OT: Maryland attendance woes
- Thread starter rutger80
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For as bad as we've looked, we're 9th in average attendance. Granted a lot of that is visiting B1G fans, but still.
and ppl thought our attendance was bad...sheesh.
Terps have been janky a long time
You can read the same articles from 15 years ago
Maryland is a communter school where students can spend lots of hours driving - come Saturday they probably cant be bothered.
2012:
"It's no secret that Maryland is in dire financial shape, but the school's change in circumstance has been sudden. Years of untenable financial practices, lukewarm fundraising and disappointing performances in football and men's basketball have hampered the athletic department. Tack on lackluster graduation rates, an exhausted donor base and persistent turbulence within the department, and Maryland now possesses one of the most dysfunctional athletic departments in the country."
www.si.com
You can read the same articles from 15 years ago
Maryland is a communter school where students can spend lots of hours driving - come Saturday they probably cant be bothered.
2012:
"It's no secret that Maryland is in dire financial shape, but the school's change in circumstance has been sudden. Years of untenable financial practices, lukewarm fundraising and disappointing performances in football and men's basketball have hampered the athletic department. Tack on lackluster graduation rates, an exhausted donor base and persistent turbulence within the department, and Maryland now possesses one of the most dysfunctional athletic departments in the country."
How Maryland went broke: Inside the athletic department's decline
In explaining why the Terrapins were leaving a conference they'd been affiliated with for 59 years, Loh said: 'Number one, by being members of the Big Ten
Maryland is also more of a basketball school than a football school.
Maryland has pretty good talent, probably mid level B1G. Their offense is talented, last week not withstanding. A little surprising they don’t draw better. I think if RU’s offense was that good, the avg attend would be a legit 40K plus. People like to be entertained. I have high hopes for a GW led offense in the future. Think Sat could be a little rough though.
We don't give attendance numbers just what was "sold"
Obviously you have not seen their basketball attendance this year.
I really like the family 4 packs at a major discount!!
It is great on many levels.
When the Trenton Titans/Devils were still around they offered this. So did the SI Yankees.
But...guess what? Both are gone now. 🤷♂️
Is that true? Looking at Maryland's historical W-L record, other than the first 3 seasons under Friedgen, Maryland has had mostly losing records. Here are their years leading up to B1G Entry:
| 2005 | Ralph Friedgen | 5–6 | 3–5 | T–4th (Atlantic) | |||
| 2006 | Ralph Friedgen | 9–4 | 5–3 | T–2nd (Atlantic) | W Champs Sports | ||
| 2007 | Ralph Friedgen | 6–7 | 3–5 | T–5th (Atlantic) | L Emerald | ||
| 2008 | Ralph Friedgen | 8–5 | 4–4 | T–3rd (Atlantic) | W Humanitarian | ||
| 2009 | Ralph Friedgen | 2–10 | 1–7 | 6th (Atlantic) | |||
| 2010 | Ralph Friedgen | 9–4 | 5–3 | T–2nd (Atlantic) | W Military | 24 | 23 |
| Randy Edsall (Atlantic Coast Conference) (2011–2013) | |||||||
| 2011 | Randy Edsall | 2–10 | 1–7 | 6th (Atlantic) | |||
| 2012 | Randy Edsall | 4–8 | 2–6 | 5th (Atlantic) | |||
| 2013 | Randy Edsall | 7–6 | 3–5 | 5th (Atlantic) | L Military |
They were awful pre-Friedgen:
| 1987 | Joe Krivak | 4–7 | 3–3 | 5th | |||
| 1988 | Joe Krivak | 5–6 | 4–3 | T–4th | |||
| 1989 | Joe Krivak | 3–7–1 | 2–5 | 6th | |||
| 1990 | Joe Krivak | 6–5–1 | 4–3 | 4th | T Independence | ||
| 1991 | Joe Krivak | 2–9 | 2–5 | 6th | |||
| Mark Duffner (Atlantic Coast Conference) (1992–1996) | |||||||
| 1992 | Mark Duffner | 3–8 | 2–6 | 8th | |||
| 1993 | Mark Duffner | 2–9 | 2–6 | T–7th | |||
| 1994 | Mark Duffner | 4–7 | 2–6 | 7th | |||
| 1995 | Mark Duffner | 6–5 | 4–4 | T–5th | |||
| 1996 | Mark Duffner | 5–6 | 3–5 | T–6th | |||
| Ron Vanderlinden (Atlantic Coast Conference) (1997–2000) | |||||||
| 1997 | Ron Vanderlinden | 2–9 | 1–7 | 8th | |||
| 1998 | Ron Vanderlinden | 3–8 | 1–7 | T–8th | |||
| 1999 | Ron Vanderlinden | 5–6 | 2–6 | T–8th | |||
| 2000 | Ron Vanderlinden | 5–6 | 3–5 | T–6th |
Don't really think this is the case with the decent amount of on-campus housing they have. If you meant suitcase school as the term more accurately describes what Rutgers had been for a long time and still may be to some degree, then it may be more of that than perhaps Rutgers is these days though I wouldn't be too sure of that being the case either. Enough students stick around College Park on the weekends for their men's hoops games.
