I didn’t catch the announced attendance but it simply wasn’t good enough for the home opener of the defending MW champs on a perfect late summer day with a 2 PM kickoff.

Students came and brought it. Major ups to them.

Madmartigan wrote: ↑

August 28th, 2022, 12:40 pm

I didn’t catch the announced attendance but it simply wasn’t good enough for the home opener of the defending MW champs on a perfect late summer day with a 2 PM kickoff.

Students came and brought it. Major ups to them.

You do remember that it's Logan and Cache Valley? Why would you expect anything else. Fans only turn out for the BYU game...many rooting for BYU. It's never ever going to change. Hoping for something else is kinda the definition of insanity. Don't get me wrong....it really Pi$$e$ me off too!!!!

Have they fixed the parking? It's been a few years for me, but the last time I was there the parking situation was really bad

19,655 or something like that. crowd did a good job. I agree that the students seemed to lose interest in second half. Probably got dehydrated or too distracted looking at each other in the student section. the coeds were bringing the tummy shirts out and the boys were noticing along with the camera crews

El Sapo wrote:Have they fixed the parking? It's been a few years for me, but the last time I was there the parking situation was really bad

Parking is a mess at almost every sports venue I've attended. USU actually has it pretty good compared to a lot of places I've visited. The $10 parking isn't too bad of a walk and the 3 church buildings together north west of the stadium are free and a pretty easy walk

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk

ProvoAggie wrote: ↑

August 28th, 2022, 12:52 pm

El Sapo wrote:Have they fixed the parking? It's been a few years for me, but the last time I was there the parking situation was really bad

Parking is a mess at almost every sports venue I've attended. USU actually has it pretty good compared to a lot of places I've visited. The $10 parking isn't too bad of a walk and the 3 church buildings together north west of the stadium are free and a pretty easy walk

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk

Parking plus getting in and getting out of the stadium are amazingly good at Maverik compared to anywhere else I’ve seen a game.

Madmartigan wrote: ↑

August 28th, 2022, 1:01 pm

ProvoAggie wrote: ↑

August 28th, 2022, 12:52 pm

El Sapo wrote:Have they fixed the parking? It's been a few years for me, but the last time I was there the parking situation was really bad

Parking is a mess at almost every sports venue I've attended. USU actually has it pretty good compared to a lot of places I've visited. The $10 parking isn't too bad of a walk and the 3 church buildings together north west of the stadium are free and a pretty easy walk

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk

Parking plus getting in and getting out of the stadium are amazingly good at Maverik compared to anywhere else I’ve seen a game.

Good to hear. I think we paid the $10 and ended up going down a gravel road into a dirt field north of the stadium (close to Smithfield lol). Seems like there was construction in the west parking lot at the time.

I thought 19700 was pretty good. It was hot on the east side, lots of people left each quarter cause they got cooked.

20,000 a game is fine by me. That's 1/6 of cache valley

How come our student section is so dedicated and our alumni are not?

Def a culture thing on both fronts. Just sad it doesn’t carry over to alumni.

The attendance was way better than I thought. Coming off covid still. They haven't updated the east side in 50 years. Gross bathrooms. One water station with a line a mile long. The dumb clear bag policy. Won't let people bring in food or drink. Expensive concessions ran by high school kids that don't know what they are doing.

Honestly I love USU but the out reach to the community is terrible. You had the president of the University being accused of hating Mormons less than 20 months ago. The east side has nothing for a young family with kids. ( which is where younger families usually are because of cost ) No mothers lounge. No heated tents ( only for cold weather). The bathrooms are so disgusting. Broken concrete on the stairs. That middle concourses area is a joke. They could easily fix somethings over there and they don't. Match this up with TV start times and this is what you get.

Truth is USU (and every other school ) don't give a damn about attendance. They want the TV money. And if they had to pick they would pick a empty stadium and TV over sellouts all day long. Attendance just isn't a top priority anymore in today's college football ball.

