officials and mice too. Did you see those stands? Looked like a few hundred, but then I'm not used to guessing in such big empty venues. Maybe also the cameras are too far. The College game is much cozier...
Attendance for Thursday, August 23: 2763 Dayton v BostonU 1302 UtahU v SouthernUtah 725 ArizonaU v BYU 389 SouthCarolinaU v Mercer 381 CaliforniaU v SantaClara 274 Buffalo v Canisius Great attendance at Dayton, as previously mentioned. Anyone know what they did to get that many fans?
Well, yeah, they aren't doing anything for ambiance by putting those matches in 50K seat stadiums like the one the USA-China one was in. And I pretty much hate multi-use stadiums that have a track around them. In fact,I hate the dedicated soccer stadiums built to NCAA specs that have the mandated 20 yards beyond the touch line to the seats. I think the close you get fans to the play the better. Basketball got it right in that regard. (I also hate college soccer venues where the player benches are on the other side of the field from the stands. the players become little ants)
Can't see them caring much for the womens or college soccer game. At least they have it right for the pro's and over time hopefully it will trickle down to the college game. Olympics were good but it was held in a soccer mad country. How many College coaches like playing on an artificial turf field with football lines on it? and while artificial turf might be necesary in some instances way too many are starting to resort to it. Understandable to some extent, but only in the most northern regions. Until college games can routinely pack in fans they will always have to share facilities at a lot of schools. Other than playing in a mostly empty stadium in Japan, I thought the U20's looked very pedestrian. They had no idea of what to do with the ball once they got near the china penalty box. And as far as I can tell the players that get the looks and call ups seem to have mostly gotten there on individual work, so when they have a team of equally talented players they still seem to want to try and do it all themselves, which gets me to youth soccer which is not teaching and developing a team game as it is relying on individual skill to overcome opponents. US Soccer has to work harder. With about 600 college programs developing something like 15,000 players we are putting such a poor finished product on the field. I don't see the level of play at a national level looking much better than top level youth club soccer. The number of giveaways and poor through balls was way too high. And maybe that's the problem, from what I saw too many long balls and not enough short high percentage passing. That though may be a product of players not moving into open seeable spots on the pitch. All that being said and the U20's playing in front of a sparse crowd, which I don't think they care too much about, the field surface itself was beautiful, at least on camera.
If you pick the best individules, you get the best individules. If you pick the best teams you get the best teams. That's why I liked the idea of sending an established team - like the NCAA winners to the U23 WWC and the ECNL U17 National champions to the U17 WWC. Or a single open tournament were the winner goes. How American - we have an open tourney and the winner goes! And so does their coach. I know - it won't work. But when little 4M population NZL can tie Japan that shows its not needing more numbers. As far as being fair - no solution to that either as long as there is no pro league. Best youth teams may see 0-4 new players each year. Many DIs 7-17 (USC) new players each year. yNTs are always age out. Nothing I see in place puts great players together for a long time to play as a team. The club/DI idea is the best I can come up with for that right now.
There have been some really good attendance numbers this past weekend, including Thursday. Here are the top 25 (August 23 through August 26), with Penn State topping the list and with a good number of mid-majors in the group. The home teams are listed first. 5117 PennState v Stanford 4912 PortlandU v OregonU 4334 TexasA&M v UTSA 4125 NorthCarolinaU v FloridaU 2763 Dayton v BostonU 2683 KennesawState v GeorgiaState 2624 LSU v Rice 2364 UtahU v BYU 2207 NorthernArizona v ArizonaState 2054 TCU v MontanaU 1892 Marquette v Milwaukee 1780 FresnoState v UCLA 1707 Tulsa v NotreDame 1687 Furman v Clemson 1588 TennesseeU v William&Mary 1444 OklahomaState v Vanderbilt 1310 UCF v FloridaState 1302 UtahU v SouthernUtah 1266 AlabamaU v Samford 1216 ColoradoU v LongIsland 1129 VirginiaU v UNCWilmington 1128 Cincinnati v Northeastern 1075 Rutgers v Bucknell 1070 EastTennesseeState v Presbyterian
I also should report that the attendance for the Boston U v Boston College game on Sunday was 169. That is pathetic and both schools should be embarrassed. But, they probably aren't, which is why they get such paltry attendance.
Here are the top 25 games in attendance for the last week -- Monday, August 27 through Sunday, September 2. The home team is first. BYU had an excellent week for attendance, followed by Notre Dame and Texas A&M. 9/1/2012 Saturday 3181 BYU v ColoradoCollege 8/31/2012 Friday 2243 FloridaState v FloridaU 8/31/2012 Friday 2057 WestVirginiaU v PennState 9/2/2012 Sunday 1925 NotreDame v NorthCarolinaU 9/2/2012 Sunday 1921 FloridaU v FIU 8/30/2012 Thursday 1872 BYU v LongBeachState 8/31/2012 Friday 1751 TexasU v VirginiaU 9/2/2012 Sunday 1675 MarylandU v Towson 9/2/2012 Sunday 1667 TexasA&M v StMarys 9/1/2012 Saturday 1633 SouthCarolinaU v Clemson 8/31/2012 Friday 1451 IowaState v IowaU 8/31/2012 Friday 1434 TexasA&M v Rutgers 8/31/2012 Friday 1302 Stanford v BostonCollege 9/2/2012 Sunday 1273 MississippiU v TexasTech 8/31/2012 Friday 1271 NotreDame v SantaClara 8/31/2012 Friday 1189 TexasTech v NevadaU 9/2/2012 Sunday 1176 WashingtonU v FresnoState 8/31/2012 Friday 1157 LoyolaMD v Towson 8/31/2012 Friday 1092 MiddleTennessee v Vanderbilt 9/2/2012 Sunday 1052 Samford v UAB 8/31/2012 Friday 984 UtahState v NorthernColorado 8/31/2012 Friday 873 SetonHall v DelawareU 8/31/2012 Friday 867 GeorgeMason v MarylandU 8/31/2012 Friday 843 KennesawState v TennesseeU 8/31/2012 Friday 841 Cincinnati v EasternKentucky
The Texas A&M numbers have been incorrect for all their games so far. They said there were more people at the game on Sunday than on Friday... not only does that not make sense, but it's just not true. First game numbers seemed wrong too, but after seeing the last two numbers it basically confirms our suspicions. Not sure what's going on in the ticket office. That being said, our attendance is down so far this year :/ hope it picks up for conference play.
