Interesting attendance problems

[tornado]

Utah has been pretty successful the past few years and attendance should be up...
but it's not....and the fans blame Rick Majerus!!!

Pretty impressive decline since the midpoint of the Majerus era!!!
Basicall it started when Majerus began his health issues...

current avg home attendance--8,556
Last year - 9,916
2005-06 - 10,482
2002-03 - 11,518
2000-01 - 12,236
1999-00 - 13,248

"Utah, fans say, is now a football school.
"In [2003-04] Majerus basically mailed it in, knowing the writing was on the
wall regarding his future as the Ute coach
"Majerus had worn out his welcome with his behavior and he knew it.
That same year, (Utah hired) a fiery, disciplined head football coach in Urban
Meyer

The football program generated a national buzz fans wanted to be a part of
while the basketball program became a has-been, fans say."

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/yb/139795180

 

[lefty]

Seems like they blame Meyer as much as Majerus......I wonder how attendance was before Majerus. Did he bring it up to the 13k aversage?

 

[tornado]

yeah-- that is interesting...
how can you blame Meyer?? All he did was bring football up to a higher level and get the school into the headlines...
He didn't even get hired at Utah until 2003 - at which time 60% of the attendance decline had already happened!

 

[Chico]

On a side note, last weekend Arizona played at UCLA and Ariz St played at USC. Both games were televised back here to Arizona. Arizona had a TV rating of 0.8 with a 2%share. Ariz St had a 0.6 rating and a 1% share. Bradley fans, IMO, no matter how much we disagree, are the most loyal fans I know.

 

[tornado]

with bad stuff happening...both UCLA's and USC's fans are bailing..

USC has drawn as few as 2200 for home games this year, and is averaging just 3883!
That's barely more than half what they averaged last year and only about 1/3 of their average the year before when they had OJ.

UCLA's home attendance of 7479 - with some crowds in the 5000's, is way, way off their 10,000+ averages over the past 3 years...