ProvoAggie wrote: ↑

August 28th, 2022, 12:52 pm

El Sapo wrote:Have they fixed the parking? It's been a few years for me, but the last time I was there the parking situation was really bad

Parking is a mess at almost every sports venue I've attended. USU actually has it pretty good compared to a lot of places I've visited. The $10 parking isn't too bad of a walk and the 3 church buildings together north west of the stadium are free and a pretty easy walk

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk

The few times I go to a Bucs or Rays game, I walk about a mile each way after parking.

Every conference except the Big Ten, Sun Belt, and MAC saw attendance declines from the 2019 to 2021 season, with the MWC and Conference USA showing the lowest attendance average per game since the inception of their conferences: https://www.cbssports.com/college-footb ... ince-1981/

I.e., attendance decline is a broad NCAA football theme especially pronounced in the MWC.

Some schools have been successful at increasing attendance, despite national trends. Rutgers is one example, and it increased average attendance to 33,307 tickets per game, up from 30,044 in 2019. https://www.nj.com/rutgersfootball/2022 ... st%20UMass).

I can't figure out what they did to get that boost; I would love to learn more from their fans. https://www.rutgers.edu/news/winning-day-rutgers

Limiting attendance issues down to a perception of limiting parking options or opponents might be oversimplified. Yes, those are factors in fans' decisions to go to a game, but so are other factors that affect who shows up, including fan base size, the price for tickets, transportation, food, and more, travel time, in-game food options, venue, fan-base household income, ticket seating options, broadcast viewing options, societal demands placed on fans base outside of the game, media coverage (or lack of it), family or friends' interest in joining fan to attend, weather, hotels, city dining, and entertainment options, and much more all play into the decision 19K people weighted and ended up attending. In contrast, thousands of others weighed and stayed home.

I honestly believe that the biggest problem with football attendance is the lack of recognizable players. Why unrecognizable, you ask? Because the university and community do a poor job of marketing the university and its players. Sure. The athletic department have an instagram and facebook page, but it's not even close to being enough. In order for the general public to get excited about the team, they need to be excited about specific players and have an attachment to them. I think that has been the case with our basketball team on many occasions because it's easy to pick out one star on the team. However, in football, I believe that the ability to recognize players is a plague that's been haunting this program for a long time. Even in the early 2000s when this team was at some of its worst football, they still had kids like Bobby Wagner. Back then there were even a couple of local kids that they could've marketed to the community.

Right now this team has several players that are highly marketable. Why hasn't the athletic department done a better job of marketing those players in the community? I know that Blake & co are doing some work in this area, more than in the past, but it's not enough. I know that in the past they tried to market Chuckie Keeton. However, there's more to a football team than a QB.

Lastly, why aren't the athletic department and city working together to promote the games and even given discounts to local hotels and restaurants with an Aggie ticket? There's so much more that could be done that isn't being done. All of this requires a lot of hard work but it's simply not being done. I've said it before, I'll say it again, if I were king for a day, I'd hire at least two people to go around to local businesses from Ogden to Pocatello (for starters) and market to businesses and local communities to churn up support....

I'm not king, unfortunately. And to put it frankly, I am such a small fish in the pond, that I've stopped worrying about supporting the athletic department because I realize that what's being said about television is entirely true. They really don't care about anything else, IMHO.

A lot of the Box Elder County Aggies (not me) were probably attending the last day of the Box Elder County Fair. The fair is a big deal over here. It is the last family outing before school starts the following Monday.

utkyag wrote: ↑

August 28th, 2022, 3:27 pm

A lot of the Box Elder County Aggies (not me) were probably attending the last day of the Box Elder County Fair. The fair is a big deal over here. It is the last family outing before school starts the following Monday.

I wondered why there was so much traffic at the Perry exit.

The solution to all our attendance problems is simple. The Wasatch Front.
Love the BA video of him giving ticks away to Loganites, but that ain’t it. We need to mobilize our WF alum if we want to move the needle.
We also need more premium seating. Club section is sold out.
I also think turnout wasn’t half bad yesterday.

