Big Ten Football attendance

[teachercd]

What is that like, as a student at OSU, when they have football games but the school year hasnt started yet? I mean, are the only students there the ones that live close by, have an apt or live in the frats? The dorms probably arent even open, are they?

 

[VprHis]

What is that like, as a student at OSU, when they have football games but the school year hasnt started yet? I mean, are the only students there the ones that live close by, have an apt or live in the frats? The dorms probably arent even open, are they?

There are significantly fewer students at the early non-con games. Unless they've restructured it recently, students could buy the Big Ten slate as a package, with the option of picking up the early games individually, as well. The alumni association picks up that slack by piling the vast majority of alumni tickets into those games (something like 30,000 each for last year's USC and Navy games, as opposed to an average of about 3,000 per big ten game). I guess that's a fair measure of the difference in the number of students present. The student sections are not formed for those games.

What's really funny is that OSU has more students at the games than any other school (something like 33-35,000 was the last number I've heard), but only puts about 20% of them into Block "O" (the student sections, which are divided in half--one at the North end of the stadium, and one at the South). So, unlike Penn State's 27,000-student intimidation machine, OSU has a pair of ineffectual 3-5,000 blocks.

If you want "guaranteed" tickets, you can pay the university $2,000 (or thereabouts) to join the booster club, which leaves you eligible to purchase two (pending availability) season tickets at about $650 each.

I basically budget for one game a year through the association. I get two tickets for face ($67), for one game. Last year, though, I didn't win the lottery, so no tickets for me.

 

[BOJ]

What is that like, as a student at OSU, when they have football games but the school year hasnt started yet? I mean, are the only students there the ones that live close by, have an apt or live in the frats? The dorms probably arent even open, are they?

There are significantly fewer students at the early non-con games. Unless they've restructured it recently, students could buy the Big Ten slate as a package, with the option of picking up the early games individually, as well. The alumni association picks up that slack by piling the vast majority of alumni tickets into those games (something like 30,000 each for last year's USC and Navy games, as opposed to an average of about 3,000 per big ten game). I guess that's a fair measure of the difference in the number of students present. The student sections are not formed for those games.

What's really funny is that OSU has more students at the games than any other school (something like 33-35,000 was the last number I've heard), but only puts about 20% of them into Block "O" (the student sections, which are divided in half--one at the North end of the stadium, and one at the South). So, unlike Penn State's 27,000-student intimidation machine, OSU has a pair of ineffectual 3-5,000 blocks.

If you want "guaranteed" tickets, you can pay the university $2,000 (or thereabouts) to join the booster club, which leaves you eligible to purchase two (pending availability) season tickets at about $650 each.

I basically budget for one game a year through the association. I get two tickets for face ($67), for one game. Last year, though, I didn't win the lottery, so no tickets for me.

I was going to have a whole write-up but he nailed it.

 

[deedsker15]

What is that like, as a student at OSU, when they have football games but the school year hasnt started yet? I mean, are the only students there the ones that live close by, have an apt or live in the frats? The dorms probably arent even open, are they?

There are significantly fewer students at the early non-con games. Unless they've restructured it recently, students could buy the Big Ten slate as a package, with the option of picking up the early games individually, as well. The alumni association picks up that slack by piling the vast majority of alumni tickets into those games (something like 30,000 each for last year's USC and Navy games, as opposed to an average of about 3,000 per big ten game). I guess that's a fair measure of the difference in the number of students present. The student sections are not formed for those games.

What's really funny is that OSU has more students at the games than any other school (something like 33-35,000 was the last number I've heard), but only puts about 20% of them into Block "O" (the student sections, which are divided in half--one at the North end of the stadium, and one at the South). So, unlike Penn State's 27,000-student intimidation machine, OSU has a pair of ineffectual 3-5,000 blocks.

If you want "guaranteed" tickets, you can pay the university $2,000 (or thereabouts) to join the booster club, which leaves you eligible to purchase two (pending availability) season tickets at about $650 each.

I basically budget for one game a year through the association. I get two tickets for face ($67), for one game. Last year, though, I didn't win the lottery, so no tickets for me.

