Football Attendance

Athletics Department, Facilities, etc.
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sealhall74
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wiu712 wrote: Sun Nov 17, 2019 8:15 pm 2019 Home Football Attendance:

September 14 vs Montana State (Family Weekend) = 4,728.

September 21 vs Tennessee Tech = 1,594.

October 5 vs Missouri State (Homecoming) = 3,149.

October 19 vs Illinois State = 2,984.

November 2 vs South Dakota = 1,728.

November 16 vs Southern Illinois = 1,739.
Disappointing to say the least. Maybe we would be better off just rounding things up like D2 Quincy U does to come up with numbers like 1000, 1500, 1300, and 2000.

What should an AD do? I saw only one of these games (ISU) in person after moving to the QC this fall although I watched a lot of them online. For the first time in my life, I can honestly say I had family obligations that took priority with upcoming wedding plans, etc. Hope to do much better with the hoops season.
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ST_Lawson
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I've only got numbers back to 1998, but I'm reasonably certain that our average of 2,654/game is the lowest it's been in at least the last 55 or so years. You'd have to go back to the days of us being in the NCAA "small college division" in the IIAC, and prior to Baby Boomers getting to college. I'm pretty sure, even removing the "Van Alstine Modifier" for attendance when he was in charge, we never got that low.
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meganeck
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wiu712 wrote: Sun Nov 17, 2019 8:15 pm 2019 Home Football Attendance:

September 14 vs Montana State (Family Weekend) = 4,728.

September 21 vs Tennessee Tech = 1,594.

October 5 vs Missouri State (Homecoming) = 3,149.

October 19 vs Illinois State = 2,984.

November 2 vs South Dakota = 1,728.

November 16 vs Southern Illinois = 1,739.
Hey they had an attendance bump in the last game lol or maybe it was just because the visiting crowd was bigger. Those numbers are embarrassing honestly. Anyway obviously they have a problem with attendance at football games and it will be hard to build any enthusiasm in the off season coming off a 1 win season.

As we all know the University has many problems and it doesn't help things when your 2 main revenue sports teams are bad and don't draw any type of crowd at their games.
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BobLovely
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Attendance at our football games is a pathetic embarrassment and nothing less. I began attendance of football games at Hanson Field in September of 1969. Overall, attendance at football games was good to excellent through at least 2010. So, what has happened? A perfect storm of events? Perhaps! These factors may include a lesser product on the field, the poor condition of the west side of the stadium, poor booster support, lower enrollment on the Macomb campus, lack of a quality highway into the Macomb from the north, east and south, decline in population in western Illinois, poor alumni support, apathetic student interest and changing demographics.

However, it all starts with the product on the field. I suspect that if this consistently improves attendance will improve up to a point. However, this is only part of the solution. We may never return to the attendance levels of yesteryear. However, we should be able to draw 5,000 to 10,000 per game.

Bob
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sealhall74
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BobLovely wrote: Tue Nov 19, 2019 8:38 am Attendance at our football games is a pathetic embarrassment and nothing less. I began attendance of football games at Hanson Field in September of 1969. Overall, attendance at football games was good to excellent through at least 2010. So, what has happened? A perfect storm of events? Perhaps! These factors may include a lesser product on the field, the poor condition of the west side of the stadium, poor booster support, lower enrollment on the Macomb campus, lack of a quality highway into the Macomb from the north, east and south, decline in population in western Illinois, poor alumni support, apathetic student interest and changing demographics.

However, it all starts with the product on the field. I suspect that if this consistently improves attendance will improve up to a point. However, this is only part of the solution. We may never return to the attendance levels of yesteryear. However, we should be able to draw 5,000 to 10,000 per game.

Bob
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Also detrimental to college football attendance is the Illinois HS football playoffs which start in late October. The first year of the playoff system was 1974 or thereabouts IIRC.
Embrace the pace of the race.
meganeck
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BobLovely wrote: Tue Nov 19, 2019 8:38 am Attendance at our football games is a pathetic embarrassment and nothing less. I began attendance of football games at Hanson Field in September of 1969. Overall, attendance at football games was good to excellent through at least 2010. So, what has happened? A perfect storm of events? Perhaps! These factors may include a lesser product on the field, the poor condition of the west side of the stadium, poor booster support, lower enrollment on the Macomb campus, lack of a quality highway into the Macomb from the north, east and south, decline in population in western Illinois, poor alumni support, apathetic student interest and changing demographics.

However, it all starts with the product on the field. I suspect that if this consistently improves attendance will improve up to a point. However, this is only part of the solution. We may never return to the attendance levels of yesteryear. However, we should be able to draw 5,000 to 10,000 per game.

Bob
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Bob, i think you are spot on for the reasons for attendance decline and I think an under reported reason is the declining population in and around the Macomb area. I agree a consistently winning program, would also help.
GV Dad
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wiu712 wrote: Sun Nov 17, 2019 8:15 pm 2019 Home Football Attendance:

September 14 vs Montana State (Family Weekend) = 4,728.

September 21 vs Tennessee Tech = 1,594.

October 5 vs Missouri State (Homecoming) = 3,149.

October 19 vs Illinois State = 2,984.

November 2 vs South Dakota = 1,728.

November 16 vs Southern Illinois = 1,739.
T Tech and Mo State would have been higher numbers if weather wasn't an issue. I was surprised more Ill St fans didn't travel. We are close enough for a pretty easy day trip.
GV Dad
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BobLovely wrote: Tue Nov 19, 2019 8:38 am Attendance at our football games is a pathetic embarrassment and nothing less. I began attendance of football games at Hanson Field in September of 1969. Overall, attendance at football games was good to excellent through at least 2010. So, what has happened? A perfect storm of events? Perhaps! These factors may include a lesser product on the field, the poor condition of the west side of the stadium, poor booster support, lower enrollment on the Macomb campus, lack of a quality highway into the Macomb from the north, east and south, decline in population in western Illinois, poor alumni support, apathetic student interest and changing demographics.

However, it all starts with the product on the field. I suspect that if this consistently improves attendance will improve up to a point. However, this is only part of the solution. We may never return to the attendance levels of yesteryear. However, we should be able to draw 5,000 to 10,000 per game.

Bob
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Agree with all these reasons, and I'll add one more. Hotel rooms are very hard to get on Saturdays in the Fall. We could easily fill another Macomb Hotel if there was one. Problem is, can we support another Hotel the rest of the year? Football parents already have reservations for next year by Christmas, because they'll be booked by Easter.

Someone from the Macomb area told me that there were lot's of people losing money on rental property due to the attendance decline. Lot's of property sitting vacant. Would love to see some of these set up as AirBNB or VRBO.
GV Dad
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I'm very interested to see the student attendance at the Thursday night season opener next year vs N Bama. Hopefully the Diane gets the school to do some kind of student promo for that game. And, hopefully it will get some to come back.
wiu712
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GV Dad wrote: Sun Nov 24, 2019 10:06 amI'm very interested to see the student attendance at the Thursday night season opener next year vs North Alabama.
The last time that we opened the season at home was on Thursday night, September 3, 2015, vs Eastern Illinois.

Attendance at that game was 5,985. The weather was hot & humid. Temp was 88 at the start of the game. Western won 33-5.
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