I'm wondering if they've changed their method for counting attendance. The NCAA allows different methods. Perhaps they now are reporting only paid attendance? TAMU fans, I don't know, but perhaps some of you could inquire of the TAMU staff about this and report back here? It would be great to know what accounts for the disparity between your observations and the school's official stats.
CP, you will remember my educational counting efforts last year for several games at Duke. (I made a concerted effort to count actual attendance in the stands and elsewhere on the site and was absolutely amazed to find what I thought were reasonably accurate numbers being so far off from the official announced attendance.... as in the 50% range) I had made a mistaken assumption that the numbers in the stands should reasonably closely correlate with the announced attendance. You kindly explained to me what it was that the NCAA actually allows. As I recall your explanation, it boiled down to a University being able to choose to (1) use turnstyle numbers, (2) use ticket sales numbers, (3) use total combined numbers for a double header for both games (even when one game was only attended by a few fans), or (4) make an estimate. My take home from that was that the whole attendance thing is a crap shoot dependent on the counting philosophy and/or the integrity of the institution involved. (However, I still assume that the majority of schools are providing realistic numbers.)
You've got it. Regarding two games at the same site: If it's a men's game and a women's game, both home games, attendance for the first game must be taken by half-time in order to count on that team's season home attendance. If no attendance figure is taken by half-time, then the game doesn't count in the team's season home attendance.If it's two back-to-back games in an early season tournament such as we're used to, then if there's one gate charge there is one attendance figure that applies to both games. If there's no admission charge, then there should be a turnstile count or estimate for each game individually. I actually see this when I look at attendance figures for these tournaments: in some cases, both games are reported as having exactly the same attendance, whereas in other cases, the games are reported with different attendance. FYI, when I get to comparing home attendance v neutral site attendance, if the reported attendance is exactly the same for both games I list the attendance for the neutral site game as 0. If the reported attendance is different then I include the amount actually reported. This method doesn't give a perfect picture of neutral site attendance, but I think it gives a better picture than anything else I could do. From an NCAA attendance statistics perspective, this isn't a big issue since the NCAA, for team record purposes, tracks home attendance and not neutral site attendance.Season tickets for a particular sport can be counted for home attendance purposes, even though not all season ticket holders are at all games, if attendance is counted by tickets sold. On the other hand, if attendance is counted by tickets sold, all-purpose season ticket sales cannot be counted for attendance purposes. I wonder if this latter rule relates to the question whether there might have been more fans at some of the Texas A&M games than were reported.
I'll try to figure out who determines the attendance number and see if I can talk to them at the next game. But here's my theory so far: Game 1: This is the only game where we let in thousands of students for free if they are wearing a particular shirt. So it's not outside the relm of possibility that all those students don't get counted correctly. Thus the attendance error for that game. Game 2: This game was the second of a double header that was supposed to start at 7pm. I think possibly they didn't count any people that came while the first game was still in progress. That wouldn't be a big problem except that there was a rain delay and the first game was still going on at 7pm and the second game didn't start until 8pm. So potentially everyone that showed up on time wasn't counted which would explain why the number reported was so low. I looked at the box score for the first game and there is no attendance reported, not even a 0. So I don't really know what they did, but that's the only explaination I could come up with that seems plausible Game 3: Also a double header but this game started on time. Assuming the Friday number was low by a thousand or so, the reported number for this game might be accurate. Again, attendance on the box score from the first game is blank. The game this Friday is just a run-of-the-mill game, nothing special. So we'll see if the attendance numbers seem more accurate.
Harvard's attendance yesterday -- Monday, Labor Day -- for their game against Boston University was 2023, which is a great number. It was their Third Annual Fall Fiesta. Among other things, fans received Harvard Crimson sunglasses courtesy of Harvard Athletics. Also, Harvard has a Student Rewards program for students attending selected events, and this was the first Student Rewards event of the year. Students swipe in at the game to accumulate points. The Fall Semester grand prize will be free Spring Semester textbooks from the Harvard Coop. There also were raffles. Also, Harvard is using Facebook as a way to attract students -- with categories for those who are "Going," those who are "Maybe," and those who have been "Invited." See here: http://www.facebook.com/events/452442618110328/
Here are average home attendance numbers by day of week, for games through Wednesday 9/6: Saturday 1236 Thursday 676 Friday 576 Monday 491 Tuesday 421 Sunday 405 Wednesday 350 And, here are average neutral site attendance numbers for the same period: Saturday 63 Friday 136 Sunday 157 Wednesday 42 I continue to believe that, unless there's a really strong reason for schools to have early-season tournaments, they would be better off not having them. Schools still could travel to play two games in an out-of-region area, but if reasonably possible, it appears it would be better for the traveling schools to play two away games rather than an away and a neutral site game. This would mean more away games for the traveling school, but if there is a reciprocal arrangement it also would mean more home games in another year so that there would be a home-away balance over time.