I was going to have a whole write-up but he nailed it.

as a student, i can't imagine what it is like not being able to go to all the home games...that is kinda ridiculous... :ahhhhhhhh

 

[Manhattan]

What is that like, as a student at OSU, when they have football games but the school year hasnt started yet? I mean, are the only students there the ones that live close by, have an apt or live in the frats? The dorms probably arent even open, are they?

There are significantly fewer students at the early non-con games. Unless they've restructured it recently, students could buy the Big Ten slate as a package, with the option of picking up the early games individually, as well. The alumni association picks up that slack by piling the vast majority of alumni tickets into those games (something like 30,000 each for last year's USC and Navy games, as opposed to an average of about 3,000 per big ten game). I guess that's a fair measure of the difference in the number of students present. The student sections are not formed for those games.

What's really funny is that OSU has more students at the games than any other school (something like 33-35,000 was the last number I've heard), but only puts about 20% of them into Block "O" (the student sections, which are divided in half--one at the North end of the stadium, and one at the South). So, unlike Penn State's 27,000-student intimidation machine, OSU has a pair of ineffectual 3-5,000 blocks.

If you want "guaranteed" tickets, you can pay the university $2,000 (or thereabouts) to join the booster club, which leaves you eligible to purchase two (pending availability) season tickets at about $650 each.

I basically budget for one game a year through the association. I get two tickets for face ($67), for one game. Last year, though, I didn't win the lottery, so no tickets for me.

I was going to have a whole write-up but he nailed it.

as a student, i can't imagine what it is like not being able to go to all the home games...that is kinda ridiculous... :ahhhhhhhh

Well, if you are a student, it is easy to go to all of the games. The season ticket package isn't hard to get. It really sucks for alumni though. The only thing students miss (you can still get if you buy separately from the package) are the first three games, which save for one, are snoozers anyway. Still a little bit annoying.

 

[Coqui]

What is that like, as a student at OSU, when they have football games but the school year hasnt started yet? I mean, are the only students there the ones that live close by, have an apt or live in the frats? The dorms probably arent even open, are they?

There are significantly fewer students at the early non-con games. Unless they've restructured it recently, students could buy the Big Ten slate as a package, with the option of picking up the early games individually, as well. The alumni association picks up that slack by piling the vast majority of alumni tickets into those games (something like 30,000 each for last year's USC and Navy games, as opposed to an average of about 3,000 per big ten game). I guess that's a fair measure of the difference in the number of students present. The student sections are not formed for those games.

What's really funny is that OSU has more students at the games than any other school (something like 33-35,000 was the last number I've heard), but only puts about 20% of them into Block "O" (the student sections, which are divided in half--one at the North end of the stadium, and one at the South). So, unlike Penn State's 27,000-student intimidation machine, OSU has a pair of ineffectual 3-5,000 blocks.

If you want "guaranteed" tickets, you can pay the university $2,000 (or thereabouts) to join the booster club, which leaves you eligible to purchase two (pending availability) season tickets at about $650 each.

I basically budget for one game a year through the association. I get two tickets for face ($67), for one game. Last year, though, I didn't win the lottery, so no tickets for me.

I was going to have a whole write-up but he nailed it.

as a student, i can't imagine what it is like not being able to go to all the home games...that is kinda ridiculous... :ahhhhhhhh

The year after I graduated, they set it up so students were only guaranteed one game per season. That lasted only a year. I was pissed about it and it didn't affect me at all.

 

[BOJ]

Strictly out of curiosity, do you husker fans think Memorial would sell out if they added enough seats to bring it up to roughly 100K? If so, I am curious why they haven't done that over all these years. Is the stadium just not structurally set up to accommodate that big of an expansion?

 

[Manhattan]

I think the Shoe needs to expand. Probably not possible though.

 

[Scarlet Overkill]

Strictly out of curiosity, do you husker fans think Memorial would sell out if they added enough seats to bring it up to roughly 100K? If so, I am curious why they haven't done that over all these years. Is the stadium just not structurally set up to accommodate that big of an expansion?

I'm no engineer, so I can't say if it could support more or not. But, in my humble opinion, I do think "they" want to make darned sure the sell-out streak continues by keeping capacity a little lower, and then adding just a little at a time to make sure people will still completely fill it up. I could be way off base, though.

