PSAC Attendance - Week 7 Update

[Fightingscot82]

Week 6
West Chester - 3,789
California - 2,514
Indiana - 2,152
Bloomsburg - 1,269
Clarion - 987
Millersville - 913
Kutztown - 771
Gannon - 497

Season Average (Home Games)
Slippery Rock - 7,521 (4)
West Chester - 5,423 (3)
Shepherd - 4,378 (3)
Indiana - 4,045 (5)
East Stroudsburg - 3,892 (3)
Kutztown - 3,148 (3)
Edinboro - 2,662 (3)
California - 2,618 (4)
Shippensburg - 2,498 (3)
Millersville - 1,725 (4)
Bloomsburg - 1,547 (3)
Lock Haven - 1,489 (3)
Clarion - 1,269 (4)
Seton Hill - 967 (3)
Gannon - 964 (4)
Mercyhurst - 927 (3)*

*At least one game with 0 reported attendance

[Ship69]

Obviously the weather did not help this past weekend.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Obviously the weather did not help this past weekend.

If anybody believes there was actually 2,152 at Miller Stadium ... I'll sell you some magic beans. Not even close.

[IUPNation]

If anybody believes there was actually 2,152 at Miller Stadium ... I'll sell you some magic beans. Not even close.

Maybe they came in shifts.

[TheBigCat2192]

Bloomsburg might need to reduce their capacity if they keep turning out crowds like this.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Bloomsburg might need to reduce their capacity if they keep turning out crowds like this.

This year (so far) and the past three seasons Bloomsburg is 13-27.

At this level, you better win to get humans in the seats (and, that doesn't even always work).

Consider (10) of our (16) teams are under 3,000 per game. That's awful.

PSAC Football is a good, entertaining product. Far too few people know about it. Add to it non-existent marketing, and, well, these are the numbers you get.

This league has basketball teams that outdraw football teams. That's pretty rare in college sports. IUP basketball gets a bigger gate than half of the football teams in this league.

The bottom half of the above list should all be at least doubled. The schools (and league) do a terrible job promoting the programs.

[Fightingscot82]

This year (so far) and the past three seasons Bloomsburg is 13-27.

At this level, you better win to get humans in the seats (and, that doesn't even always work).

Consider (10) of our (16) teams are under 3,000 per game. That's awful.

PSAC Football is a good, entertaining product. Far too few people know about it. Add to it non-existent marketing, and, well, these are the numbers you get.

This league has basketball teams that outdraw football teams. That's pretty rare in college sports. IUP basketball gets a bigger gate than half of the football teams in this league.

The bottom half of the above list should all be at least doubled. The schools (and league) do a terrible job promoting the programs.

Agree. Unfortunately our schools are run by people who went to college before the cable sports package & streaming entertainment eras when small town locals only had a few options: rent a VHS movie, go bowling, or get drunk. So paying $3 to attend Edinboro vs Clarion football on a Saturday afternoon wasn't a bad option. Students also aren't broke anymore because most work for spending money instead of working to pay the tuition bill. So they just hop in the car and go somewhere if they even leave their domicile. Most of our towns are also not what they used to be decades ago, so the long line of local businesses annually funding your programs through sponsorships and attending with their free tickets are gone. True boosters.

The new era of watching crap on TV or streaming is the nail in the coffin for small college sports. With a standard cable package where I live, on TV at the same time as the Edinboro vs. Clarion kickoff, I can stay home and watch:
- Rutgers at Indiana on B1G Network
- Air Force at Navy on CBS
- Central Florida at Oklahoma on ABC
- Mississippi State at Arkansas on ESPN
- Penn State at Ohio State on Fox

And that's before the bonus sports package channels and streaming options like ESPN+.

[CC_BU]

This year (so far) and the past three seasons Bloomsburg is 13-27.

At this level, you better win to get humans in the seats (and, that doesn't even always work).

Consider (10) of our (16) teams are under 3,000 per game. That's awful.

PSAC Football is a good, entertaining product. Far too few people know about it. Add to it non-existent marketing, and, well, these are the numbers you get.

This league has basketball teams that outdraw football teams. That's pretty rare in college sports. IUP basketball gets a bigger gate than half of the football teams in this league.

The bottom half of the above list should all be at least doubled. The schools (and league) do a terrible job promoting the programs.

The record crowd for a Bloomsburg home game was just over 7300. That was homecoming against Millersville..............in 1985.

We came close for the 2014 West Chester game.

The fact that record still stands, even after the Danny Hale years is a crying shame.

Hats off to Slippery Rock. They must be doing something right. Their average attendance is better than Bloom's record.

[Fightingscot82]

The record crowd for a Bloomsburg home game was just over 7300. That was homecoming against Millersville..............in 1985.

We came close for the 2014 West Chester game.

The fact that record still stands, even after the Danny Hale years is a crying shame.