I think a sizable portion of the potential student fanbase is NFL leaning (similar to Rutgers in that respect) and if the Terps aren't winning, the demand from that cohort becomes diminished.
Their basketball game a few days ago looked like an RU football game attendance during the Ash era. Hundreds in the crowd, maybe
Interesting that this article was given Actual attendance figures (turnstile attendance) from Maryland.
The Announced attendance figures (tickets distributed) means nothing and is often 10k more than actual attendance.
RU is playing the same game as MD with attendance. RU is fortunate to have many alumni from conference opponents within easy travel distance to SHI who will buy tix.
RU at MD next Saturday will look like a ghost town, like a Temple home game.
The Announced attendance figures (tickets distributed) means nothing and is often 10k more than actual attendance.
RU is playing the same game as MD with attendance. RU is fortunate to have many alumni from conference opponents within easy travel distance to SHI who will buy tix.
RU at MD next Saturday will look like a ghost town, like a Temple home game.
I think you would find that all Maryland sports sank this way for about a decade after the Len Bias death. That incident caused seismic changes in the institution, on both the academic and athletic side. For football, after Bobby Ross left, things did indeed get bleak.
FYI, I was friends with Joe Krivak's kids, who were from Bowie, as am I...
As we know this issue is not unique to Maryland. Yes winning helps but I think it is more challenging than ever to get people to attend live sporting events on a regular basis. I would love to see the demographics of those who attend RU football games. I bet it skews old from an age perspective with very little from the under 30 crowd.
College football games are WAAAY too long. Gotta cut down on the kickoff to final whistle time.
Also perhaps the general competitiveness gap and loss of rivalries and regional matchups can also be a big factor.
Also perhaps the general competitiveness gap and loss of rivalries and regional matchups can also be a big factor.
It’s a basketball lacrosse school. Football is an afterthought. Which is perplexing they are better than us.
Further proof that Rutgers has the most loyal fanbase in the country.
That and cut the BS gimmicks in the stadium. What to improve attendance ? Stop the Train horn nonsense, open more concessions, lower the annoying sound levels in the stadium, etc. Of course winning more than One B1G Home game in the last 5 years { winning 1 out the last 25 home games} would help too…..
Well that's better than UVA! UVA is a basketball, lacrosse, swimming and baseball school first. The only football game they care about is when they play Virginia Tech.
Maryland has other good programs but its not a football school. But they are more of a football school than we are. At least by success.
Locksley has had a couple of strong recruiting classes. Another guy that does not bowl you over on game day but they have some talent for sure.
Football is not an afterthought at Maryland. There are tons of fans who care about it, and the school put a lot of money into it even before the B1G move. I can't explain the attendance issue, but I feel like they are just at the forefront of a national trend and don't necessarily know that it's a Maryland problem. People in Maryland love football. Washington area fans were the first to sell out an NFL stadium year after year, with people waiting on season ticket list for decades. They were doing that long before it was cool.
As for never winning until Ralph Friedgen -- he is third all-time in wins at Maryland, but I would not put him above Jim Tatum or Bobby Ross, who had fewer wins but didn't stay as long.
