Playoff Attendance

[LegalRam]

I hadn't really considered (didn't know) that the Frisco Bowl wasn't on a fixed date. I would hope that if they were to make this a bigger event they could work accordingly with any TV contracts and sponsors to fix the date on a Saturday. ESPN owns the rights to both so it could be in the cards.

It's also interesting to pair D2/D3. Though D3 is even more northeast-centric than D2 so Dallas may not be the best location.

For what its worth, the 2018 and 2019 D3 championship game was played in Shenandoah, Texas. So pairing the D2 and D3 championship together in the Dallas Metro seems plausible.

[CHIP72]

Thanks for answering. I am surprised that the state is split, as you say, between Michigan and Michigan State. I would not have guessed that.

Only coming back to this thread after a few weeks.

I’m not surprised by the split. I live in a transient metro area outside the Midwest with a large number of people from Michigan (the state). In the office I was in until mid-2022, there were Michigan State grads and one Michigan grad…in an office of less than 15 people. I know other people in the (DC) area who are Michigan grads. There are a lot of both Michigan and Michigan State fans around. (This is part of the reason why this is one of the best #2 rivalries in the country for one of the teams and a solid #1 rivalry for the other team.)

I’ll note that I believe there are also people who are Michigan fans in football and Michigan State fans in basketball.

[CHIP72]

And overall, there is an issue with "minor league" playoff attendance, regardless of sport or level. If you compare Division II football to, say, the American Hockey League, or USFL, or Minor League baseball, or the NBA G-League, you will find that all of those leagues suffer an attendance decline in the postseason. I used to be a season-ticket holder for the AHL's Grand Rapids Griffins (Detroit Red Wings top affiliate). During the regular season, you could expect anywhere from 7-10k (10,835 being a sell-out). In the playoffs, even on a Friday or Saturday night, that number dropped to 2-4k.
Why? I honestly don't know. But it happens.

This is definitely true; it may be even more true in minor league baseball than in minor league hockey.

I think the reason for that is, particularly in hockey, many businesses and groups account for ticket sales, but they don’t automatically buy minor league playoff tickets. Minor league sports are often viewed as casual, pre-planned entertainment, and playoff games by their nature aren’t pre-planned.

[CHIP72]

I don't think that the average local is going to the D2 championship game. I think it is pretty focused to the fanbases of the respective schools.

One thing I've seen this floated out on here before is making it a dual event with the Frisco Bowl. Have the D2 game kickoff in the early afternoon and the Frisco Bowl in prime time. You get four fan bases involved and make the whole thing more of a festival atmosphere.

I think the general idea of pairing the D2 title game with another college game makes sense. However, I think pairing it with the DI-AA/FCS title game, if possible, would work better. It would create a scheduling issue in D2 unless the regular season was extended by a week to match what DI-AA/FCS has. (I’ll note DI-AA/FCS modified its playoff schedule to what it has now in I think 2010; before that its playoff schedule was the same as D2 in terms of which rounds were held on a given weekend.)

[sportsvine]

I never posted attendance after the round three games. Here are the figures....

Colorado Mines 4,328
Harding 3,100
Slippery Rock 2,448
Valdosta State 2,223

[KleShreen]

I don't think that the average local is going to the D2 championship game. I think it is pretty focused to the fanbases of the respective schools.

One thing I've seen this floated out on here before is making it a dual event with the Frisco Bowl. Have the D2 game kickoff in the early afternoon and the Frisco Bowl in prime time. You get four fan bases involved and make the whole thing more of a festival atmosphere.

I've thought for a while that the FCS/D2/D3 games should all be played in the same location on the same weekend. Play the D3 game on Friday night, the D2 game on Saturday at noon, and the FCS game on Saturday night. Let people use one ticket for all three games.

[sportsvine]

I've thought for a while that the FCS/D2/D3 games should all be played in the same location on the same weekend. Play the D3 game on Friday night, the D2 game on Saturday at noon, and the FCS game on Saturday night. Let people use one ticket for all three games.

