There was just another USU bashing thread over on the MWC board. I decided I wanted to do a little research on this (you know, instead of actually working). It turns out they have good reason to bash us. Here is what I found:

This year we managed to get our attendance average on the year up to 17,878. That's the best it has been since 2004. But even this improvement on our part only ranks above Idaho, NMSU and SJSU in the WAC. It ranks above noone in the MWC or the most common C-USA candidates discussed over there (not that I want to turn this into a discussion of whether they would actually want to join the MWC). Here are the average attendance per game figures for a bunch of schools for 1998-2010:

UTEP - 33,524
New Mexico - 28,552
San Diego St - 27,062
Colorado St - 26,517
UNLV - 23,046
Tulsa - 20,484
Houston - 20,264
Wyoming - 18,828
SMU - 18,780
Nevada - 18,512
New Mexico St - 16,887
Utah St - 15,934
Idaho - 14,846
San Jose St - 13,256

I don't want to turn this into an expansion thread, but I fully expect that if they are able, and if it doesn't conflict with any kind of alliance with C-USA, that the MWC would go for the Texas schools before us. I find some comfort in the thought that we are probably the most attractive school among the WAC leftovers. But even if we do get a MWC invite, we would immediately be the school with the poorest football game attendance.

The question is (and I know I've gone through all this before), what can our school do to get us up at least over 20k? What is already happening? Do we have any realistic reasons for optimism in this? I think the number will go up, but I'm just not sure yet what our ceiling may be or how fast things will improve. If the football program is going to survive for very long, this is a must.

It is the way we count.. There is no way new mexico even averaged 10K at their games so it is all in who is counting.

usu99 wrote:It is the way we count.. There is no way new mexico even averaged 10K at their games so it is all in who is counting.

I think that the way we count has gotten better this year. A lot of people that were at the NMSU and Idaho games were surprised at the the reported attendance, in fact. I think that a lot of teams certainly count attendance differently. Some are strict (like Nevada, and how we used to be), and some are liberal (SJSU and NMSU, IMO). I just think that about NMSU and SJSU because if images I've seen of their stadiums during games, but I'm curious why you think that New Mexico has reported twice their actual attendance this year?

Win, win and win. There has never been a program in the history of sport wherein the crowd preceded the product. Football has been so bad in Logan for so long (30 years), that there are two generations in Logan that don't get excited about Aggie football. They have known nothing but losing, or at best, mediorce football. That ship is not going to get turned around in one season. It may take 10. Look how long it took Morrill to start selling out the Spectrum. Also, better teams coming to Logan will generate more interest.

usu99 wrote:It is the way we count.. There is no way new mexico even averaged 10K at their games so it is all in who is counting.

If you look though I think that it is noteworthy that those figures are over a 10 year span. i remember playing at New Mexico and they were packed for all of their games. they have had some good years. So this year the statement might be true but I think that USU is not even close to any of those schools. I think that as the program will improve and as global warming will continue to bring milder winters USUs attendance will also increase.

Tough times require innovative methods. If we had bumped the attendance up 2500 or 3500 per game this season who would have known but those publishing the numbers? In todays Football market we are recoiling from many issues. The public downsizing of Romney by Randy Spetman was Moronic, uncalled for, and it has tarnished our image. For those who have recently physically counted Romney, the new announced 'smaller' number of seats at Romney is highly debatable.

30,327 seats was an accepted Rimney Stadium seat number since the expansion in 1980. How is making the stadium smaller going to benefit the perception of Aggie Football? The lack of 'innovation' in generating attendance numbers, or what ever one wants to label it, at this precarious time of conference shuffling, is not doing Utah State any good in the eyes of possible partners in a new conference affiliation.

recently some interested Aggies did an actual seat count based on widths of butts etc to find out what the optimum capacity of Romney should be. In the end, the number posted by Ding Dong Spetman were pretty much substantiated. There have been other mistakes made during constructions as well which reduced seats.

The point is, the numbers should have never been reduced in the first place which was a grave tactical error by Heir Spetman. Some of the seats reduced still exist...they're are just underneath the camera platform at the top of the west stands. It's not many though so it's not going to make a big dent. I am with most of you who say that we should just say that the stadium has a capacity of 30,000 and call it good. Nobody would care, the NCAA is surely not going to come and do a butt check or seat check. They haven't done it anywhere else and probably don't have the resources to do it anyway.

So in the famous words of Bo Jackson....Just Do it!

I replied on that thread (Reason) and just by looking at other MWC teams this year, including UNLV, New Mexico, Colorado State, Wyoming, and future MWC team Nevada, we compare VERY well. We actually nearly averaged as many people this year as the 12-1 Nevada team. And Reno has a metro of nearly 500,000. New Mexico at 800,000. UNLV at 1,700,000. Logan at 128,000. Lots of potential. And we averaged around 20,000-25,000 against the higher profile teams. The Idaho and NMSU game brought us down a bit (14,000k at each).

Stizzle, the fact remains that our average attendance is below everyone in the MWC or headed to the MWC. Even Wyoming. I'm hoping that we are seeing a trend of increased attendance, but it's not like we haven't averaged 17k or more in the past. It goes up and down a lot. I just hope that the better facilities, recruiting and coaching can get some wins on the field to draw more people. I also hope that the school will find better ways to draw a crowd. Do a firework show like SDSU, or whatever else will work. Spend more time organizing quality halftime shows and support and coordinate better with the band.

To 4thyear (err, I mean 5thyear) and company, big kudos on the Stampede. I hope that becomes a strong tradition. It's a great example of fans taking the initiative despite the product on the field. Next year we have what should be considered some good opponents for us coming to Romney. I think that Wyoming, Colorado St, and even Weber St should be good draws, but the community needs to get itself excited. Nevada should be able to bring people in, and if people want to do it, even the SJSU and LaTech games can turn into a party. When it comes down to it, Aggie football is really just what we make of it. If we want to prove that we are a relevant program I just think that butts in seats (not to mention the game day activities and atmosphere) is a big indicator. I just regret that I'm living 1800 miles away and can't help out all that easily.