Top 5 one dimensional college fan bases

[TrueOrange]

That and their stadium is In the bottom 3rd in capacity to begin with. If they're drawing 57k in a 90k seat stadium I'd say they don't care. But they're still at roughly 85% capacity.

I understand. It was just that at the same time - save in a plummeting economy or amidst a massive scandal - it doesn't make too much sense to see an almost 1.5 thousand person drop in average attendance for a school/team when they're winning more games...as just being off of the idea, say, of general fan support of the sport. (especially starting how they did)

They were putting up around a 59k average last year in a 2-win season (oddly enough about the same as Ole Miss in an 8-win season).




Although, it looks like their stadium's seating capacity was reduced by the renovations. The construction lowered the actual seating capacity from 67.9K to around 62K last year...so apparently they at least were hitting a better percentage of what they could (around 92%).

Oddly, though, their renovations are actually going to lower that stadium capacity down to 61,000 next season.

 

[ainge10heisman]

I disagree with UK. Yes, bball is and always will be #1 there but they show up bout as well as you could expext for football given the history of the program. They've made renovations/expansions to Commonwealth Stadium unlike programs like Duke and Vandy so the support is there financially as well.

I agree with this, UK fans always show up for games no matter how bad the team is.

 

[VolsSportsFan]

I totally expected Duke to be on the list. However, they won't be on there forever with the recent commitment to the football program. It's amazing the transformation that has taken place under Coach Cut. Not that you would probably know, but there is actually a massive renovation taking place at Wallace Wade stadium. Much needed in my opinion. It's going to be a 2 year renovation, costing around $100 Million. Duke football is finally starting to get the financial backing it needs to be competitive with other schools facilities. Since Coach Cut has come to Duke, they have added a small indoor facility and then a full 120 yard facility. The fans are showing up in greater numbers, just slowly.

I think it's going to take a good while before Duke fans show up. Even the last few seasons while Cut has been there, the stadium has been pretty empty for most games other than the UNC game. As well as he has done, he's going to have to basically do that for a decade straight to make a lasting impression.

 

[BowlBrother85]

They shouldn't be on the list. They bring minimum 40k to every bowl game they play in. As someone who actually lives in Lexington, I can tell you how popular football is here.

This couldn't possibly be true and even if it was, so what? They have only played in 11 bowl games since 1954. The largest attendance for any of those games was just over 68,000 with the attendance for their last bowl game in 2010 just 41,000. Would they be bringing that many more fans than their opponent? Unlikely.

 

[eskimovol]

Assuming UF can't get the o-line figured out I could see UK finishing above UF and Vandy. Pretty sure the UK vs UF game is at lexington this year and after the way the game went between them last year that stadium and team could be going all out against the gators. I'll def be watching to see what happens that week, especially since its only the 3rd game of the season. If the game was towards the end of the season I feel like UF may have most of their problems sorted out and UK wouldn't be as excited since they'd have more losses by then.

 

[Boston Vol]

This couldn't possibly be true and even if it was, so what? They have only played in 11 bowl games since 1954. The largest attendance for any of those games was just over 68,000 with the attendance for their last bowl game in 2010 just 41,000. Would they be bringing that many more fans than their opponent? Unlikely.

Actually it's quite feasible that they would outnumber opposing fans in great numbers. If you look at where the games were played and the opponents, it's easy to see why they would outdraw other fan bases in such large numbers. According to UK they brought 42k to the '99 Outback bowl, 38k to the '99 Music City, 41k to the '06 Music City, 40k to the '07 Music City, and 36k to the '09 Liberty Bowl. And the entire point of the article was to say that UK fans only care about basketball. Obviously a fanbase that only cares about basketball isn't bringing that many people to bowl games.

 

[VolsSportsFan]

UK definitely brought a ton of people to the 2 Music City Bowls they were in. I was downtown for both games and you would have thought the basketball team was playing at Bridgestone.

 

[VolsSportsFan]

This couldn't possibly be true and even if it was, so what? They have only played in 11 bowl games since 1954. The largest attendance for any of those games was just over 68,000 with the attendance for their last bowl game in 2010 just 41,000. Would they be bringing that many more fans than their opponent? Unlikely.

What do you mean "so what"? I fail to see how 40K fans for their bowl games doesn't mean anything when you consider how little of a history they have.

Duke, Vandy, Kansas, and Indiana sure as heck aren't bringing 40K to any games much less their bowl games.

 

[BowlBrother85]

What do you mean "so what"? I fail to see how 40K fans for their bowl games doesn't mean anything when you consider how little of a history they have.

Duke, Vandy, Kansas, and Indiana sure as heck aren't bringing 40K to any games much less their bowl games.

The official attendance for the BBVA Compass Bowl they played in January 2011 was 41,207...40,000 of them were not Kentucky fans. I can believe that Kentucky brought some fans to Nashville for the Music City Bowl but I do not believe it was 40,000...by so what, I meant that they have such little history that you just aren't talking about very many games. They have played in 11 Bowl games since 1953. That is not a large enough sample size to judge the passion of their fan base by.

 

[volger]

I think Kansas at number one is spot on. Most KU fans that I work with don't even acknowledge football.

Same with Ky.

 

[volfanbill]

The official attendance for the BBVA Compass Bowl they played in January 2011 was 41,207...40,000 of them were not Kentucky fans. I can believe that Kentucky brought some fans to Nashville for the Music City Bowl but I do not believe it was 40,000...by so what, I meant that they have such little history that you just aren't talking about very many games. They have played in 11 Bowl games since 1953. That is not a large enough sample size to judge the passion of their fan base by.

