College football spring games were once merely scrimmages held mostly for the benefit of the coaches and players. Now they are full fledged fan festivals and recruiting events complete with rock concerts and nation-wide television coverage.
Over 80,000 Husker fans poured into Memorial Stadium for the 2008 Red-White Game. It was the most well attended spring scrimmage in the nation. Alabama, Ohio State, Penn State and Florida each had over 60,000 fans in attendance and many schools saw their attendance climb from last year's spring game.
Attendance Up Nation-Wide
Many programs saw increased spring game attendance compared to last year. Many schools organize fan festivals around the spring scrimmage that include concerts and family-friendly entertainment in an effort to boost interest.
Illinois, West Virginia, Arkansas, Virginia, Colorado, and Missouri all saw crowds that were at least twice the size as last year. Notre Dame stood out as one of the bigger losers in attendance, with 40% fewer fans attending this year compared to last.
5 comments Last one added about 1 year ago — Leave a Comment
James Harvey about 1 year ago
Great info man!
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Jason Siffring about 1 year ago
Thank you sir.
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Mike Hempel about 1 year ago
very interesting article, I like it a lot. It's crazy to think that some of the bigger schools like WVU and LSU had such poor 2007 turnouts, I wonder if there was some kind of scheduling conflict. Either way, awesome article.
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Justin Goar about 1 year ago
good article.
LSU never has never really had good spring game attendance.
the format is part of the reason.
it's just never been a big event for some reason. i always try to go (i went this year) but when some years it falls on the same day as our annual draft party/crawfish boil, i don't attend.
some years, we tailgate all day and then just listen to it on the radio or watch it on tv.
but we did make a big jump in attendance this year. 50k is probably where it'll top out though unless they start making it more like a game than a glorified practice.
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Uncle Rico Touchdown Mountain about 1 year ago
While it's a nice article on the surface, there is much lack of depth in reporting here. It's no fault of your own, perhaps, yet there are ominous tidbits missing, which shows that you didn't have the time to fully research this.
I'll give you one example. While it's true that Notre Dame's attendance was down 42% there's nothing that shows that 1) It was raining, 2) There was major renovation going on in the stadium and a lot of it was blocked off. 3) It's still their 5th largest crowd in history.
I'm sure there may be other facts missing for other schools, but like I said, on the surface, it's a fairly good piece.
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