Attendance - Last 3 seasons

GopherWeatherGuy

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There's always a ton of discussion about attendance on this board, and I found this tweet interesting. This chart shows scanned tickets vs announced attendance since Fleck arrived.

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Even though attendance is not where we all want it, ticket redemption has increased significantly this season. That makes sense when you're winning.
 

Also note that the amount of rivals traveling to MN to watch games has gone down as well.
 


Great post. Regarding the issue of traveling fans not following their team as much, some of that has to do with Nebraska falling on hard times recently. They came in great numbers upon their first visit after joining the Big Ten. However, while sitting in the rain during the Nebraska game and noting the empty seats for not only that game, but also for the recent visits of Iowa and Wisconsin compared to the Metrodome days, my friend came up with a theory that I think makes a ton of sense.

He believes, and I seconded this opinion, that the visiting fans of Iowa, Nebraska, and Wisconsin weren't really visitors in great numbers in the sense of coming from Iowa, Nebraska, and Wisconsin from beyond the suburbs of the Twin Cities that spill into that state. The fans of these teams that came to games at the Dome were Minnesotans from the metro area and certain parts of outstate Minnesota within a reasonable distance to not stay overnight who went to those schools and came home after, who are from those states and settled in this area, are Minnesotans with a rooting interest in those teams because dad was born in Cedar Rapids or their big sister went to Madison for school or whatever, and armchair fans who root for them because they've largely been good or had a talented player and so on.

These are fans who loved Gopher football at the Dome because there were enough Hawkeyes, Cornhuskers, and Badgers fans to make for a lively atmosphere and it was always dry and 68 degrees. They came to TCF Bank Stadium over the first few seasons, but after experiencing a few bad weather games decided not to come anymore, or at least not come every season or who'd wait until close to game day to decide and who'd skip it if the forecast looked bad. The majority of these fans aren't the people who go game in and game out to Kinnick, Memorial, and Camp Randall and who know about sitting in cold and/or wet weather.

Is this actually the case? I don't know for sure, but it makes sense and I buy it. You've been able to walk up and get tickets to see Iowa, Nebraska, and Wisconsin play here for years on game day without issue even though games against the likes of Syracuse and TCU sold out. Even with Nebraska in a deep rut and Iowa often being uneven, it's not like those teams have fewer fans and we mostly play them when the season would still have hope of turning out well.
 




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