KUDOS AND WELL DONE: 97,418 On Sat!
- Thread starter ILLINOISLION
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It looked pretty empty in the upper decks and top of the student section. I doubt there were 97,000 in attendance.
Too bad this game had to be scheduled during Thanksgiving break. Ohio State had 110,000 but they're located in a big city where the commute isn't so demanding. I doubt we would get 110,000 on a Thanksgiving weekend if our last game was against a top 10 ranked Pitt team, but at least we would get more people from a larger city.
The fans who were there were loud and proud. You can hear it when you watch the replay.
We don't draw like we used to, but the folks who have been going this year are your true die hard Penn Staters... No doubt about that.
We don't draw like we used to, but the folks who have been going this year are your true die hard Penn Staters... No doubt about that.
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The student section, although not completely full, was really loud on Saturday. Pretty remarkable. As psuro pointed out, they did an impressive version of "Na Na Na Na Hey Hey-ey Goodbye."
You're crazy. If Pitt was top 10 and we were top 10 you would have at least 107,000 hell or high water.
I did my part. First time back for a game since 2014.
I was disappointed in the size of the crowd, both students and in general. Thanksgiving and all, I guess I was expecting too much.
For the size of crowd I thought it was pretty loud though.
Yea I would guess somewhere between 87-90,000.
And despite what people are saying it sounded like on TV it was a loud crowd, especially from the second quarter on.
I, too, was disappointed to see as many empty seats as there were. That damn wind really cut through that place and despite 5 layers, I was still shivering (damn thinned-out blood). But people were fired up throughout the game, especially when we were on defense and giving up lots of yards in that first half.
For perspective, when I posted a pic during the Blue Band's pregame, someone who is an Arizona State season ticket holder asked if it would fill up. I texted him later in the game saying that some of it did but at best, we might have 90-92K here so it's a bad crowd number. He replied that anyone in the Pac-12 would love to call that number bad.
For perspective, when I posted a pic during the Blue Band's pregame, someone who is an Arizona State season ticket holder asked if it would fill up. I texted him later in the game saying that some of it did but at best, we might have 90-92K here so it's a bad crowd number. He replied that anyone in the Pac-12 would love to call that number bad.
Overall, on the basis of attendance at the 3 other games I went to this year, it was about what I expected. There were more students than I expected though.
The entire stadium was doing it... watch the replay... It's LOUD on TV
There weren't many in my section singing it, but I'm glad that so many were. It sure sounded great and the MSU bench took notice. A lot of them were looking up at the crowd.
We're just never going to have much more than what we had this past Saturday for a game on Thanksgiving weekend. There are too many contributing factors that will always suppress attendance:
1. You can open up the dorms early, but the students still have to find a way back to campus. Many of them rely on their parents to pick them up and drive them back, and mom and dad probably want their kids home through the weekend. They sure as hell don't want to contend with football traffic.
2. Many alums with season tickets travel for the holiday.
3. First day of buck season is the Monday after Thanksgiving. Many hunters use the weekend for final preparations -- siting in scopes, checking their "spot", getting to camp, etc. Not sure how many of our fans this would apply to, but I've seen enough orange cold weather gear in the stadium to know that this would be a factor for some.
4. Weather, especially combined with a late start time can be dicey in late November.
1. You can open up the dorms early, but the students still have to find a way back to campus. Many of them rely on their parents to pick them up and drive them back, and mom and dad probably want their kids home through the weekend. They sure as hell don't want to contend with football traffic.
2. Many alums with season tickets travel for the holiday.
3. First day of buck season is the Monday after Thanksgiving. Many hunters use the weekend for final preparations -- siting in scopes, checking their "spot", getting to camp, etc. Not sure how many of our fans this would apply to, but I've seen enough orange cold weather gear in the stadium to know that this would be a factor for some.
4. Weather, especially combined with a late start time can be dicey in late November.
Same issues exist at places like Ohio State, and Michigan but they manage to sell out big games. I assume the difference is the distance fans have to travel (through the mountains in bad weather). This is only a problem during years when we finish the regular season at home. I'd suggest discounted pricing for upper deck seating and opening up some student seats to the general public. Maybe give some away to vets, boys and girls clubs, etc. It looks bad to wee so many empty seats.
I like this OP better than the one complaining, so let's bump this up!
I ushered and waited to be dismissed so that I could take my seat in WA. It never happened and I wound up with the kids in SD. BEST.TIME.EVER.
Drive 5 hours from Long Island with family.. Watched game... Drive 5 hours back home that night... It was worth every minute !!!!!!!
As others have pointed out, the Columbus metro population - for example - is 1.6 million. Do you know how far a radius you'd have to make from State College to gather that population?
Wasn't it great to be there and see the happiness of the team?
I call bull sh!t...I have no idea how many empty sections were on my side of the field (WGU) but I could see more than 10k empty seats between both upper deck endzones and the south east corner near the student section (including the student section)...
Either way great crowd and atmosphere but I pegged it much closer to 90k
It appears from your post that there were 16,000 empty seats - regardless of the success of this season that has has to be ominous for the future of the program.
I don't think it's necessary to take the attendance for this game and make forward looking statements like that...first of all there were what 5k empty seats for unused Michigan State tickets?
Next you have club seats and the upper deck above the club that seem to be partially empty every game... say 3k seats and that's probably a typical game recently.
Then you have the student section where it's a holiday weekend and many students would have to rely on their parents to get them back to campus early in the weekend? Say that was 5k less.
Then you have the cold weather with threat of rain and again a holiday weekend where people travel other places to visit family...that leaves only 3k of those fans...
Again I couldn't tell What my own side looked like (west side), it's possible we had some empty sections too
Let's face it, my ability to make such an estimate is pretty questionable. It could have been 90. It's just that the both decks above the students on the south side were so empty, as was the upper deck on the north side. I know that large portions of our section in WE were empty, as were some across the way.
What's "ominous" about it??? Thanksgiving weekend has always been our worst attended game of the year for many of the reasons stated above.
It's actually beyond amazing we get as many people as we do for a game on Thanksgiving weekend. It's probably more of a hardship for our fans to travel to a game over Thanksgiving than any other school in the Big Ten.