Hats off to Slippery Rock. They must be doing something right. Their average attendance is better than Bloom's record.

Until the 70s, Slippery Rock had a rule that freshmen living on campus MUST attend all home football games and the Homecoming parade.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Until the 70s, Slippery Rock had a rule that freshmen living on campus MUST attend all home football games and the Homecoming parade.

They've done a great job creating a culture there. They have a great parking area (huge) for a legit tailgating experience. They don't charge outrageous fees (like some in Indiana) to park in the tailgate lots. Students see their game day experience as fun. It's a party.

They also mix in other events and directly tie them to the games (Village Fest, etc.).


Oddly, other than IUP's yearly visit, they don't draw at all for basketball.

[iupgroundhog]

The new era of watching crap on TV or streaming is the nail in the coffin for small college sports. With a standard cable package where I live, on TV at the same time as the Edinboro vs. Clarion kickoff, I can stay home and watch:

I wouldn't be at IUP games, anyway, because of distance. But I can sit at my computer and have up 3 or 4 PSAC games at once, flipping between them. As a fan, can you even beat that by actually attending a game in person?

[Fightingscot82]

I wouldn't be at IUP games, anyway, because of distance. But I can sit at my computer and have up 3 or 4 PSAC games at once, flipping between them. As a fan, can you even beat that by actually attending a game in person?

I think that's fair for we idiots LOL. I know for certain that I am attending fewer Edinboro games because I can watch them on my TV on the Roku app.

[TheBigCat2192]

Agree. Unfortunately our schools are run by people who went to college before the cable sports package & streaming entertainment eras when small town locals only had a few options: rent a VHS movie, go bowling, or get drunk. So paying $3 to attend Edinboro vs Clarion football on a Saturday afternoon wasn't a bad option. Students also aren't broke anymore because most work for spending money instead of working to pay the tuition bill. So they just hop in the car and go somewhere if they even leave their domicile. Most of our towns are also not what they used to be decades ago, so the long line of local businesses annually funding your programs through sponsorships and attending with their free tickets are gone. True boosters.

The new era of watching crap on TV or streaming is the nail in the coffin for small college sports. With a standard cable package where I live, on TV at the same time as the Edinboro vs. Clarion kickoff, I can stay home and watch:
- Rutgers at Indiana on B1G Network
- Air Force at Navy on CBS
- Central Florida at Oklahoma on ABC
- Mississippi State at Arkansas on ESPN
- Penn State at Ohio State on Fox

And that's before the bonus sports package channels and streaming options like ESPN+.

The cable package at BU was pretty good for sports, we had all the same channels as your list there plus CSN-Philly, Root Sports, ESPNU, and CBS Sportsnet and for the first year or two I was there ESPN+ was still just WatchESPN and mostly free/didn’t require a cable login. Truly Board of Regents vs NCAA has been a disaster for college sports in terms of both student attendance and realignment.

[iupgroundhog]

I think that's fair for we idiots LOL. I know for certain that I am attending fewer Edinboro games because I can watch them on my TV on the Roku app.

True. I think there are like 9 of us.

[Fightingscot82]

They've done a great job creating a culture there. They have a great parking area (huge) for a legit tailgating experience. They don't charge outrageous fees (like some in Indiana) to park in the tailgate lots. Students see their game day experience as fun. It's a party.

They also mix in other events and directly tie them to the games (Village Fest, etc.).


Oddly, other than IUP's yearly visit, they don't draw at all for basketball.

Yeah a few things they do for football:

1) All night games until its cold.

2) Tailgate lots. $20 for cars, $100 for RVs. You can also buy a season pass. The lot they use is a student parking lot and students must move their cars by Friday evening or else they get towed. For Homecoming they close two student parking lots. The president has also granted blanket approval for legal alcohol use in these lots, just no glass, kegs, or obvious drinking games. So there is top to bottom support for athletics & tailgating.

3) Online sales. SRU sells tickets, tailgate spots, season tickets, and season tailgate passes online. And the service fee is only 50 cents per ticket. A certain PASSHE campus in Erie County doesn't advertise season tickets, doesn't sell tickets or passes online, take cards at the gate, or have a tailgate lot. NOBODY UNDER 50 CARRIES CASH ANYMORE.

4) As you mentioned, piggybacking on the events that draw people to the town like Village Fest. Homecoming is this weekend and other than the parade, every other Saturday event for the public is at the stadium. They also have the program board sponsoring a student & family centered tailgate with live music, inflatables, entertainers, etc. with specific giveaways. Last year it was a limited edition sticker of the old sweatpants Rocky the Rock mascot. This year its a custom Slippery Rock S Crocs gibbit. Things that get students there.

5) There's a strict prohibition on having events that overlap or conflict with home football outside other athletics games.

Unfortunately for Ian Grady, they do none of these things for basketball.