Playoff Attendance

[Professor Chaos]

Not a great start but that was kind of expected given how difficult it is to draw on Thanksgiving weekend and all the host schools drew less than 10k fans on average in the regular season this year.

Holy Cross/Monmoth: 2,817 (101.6% of Monmouth's regular season average of 2,774)
CCSU/Albany: 1,660 (39.6% of Albany's regular season average of 4,191)
Furman/Austin Peay: 3,559 (48.6% of Austin Peay's regular season average of 7,317)
Illinois St/Southeast Missouri St: 3,274 (72.8% of SEMO's regular season average of 4,498)
San Diego/UNI: 3,743 (40.6% of UNI's regular season average of 9,213)
UND/Nicholls: 7,569 (112.4% of Nicholls' regular season average of 6,730)
Kennesaw St/Wofford: 1,992 (41.7% of Wofford's regular season average of 4,775)
Villanova/Southeastern Louisiana: 4,173 (59.6% of SLU's regular season average of 7,002)

Nice job by Monmouth and Nicholls to outdraw their regular season averages... that's no easy feat on Thanksgiving weekend.

The average of 3,598 fans comes in 6th out of the last 7 years (since the field expanded to 24 in 2013).

First Round Attendance Averages
2014: 7,297
2018: 6,373
2015: 5,634
2017: 4,958
2013: 4,502
2019: 3,598
2016: 3,408

Things should pick up next week with JMU, Montana, Montana St, and NDSU all hosting.

[Sader87]

I'd bet HC had almost as many fans at Monmouth as the Hawks did.

Those #''s are really plummeting in general though....not good.

[Professor Chaos]

I'd bet HC had almost as many fans at Monmouth as the Hawks did.

Those #''s are really plummeting in general though....not good.

Those numbers are pretty much in line with normal postseason attendance trends in the first round at about 60% of the regular season averages. I think there's a pretty decent chance that this year's playoffs finish 2nd or 3rd over the last 7 when it's all said and done especially if NDSU and JMU hold serve (or Montana or Montana St host in their place).

[TheRevSFA]

Nicholls is always the highest attended game during round 1. This isn’t a shock

[PantherRob82]

The Panthers game against San Diego was the lowest attendance playoff game in our history.

[neverobeyed]

The Panthers game against San Diego was the lowest attendance playoff game in our history.

Lowest in the Dome and in FCS. The '75 "Mud Bowl" was a D-II playoff game at O.R. Latham - now a parking lot on the west side of Schnidler Hall - had "2500" in attendance, according to the 2019 UNI Football Media Guide.

Fun fact(s) - there was an indoor dirt running track in the bottom (actually, underground, I think) of the west side grandstand of O.R. Latham. It smelled "earthy" down there. Very dark, had to slow down at the end of the straightaways because the corners were more like square than round. Also, there was once a men's dorm located in the east side grandstand called "Stadium Hall." In '46 the president announced that the the mezzanine level on the east side grandstand would be converted to a dorm for 160 men, in large part to accommodate GIs returning from WWII. Finished in '47, it was in use until 1961.

[nodak651]

Lowest in the Dome and in FCS. The '75 "Mud Bowl" was a D-II playoff game at O.R. Latham - now a parking lot on the west side of Schnidler Hall - had "2500" in attendance, according to the 2019 UNI Football Media Guide.

Fun fact(s) - there was an indoor dirt running track in the bottom (actually, underground, I think) of the west side grandstand of O.R. Latham. It smelled "earthy" down there. Very dark, had to slow down at the end of the straightaways because the corners were more like square than round. Also, there was once a men's dorm located in the east side grandstand called "Stadium Hall." In '46 the president announced that the the mezzanine level on the east side grandstand would be converted to a dorm for 160 men, in large part to accommodate GIs returning from WWII. Finished in '47, it was in use until 1961.

Wow.. pretty cool info. Found this... https://library.uni.edu/collections/...tadium-stadium

track

stadium resident takes phone call

[LetsGoPeay]

So maybe they need to move the playoffs to the weekend after Thanksgiving.

The weather definitely played a factor in the Austin Peay game. It started raining in the early morning, intensified right at game time which caused a late start. Then got delayed again in the 2nd quarter.

[marenlee]

So maybe they need to move the playoffs to the weekend after Thanksgiving.

The weather definitely played a factor in the Austin Peay game. It started raining in the early morning, intensified right at game time which caused a late start. Then got delayed again in the 2nd quarter.

That would push the semifinals to in the middle of Xmas break. Probably make things even worse.


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[LetsGoPeay]

They literally have a 3 week break between the semifinals on Dec 21st, and the Championship game on Jan 11th. That's way too long in my opinion.

If the playoffs started on Dec 7th, the Quarterfinals would take place on Dec 21st. If you want to have the Christmas break, take it, and play the Semifinals on Jan 4th. Then play the Championship on Jan 11th.

If you still want a week in between the Semis and the Championship, play the Championship game on MLK weekend on Jan 18th.

Simple solution.