I would expect the attendance to be even bigger for the Weber State game. If my memory serves me right, Weber State/Idaho State game gets us usually little below BYU/Boise State attendance but above other games. 19655 is about the largest attendance that I know with an opponent like UConn. You should spread the word that Maverik Stadium is really nice with great concessions (Lucky Slice, Morty’s, Panui Island, J. Dawgs, Hungry Howie’s, Maverik food, and USU food).

Sl7vk wrote: ↑

August 28th, 2022, 4:08 pm

The solution to all our attendance problems is simple. The Wasatch Front.
Love the BA video of him giving ticks away to Loganites, but that ain’t it. We need to mobilize our WF alum if we want to move the needle.
We also need more premium seating. Club section is sold out.
I also think turnout wasn’t half bad yesterday.

The continuous upgrades have done wonders, and it is becoming a really nice place to watch a game. There will be more upgrades in time.

Sl7vk wrote: ↑

August 28th, 2022, 4:08 pm

The solution to all our attendance problems is simple. The Wasatch Front.
Love the BA video of him giving ticks away to Loganites, but that ain’t it. We need to mobilize our WF alum if we want to move the needle.
We also need more premium seating. Club section is sold out.
I also think turnout wasn’t half bad yesterday.

This has been beat to death so I won’t re-hash. BYU and Utah have a huge advantage in that a lot of their alum graduate and stay less than an hours drive away from their respective school. This is not the case with most USU fans moving to the Wasatch Front after graduation.

I often think how much easier my life would be if I were a Utah fan. I’m a 30 minute or so walk away from the stadium. 5 minute drive. On game days going to Logan from SLC is an all day commitment. This made much worse if it’s a late game. If I were a U fan it would be less than half the time and I wouldn’t have to fight traffic on I 15. We have to do a better job of making attending attractive for WF Aggies. Not sure how.

ProvoAggie wrote: ↑

August 28th, 2022, 12:52 pm

El Sapo wrote:Have they fixed the parking? It's been a few years for me, but the last time I was there the parking situation was really bad

Parking is a mess at almost every sports venue I've attended. USU actually has it pretty good compared to a lot of places I've visited. The $10 parking isn't too bad of a walk and the 3 church buildings together north west of the stadium are free and a pretty easy walk

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk

I agree. USU is pretty simple compared to many of the other places I've visited. Washington State was a TRAIN WRECK!!!

aggies22 wrote: ↑

August 28th, 2022, 4:29 pm

ProvoAggie wrote: ↑

August 28th, 2022, 12:52 pm

El Sapo wrote:Have they fixed the parking? It's been a few years for me, but the last time I was there the parking situation was really bad

Parking is a mess at almost every sports venue I've attended. USU actually has it pretty good compared to a lot of places I've visited. The $10 parking isn't too bad of a walk and the 3 church buildings together north west of the stadium are free and a pretty easy walk

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk

I agree. USU is pretty simple compared to many of the other places I've visited. Washington State was a TRAIN WRECK!!!

And yet Pullman is more isolated and has a smaller population with an equally poor football historic win record and they still get people to games...

LarryTheAggie wrote: ↑

August 28th, 2022, 4:33 pm

aggies22 wrote: ↑

August 28th, 2022, 4:29 pm

ProvoAggie wrote: ↑

August 28th, 2022, 12:52 pm

El Sapo wrote:Have they fixed the parking? It's been a few years for me, but the last time I was there the parking situation was really bad

Parking is a mess at almost every sports venue I've attended. USU actually has it pretty good compared to a lot of places I've visited. The $10 parking isn't too bad of a walk and the 3 church buildings together north west of the stadium are free and a pretty easy walk

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk

I agree. USU is pretty simple compared to many of the other places I've visited. Washington State was a TRAIN WRECK!!!

And yet Pullman is more isolated and has a smaller population with an equally poor football historic win record and they still get people to games...

