How large a casual fanbase do you need to fill an 80k stadium?

[RUSK97]

Consistently, game in, game out. I don't mean tickets distributed, I mean 80k bodies in a stadium. Suppose you have 20k season ticket holders who are steady and show up for every game. How many casual fans who show up for 1-3 games a season do you need in order to fill it?

And I know many variables come into play, but leave them out of the picture: weather, traffic, 'special' games.

 

[PaKnight]

Just doing the math, 210,000.

(60,000 x7) = 420,000 Tickets you need to sell for 7 home games in a season
420,000 / 2 = 210,000 fans who would attend 2 games a season

 

[RUSK97]

Originally posted by PaKnight:

Just doing the math, 210,000.

(60,000 x7) = 420,000 Tickets you need to sell for 7 home games in a season
420,000 / 2 = 210,000 fans who would attend 2 games a season

Hmmm...I know people will criticize my reasoning, but that's a whole lotta fans. That's 230,000 fans including the season ticket holders.

 

[RU85inFla]

You need a fanbase the size of FSU (82k) or UF (88k) and you need to win. Neither fill it in bad seasons - even against rivalries.

 

[FELONIOUSMONK]

Jelly! Where are you?

 

[RUfinal4]

considering Met Life Stadium is 80k seats you need a similar sized fan base to the Jets and Giants. But.. when they are not winning (like last year) seats become available.

 

[PaKnight]

Originally posted by RUSK97:

Originally posted by PaKnight:

Just doing the math, 210,000.

(60,000 x7) = 420,000 Tickets you need to sell for 7 home games in a season
420,000 / 2 = 210,000 fans who would attend 2 games a season

Hmmm...I know people will criticize my reasoning, but that's a whole lotta fans. That's 230,000 fans including the season ticket holders.

The thing is, you can't expect to sell out and 80,000 seat stadium with only 20k season tickets. If people are only want to go to two games, they are going to be PSU, UM, OSU, etc. You are not going to sell out OOC games, unless it is someone like ND, and not conference games like IU.

 

[knightfan7]

For Rutgers?

31,000 season tickets
10,000 students
2,500 average visitors
1,500 Rutgers give away

80,000-45,000 = 35,000 casual fans

Assuming most go to 1 and a few go to 2 games, for a 7 game home season I'm going with 35,000 x 6.25 = 218,750.

 

[mdk01]

Originally posted by knightfan7:

For Rutgers?

31,000 season tickets
10,000 students
2,500 average visitors
1,500 Rutgers give away

80,000-45,000 = 35,000 casual fans

Assuming most go to 1 and a few go to 2 games, for a 7 game home season I'm going with 35,000 x 6.25 = 218,750.

That's not bad as a generic, but I really think you need to differentiate between B1G games and games like Norfolk State and, to a lesser degree games like Washington State. I think B1G games will see a minimum of 5,000 average visitors and probably much higher ( in the 10-20k range) for games lie Penn State, Michigan, OSU and Maryland.

 

[sct1111]

Originally posted by RUfinal4:
considering Met Life Stadium is 80k seats you need a similar sized fan base to the Jets and Giants. But.. when they are not winning (like last year) seats become available.

That's not true. The Giants could fill a 100k+ seat stadium easily if they wanted to build one. They kept it around 80k and built a lot of luxury seating and jacked up the prices because demand is high. There is no point if building a 100k seat stadium for all that extra money if it's not going to generate extra revenue. There is a lot of research that goes into building stadiums for pro teams. They determined that an 80k seat stadium is optimum for generating profit.

 

[greenknight]

Being B1G...in a few years I really believe RU could fill 80K stadium the problem that would stop them is they want Giants & Jets and then some seat fees which will never allow them to fill 80K stadium. Based on the # of students attending RU should not have any problem doing so running through a couple of B1G cycles. Remember one of the most important things APPLICATIONS are op 12% for RU the same will happen on the sports end as well.

I really thing RU needs to have the stadium capacity up to at least 65K within 5 yrs. 10 yrs 75-80K They are going to need to strike when the iron is hot. 53K is AAC stadium and more or less a joke stadium for B1G

 

[Scarlet Shack]

Greenknight

If we win...it will happen on that schedule

Remember to go to 65k is an off season project...south upper deck, luxury boxes and repitching the north end zone

 

[RUBlackout]

What I am more curious about is the number of graduating students and how many actually buy Season tickets after they graduate. That would be a telling sign of how we organically grow our fanbase. I think the Students that still attend will continue to fill the student section because it is now customary to do so. To me, it is all about leaving that lasting impression and having them wanting to come back for more after graduating.

Relying on the casual fan outside of this will be very tough but the demand for games will be there for them, but I think the most of that growth may come from other fanbases over the next few years.

Also, the one dimension that isn't discussed is cost. It is one thing to have demand from people who want to go but if they are priced out of attending then that will be much tougher to determine.

 

[imbazza]

Greenknight do not call 53K stadium a B10 joke
Do not say that to Minnesota, Northwestern, of Indiana as we are already bigger then they are. This year OK vs Texas was empty in the cheap seats meaning the could not sell out the stadium on the biggest rival game.
I think some one has a male organ size problem here bigger/more is not better.
HERE is they real problem when you see an 80 K stadium half empty the physiological projection on a TV audience is way too negative better to pack the stadium we have and look overflowing with support then look like most of our OOC or 12 noon starts our corners are empty BAD PROJECTION to the TV audience.
Understand marketing and mass media. remember the Michigan and PoSU stadium shots much better then Norfolk state