If I were local to the area, I'd definitely attend all three. If my alma mater made it to the championship, and was able to attend, I would happily attend all three if I could. The only issue that could arise is, if reserved seating was purchased, could it be arrainged that you could choose which game for the preferred seating, and the other two games be general admission?

[IUPNation]

I think pushing the game gives fans of the actual teams in the finals time to plan a trip. A weeks notice negates a lot of people ftom
attending

[CHIP72]

I've thought for a while that the FCS/D2/D3 games should all be played in the same location on the same weekend. Play the D3 game on Friday night, the D2 game on Saturday at noon, and the FCS game on Saturday night. Let people use one ticket for all three games.

Hell, with the cluster**** known as DI-A/FBS college football having its championship game on a Monday night (this season January 8th) to avoid competition with the NFL, you could actually just have every NCAA division have their championship game that weekend in a four game extravaganza:

Using this season as an example, the days/dates for the games would be:

*D3: Friday 1/5 - night
*D2: Saturday 1/6 - early afternoon
*DI-AA/FCS: Sunday 1/7 - early afternoon
*DI-A/FBS: Monday 1/8 - night

(I'd be fine with adding in NAIA in there too; they could play their championship immediately after the D2 title game.)

The DI-AA/FCS championship game IS actually on Sunday 1/7/24 this season (2 PM ET start).

I would only advocate for the same game site for DI-AA/FCS and D2 though - most D3 teams are in the East and Midwest, and the north Texas location has worked very well for the DI-AA/FCS championship game and moderately well for the D2 title game but would make less sense for the D3 championship contest IMO. Also, fans in D2 and to a lesser degree DI-AA/FCS would be shut out of tickets if the DI-A/FBS was at the same site or in the same metro area.

[champgymusa]

I thought it would be interesting to see what is posted as attendance for each of today's games and rank them.

Grand Valley State 14,109
Pittsburg State 5,047
Lenoir-Rhyne 3,212
UT Permian Basin 2,697
Central Missouri 2,500
Augustana 2,101
Valdosta State 2,013
Slippery Rock 1,651
Delta State 1,601
Kutztown 1,470
Western Colorado 1,301
Charleston 1,212

And we wonder how GVSU ends up playing FSU in the first round? The NCAA gets the gate. Case closed.

[champgymusa]

I never posted attendance after the round three games. Here are the figures....

Colorado Mines 4,328
Harding 3,100
Slippery Rock 2,448
Valdosta State 2,223

I was at the Harding game, there was WAY more than 3100 there...

[Bisonfan1]

I was at the Harding game, there was WAY more than 3100 there...

No doubt

[DawgUp]

I was at the Harding game, there was WAY more than 3100 there...

Somebody's keeping a piece of the pie for themselves. Good for them.

[BisonDivot]

I was there as well and would have guessed 5000+. It was just as much as the home game versus Ouachita Baptist, probably more.

[KleShreen]

If I were local to the area, I'd definitely attend all three. If my alma mater made it to the championship, and was able to attend, I would happily attend all three if I could. The only issue that could arise is, if reserved seating was purchased, could it be arrainged that you could choose which game for the preferred seating, and the other two games be general admission?

I don't think you need reserved seating. None of the games would likely get enough fans to where reserved seating is needed. Just make it all General Admission. Looks better on TV if people are in the middle and lower in the stands. If you put it in a stadium with a capacity of like 25-30k, I think that would be more than enough. FCS is routinely around 17-20k in Frisco. D2 in McKinney has been around 3-4k. D3 in Salem was around 3-6k, but they've been jumping around the last few years and have been around 2-3k. Put it in a 25-30k capacity stadium and maybe you can up all of those attendances a little bit. I would think at least 30-40% for D2/D3 (because I'm guessing a fair amount of FCS fans would attend, especially for the D2 game earlier in the same day), and maybe a little for FCS.