And have played in the pac 12, and the same conference as their in-state foe.

Honest question, how much winning would it take to get the stadium packed every week, regardless of opponent? Several 9-10 win seasons in a row? A special NY6 bowl season? Or will attendance always be a struggle no matter how much they could possibly win?

And to follow up on that, would beating Bama next week make Weber the following week a packed house? Even I’m not sure about that lol.

I will be a season ticket holder no matter what! I rolled my eyes when people complained about our bathrooms and concessions… then I waited in line… I now agree that the fringe fans would not be willing to do this! It is honestly a pain in the butt and we were not sold out. Seriously driving 2 hours to see a game and waiting 20 minutes to buy water and 10 more minutes to pee is ridiculous.

SwaggieAggie wrote: ↑

August 28th, 2022, 4:59 pm

Honest question, how much winning would it take to get the stadium packed every week, regardless of opponent? Several 9-10 win seasons in a row? A special NY6 bowl season? Or will attendance always be a struggle no matter how much they could possibly win?

And to follow up on that, would beating Bama next week make Weber the following week a packed house? Even I’m not sure about that lol.

Boise sold out 1 game last year. I'm not sure there is anything USU could do to get the stadium packed every week.

There were 20 of us who made the 7 hour drive from Montana. We crammed into ShowMeAg's house for the weekend and enjoyed a great day at Romney. Tailgating was great. Visited with some bb players. Good weather.

I came to peace with the attendance issue in 2014 when we wrecked byu's perfect season in provo. My crew came down the following week for the Air Force game and Aggie nation still couldn't sell out Romney.

The official number was 19,553, or 77 percent of stadium capacity (according to ESPN).

As a youth growing up in Cache Valley in the 60's and 70's, I recall Ticket Office Manager Tom Moulton gave discounted tickets to every scout troop, service club, fraternal organization, anybody else to get as near to a full house for the home opener as he could. A big house for the first game means follow on attendance to coming contests. I have worked with our ticket office on many occasions over the last 30 years and I am always amazed at the ho-hum attitude about MARKETING tickets, not just selling them. These folks seem to have no idea about selling the sizzle of buying a football or basketball ticket. Its just, "here they are, come and get 'em."

There is too much competition for the entertainment dollar these days. For those of us who are loyal Aggies, there is no doubt that we'll do everything we can to attend. But many who follow the Aggies these days are fickle, casual fans at best. There just isn't the zeal to support the local team like their once was.

SwaggieAggie wrote: ↑

August 28th, 2022, 4:59 pm

Honest question, how much winning would it take to get the stadium packed every week, regardless of opponent? Several 9-10 win seasons in a row? A special NY6 bowl season? Or will attendance always be a struggle no matter how much they could possibly win?

And to follow up on that, would beating Bama next week make Weber the following week a packed house? Even I’m not sure about that lol.

USU has the second highest winning percentage in Mountain West play since joining in the conference in 2013 (.571), which is better than both Fresno State (.561) and San Diego State (.527), tied with Air Force and behind only Boise State (.770). Since 2013 we have had jst two stinker seasons, 2020's Covid enhanced 1-5 and then Matt Wells oy vey 3-9 in 2016. Other than that the Aggies have been .500 or better every year, with three seasons of 10 or more wins.

If Aggie fans can't like that, I don't know what they will ever like.

AggiesForever wrote: ↑

August 28th, 2022, 9:18 pm

The official number was 19,553, or 77 percent of stadium capacity (according to ESPN).

As a youth growing up in Cache Valley in the 60's and 70's, I recall Ticket Office Manager Tom Moulton gave discounted tickets to every scout troop, service club, fraternal organization, anybody else to get as near to a full house for the home opener as he could. A big house for the first game means follow on attendance to coming contests. I have worked with our ticket office on many occasions over the last 30 years and I am always amazed at the ho-hum attitude about MARKETING tickets, not just selling them. These folks seem to have no idea about selling the sizzle of buying a football or basketball ticket. Its just, "here they are, come and get 'em."