 

[huKSer]

Strictly out of curiosity, do you husker fans think Memorial would sell out if they added enough seats to bring it up to roughly 100K? If so, I am curious why they haven't done that over all these years. Is the stadium just not structurally set up to accommodate that big of an expansion?

I think that we can sell out (for now). The administration (like most Nebraskans) are pretty conservative and the expansions have been made cautiously. I think its the configuration of the stadium (ten-ish years ago it went under a thorough engineering analysis so its sound). I'm not sure, but Memorial Stadium might have the lowest percent of seats located facing the side lines.

Oh, yes. Texass sucks :hookerhorns

 

[Landlord]

Strictly out of curiosity, do you husker fans think Memorial would sell out if they added enough seats to bring it up to roughly 100K? If so, I am curious why they haven't done that over all these years. Is the stadium just not structurally set up to accommodate that big of an expansion?

What everyone else has said is true, and also:

East stadium isn't entirely structurally sound. There's a lot of talk about expansion and renovation there, but they will have to re-enforce the currently existing pillars and probably build an entirely new facade around the already existing one (much like they did with west stadium. In addition to that, South stadium just had a brand new computer science building built right underneath it, and expansion in that direction is nearly impossible. Memorial Stadium doesn't have much room left on any of it's sides to go outwards anymore, which is why i STILL don't understand why they didn't double-deck North stadium instead of just building it further up and out (the amount of endzone seats at Nebraska is ridiculous).

 

[BOJ]

On a follow-up, I just read on a Big Ten board that there is some sort of movement in the works of expanding. Have you guys heard about this? Are there any ideas about how big they would like to go?

http://www.bigtenfever.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12310

*Edit: How big of a deal is Memorial stadium to Nebraska, what I mean is if the University decided to build a new one b/c it found it be impossible to expand that large, would the state be in an uproar? For instance this is not an option at tOSU, not only would it be political suicide for whoever brought the idea up the historical society wouldn't allow it, wonder if that is the same over there?

*Edit #2: I just noticed (looking at pics of the stadium) that the eastern facade of Memorial looks eerily similar to the rotunda at the Horseshoe

*Edit #3: Good lord nothing like being prepared on my part and having to edit three times...just did some reading and found out it was originally modeled after Ohio Stadium when it was built, that would explain the similarity.

 

[huKSer]

On a follow-up, I just read on a Big Ten board that there is some sort of movement in the works of expanding. Have you guys heard about this? Are there any ideas about how big they would like to go?

http://www.bigtenfever.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12310

*Edit: How big of a deal is Memorial stadium to Nebraska, what I mean is if the University decided to build a new one b/c it found it be impossible to expand that large, would the state be in an uproar? For instance this is not an option at tOSU, not only would it be political suicide for whoever brought the idea up the historical society wouldn't allow it, wonder if that is the same over there?

Expansion talk is mostly luxury skyboxes or club seating on the side of Memorial opposite the press boxes. I think 10k or so.

Personally, I wouldn't mind a new stadium AS LONG AS ITS ON CAMPUS. I just don't think there is room anywhere to put it. In the late 1970s some of the state legislators were making some noise about a "Husker Dome" on the interstate half way between Lincoln and Omaha. Lead balloon that one.

 

[jwinslow]

When people talk about pre-semester games affecting sales, they mean 105k (Navy) instead of 106 or 107k.

Penn State was #2, and tOSU was #3. Come on, PSU/tOSU, you can do better! (Nebraska was #10)

Not really, for two reasons:a) Our stadium isn't big enough to keep pace

B) We don't get credited with the 40k in attendance in Ann Arbor last November

 

[Coqui]

When people talk about pre-semester games affecting sales, they mean 105k (Navy) instead of 106 or 107k.

Penn State was #2, and tOSU was #3. Come on, PSU/tOSU, you can do better! (Nebraska was #10)

Not really, for two reasons:a) Our stadium isn't big enough to keep pace

B) We don't get credited with the 40k in attendance in Ann Arbor last November

Yeah when I mentioned that, it was talking about the sellout aspect.