Pitt wears navy, not blue. Want to rephrase this post?

 

[VolsSportsFan]

The official attendance for the BBVA Compass Bowl they played in January 2011 was 41,207...40,000 of them were not Kentucky fans. I can believe that Kentucky brought some fans to Nashville for the Music City Bowl but I do not believe it was 40,000...by so what, I meant that they have such little history that you just aren't talking about very many games. They have played in 11 Bowl games since 1953. That is not a large enough sample size to judge the passion of their fan base by.

You can believe it if you want, but every Music City Bowl game they went to, they were by far the majority of the fans. And in the BBVA Compass Bowl, they played Pitt, who probably had 1,000 fans travel for that game and that's being generous.

Nobody is comparing them to the most passionate football fanbases, they are being compared to other fanbases on the basis of them being on this list. Compared to the fanbases of similar schools like Kansas and Duke, it's not even close. Kansas and Duke go to bowls about as rarely as UK does and they're lucky if they can get a few thousand to travel when they do make it. Duke played in the ACC Championship 2 years ago and they're lucky if 20K shows up to their games.

 

[BowlBrother85]

Really? That is one half of a very small stadium which is obviously nowhere close to being filled to capacity.

 

[volfanbill]

Really? That is one half of a very small stadium which is obviously nowhere close to being filled to capacity.

You said they didn't bring 1,000 fans. You still stand by that? Since when is a 71k stadium very small? Ignorance is bliss. But it sure makes you look foolish.

 

[BowlBrother85]

You said they didn't bring 1,000 fans. You still stand by that? Since when is a 71k stadium very small? Ignorance is bliss. But it sure makes you look foolish.

I said they didn't bring 40,000 fans and it doesn't look like they did but Tennessee is 45-5 against them since 1965 and have lost 1 game to them since 1985 so I really don't care. I'm not getting into an argument over how many fans they had at one of the 15 bowl games they have ever played in. That would be foolish.

 

[volfanbill]

The official attendance for the BBVA Compass Bowl they played in January 2011 was 41,207...40,000 of them were not Kentucky fans.

I can read. Can you?

 

[BowlBrother85]

I can read. Can you?

I may not have phrased that well... I was referring back to a previous poster who said that Kentucky brought at least 40K fans to their recent bowl games and thought it was clear what I meant... But by '40,000 of them were not Kentucky fans', I meant that I don't believe that Kentucky had 40,000 fans of the 41,207 people in attendance at the game.

 

[volfanbill]

I may not have phrased that well... I was referring back to a previous poster who said that Kentucky brought at least 40K fans to their recent bowl games and thought it was clear what I meant... But by '40,000 of them were not Kentucky fans', I meant that I don't believe that Kentucky had 40,000 fans of the 41,207 people in attendance at the game.

Fair enough. But Kentucky still gets a way better turnout than what's represented in the rest of that list.

 

[bowlinggreenvol]

I said they didn't bring 40,000 fans and it doesn't look like they did but Tennessee is 45-5 against them since 1965 and have lost 1 game to them since 1985 so I really don't care. I'm not getting into an argument over how many fans they had at one of the 15 bowl games they have ever played in. That would be foolish.

Yet you are. Meet irony.

 

[TrueOrange]

The official attendance for the BBVA Compass Bowl they played in January 2011 was 41,207...40,000 of them were not Kentucky fans. I can believe that Kentucky brought some fans to Nashville for the Music City Bowl but I do not believe it was 40,000...by so what, I meant that they have such little history that you just aren't talking about very many games. They have played in 11 Bowl games since 1953. That is not a large enough sample size to judge the passion of their fan base by.

Maybe, but here's their music city bowl game against Florida State (this was the one that upped the Music City Bowl attendance record to 68,661):

(another image attached if one wants to make it larger)

 

[VolsSportsFan]

I said they didn't bring 40,000 fans and it doesn't look like they did but Tennessee is 45-5 against them since 1965 and have lost 1 game to them since 1985 so I really don't care. I'm not getting into an argument over how many fans they had at one of the 15 bowl games they have ever played in. That would be foolish.

Um yeah you are, and on top of that you're straw-manning all over the place. Their record against UT has nothing to do with the argument at all nor does how many bowl games they've been to. I've already explained what the argument is but you seem to have some problems grasping the concept; that or you're just wanting to argue.

 

[BornonRockyTop]

If you've ever met a Kansas basketball fan then you would definitely get it.

 

[Lawrence Wright]

Maybe, but here's their music city bowl game against Florida State (this was the one that upped the Music City Bowl attendance record to 68,661):

(another image attached if one wants to make it larger)

A few of my FSU co-workers attended that Music City Bowl, and joked that someone must have told the UK fans they were playing FSU in hoops instead of football.

UK easily had 40K in the house that day.

 

[GoDucks349]

I agree with the others though and would use those numbers as evidence.

They've got 57,000 per game attendance for football. That's more than the seating capacity at Oregon.

Is it big time? No. But, it's not pathetic. Not by a long shot

Yes, Oregon has a relatively small stadium, however, average attendance runs 106% of capacity. Still not large by comparison to those large SEC and Big-10 stadiums, but I'd rather have it running over capacity than have empty seats around the stadium.