There is too much competition for the entertainment dollar these days. For those of us who are loyal Aggies, there is no doubt that we'll do everything we can to attend. But many who follow the Aggies these days are fickle, casual fans at best. There just isn't the zeal to support the local team like their once was.

This is the approach to the entire university. It is crazy to me. They should be going out to every business in Logan and trying give a few tickets to the owner and hang a flag up. Go to every school and offer tickets to the school to give out for prizes or special events. The gymnastics program should be working with every single gymnastics group in the valley. You go to Boise and the entire treasure valley is brain washed to like boise. You can't go into store there without seeing something about bsu.

MWCFAN12 wrote: ↑

August 28th, 2022, 9:32 pm

AggiesForever wrote: ↑

August 28th, 2022, 9:18 pm

The official number was 19,553, or 77 percent of stadium capacity (according to ESPN).

As a youth growing up in Cache Valley in the 60's and 70's, I recall Ticket Office Manager Tom Moulton gave discounted tickets to every scout troop, service club, fraternal organization, anybody else to get as near to a full house for the home opener as he could. A big house for the first game means follow on attendance to coming contests. I have worked with our ticket office on many occasions over the last 30 years and I am always amazed at the ho-hum attitude about MARKETING tickets, not just selling them. These folks seem to have no idea about selling the sizzle of buying a football or basketball ticket. Its just, "here they are, come and get 'em."

There is too much competition for the entertainment dollar these days. For those of us who are loyal Aggies, there is no doubt that we'll do everything we can to attend. But many who follow the Aggies these days are fickle, casual fans at best. There just isn't the zeal to support the local team like their once was.

This is the approach to the entire university. It is crazy to me. They should be going out to every business in Logan and trying give a few tickets to the owner and hang a flag up. Go to every school and offer tickets to the school to give out for prizes or special events. The gymnastics program should be working with every single gymnastics group in the valley. You go to Boise and the entire treasure valley is brain washed to like boise. You can't go into store there without seeing something about bsu.

This has less to do with the University and more to do with Cache Valleyers imho.

SwaggieAggie wrote: ↑

August 28th, 2022, 4:59 pm

Honest question, how much winning would it take to get the stadium packed every week, regardless of opponent? Several 9-10 win seasons in a row? A special NY6 bowl season? Or will attendance always be a struggle no matter how much they could possibly win?

And to follow up on that, would beating Bama next week make Weber the following week a packed house? Even I’m not sure about that lol.

BYU to go out of sports and Utah to get booted out of the p5 conferences.

Saturday's game was the first I went to since being a student nearly 20 years ago. Living on the other side of the country makes it hard to get back to games. Overall, I thought attendance was decent being a Week 0 game, especially for students. After the game we ran into my freshman son walking out of Maverik and he was all smiles, along with a decent sunburn and lost voice. Not a bad first USU football game for him and he will continue to go back for more.

Driving up from my brother's in Woods Cross, I saw nothing indicating it was a game day at USU. I had a similar thought as MCWFAN12 in that the athletic department should be approaching every business lining Main Street and giving them a few tickets for seats on the west side to each home game in exchange for hanging a gameday flag (even hanging the flag for away games). They can even give a few more tickets for the east side. Maybe include a drawing for tickets to the USU suite for the last game of the year if they hang the flag for every game.

Even easier would be hanging gameday flags on USU properties throughout the state. The botanical center along I-15 would be a great place. Same with the Brigham City campus and along the highway coming in from Sardine Canyon with the Ag properties.

If no one is buying the tickets, find ways to give them away. The entire point should be to get people to the games. Having someone show up with a free ticket is way more productive than going unsold and unused. Run promotions with local schools and groups to get those otherwise unused tickets committed.

With how unsettled conference alignment is, USU should be doing everything it can to promote games and attendance to show a positive trend. Even marginal improvements in attendance and viewership can go a long way in improving USU's chances of not being left without a conference in the off chance everything blows up.