Jim Tatum built a post-war powerhouse that included undefeated teams and a national championship. They faded in the sixties. Maybe that would have changed had Joe Namath been admitted. He was in town ready to start classes, but in the end he was not accepted because of academic test scores, and ended up at Alabama. You can read about that in his autobiography.
Jerry Claiborne came to town in the seventies, and built the program back up.
They dominated the ACC, and were in the conversation for national championship in 1976-77 until they lost in the Cotton Bowl.
When Claiborne left, Bobby Ross was hired, and he too ran a high-level program that was top-ranked by one magazine in one of those years:
PSU Nut got the last laugh that year, when Penn State beat Maryland 20-18 just a few weeks after that magazine came out. But Bobby Ross was big-time. He was the one who insisted on expanding the stadium, which was overflowing for important games, leading to the upper deck that gets ridiculed so often now (and is usually empty).
It all changed after the tragic death of Len Bias ("Leonard" to Lefty Driesell), and not just for athletics. Everything was re-examined, and there was a de facto de-emphasis of sports. Driesell was run out of town the week before the 1986-87 season started. Ross, who was determined to win a national title (which he did at Georgia Tech a few years later), could see the writing on the wall, so he packed up and left. The nineties were quite bleak for Maryland football.
But until Bias, Maryland and Clemson ruled the ACC in football, and I'm pretty sure the Terps are still #3 in football titles (Florida State joined in 1991 or so, and won it nearly every year for twenty years). You all already know that Friedgen had some decent teams during his tenure.
So yeah, they will probably never get anywhere close to winning a conference title now that they are in the B1G. They were not as good as their hype in the years that they did receive national attention; any Penn State fan can tell you that. But it isn't true that nobody cares about football down there, and they do have some decent history of winning. Why nobody goes to games anymore is something I have no clue about. I grew up just a few miles from campus and went to tons of games in multiple sports (my favorite was wrestling). I guess it just isn't a thing anymore...
As for never winning until Ralph Friedgen -- he is third all-time in wins at Maryland, but I would not put him above Jim Tatum or Bobby Ross, who had fewer wins but didn't stay as long.
Jim Tatum built a post-war powerhouse that included undefeated teams and a national championship. They faded in the sixties. Maybe that would have changed had Joe Namath been admitted. He was in town ready to start classes, but in the end he was not accepted because of academic test scores, and ended up at Alabama. You can read about that in his autobiography.
Jerry Claiborne came to town in the seventies, and built the program back up.
They dominated the ACC, and were in the conversation for national championship in 1976-77 until they lost in the Cotton Bowl.
When Claiborne left, Bobby Ross was hired, and he too ran a high-level program that was top-ranked by one magazine in one of those years:
PSU Nut got the last laugh that year, when Penn State beat Maryland 20-18 just a few weeks after that magazine came out. But Bobby Ross was big-time. He was the one who insisted on expanding the stadium, which was overflowing for important games, leading to the upper deck that gets ridiculed so often now (and is usually empty).
It all changed after the tragic death of Len Bias ("Leonard" to Lefty Driesell), and not just for athletics. Everything was re-examined, and there was a de facto de-emphasis of sports. Driesell was run out of town the week before the 1986-87 season started. Ross, who was determined to win a national title (which he did at Georgia Tech a few years later), could see the writing on the wall, so he packed up and left. The nineties were quite bleak for Maryland football.
But until Bias, Maryland and Clemson ruled the ACC in football, and I'm pretty sure the Terps are still #3 in football titles (Florida State joined in 1991 or so, and won it nearly every year for twenty years). You all already know that Friedgen had some decent teams during his tenure.
So yeah, they will probably never get anywhere close to winning a conference title now that they are in the B1G. They were not as good as their hype in the years that they did receive national attention; any Penn State fan can tell you that. But it isn't true that nobody cares about football down there, and they do have some decent history of winning. Why nobody goes to games anymore is something I have no clue about. I grew up just a few miles from campus and went to tons of games in multiple sports (my favorite was wrestling). I guess it just isn't a thing anymore...
Maryland battled OSU and Michigan deep into the 4th quarter. RU got curb stomped by both. There's really nothing else to say
Yeah, these games are always wild and unpredictable. I expect a tight game. Maryland is not your choice for a rival, but in my opinion these two teams will always be linked and it really is a rivalry game.
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Not many. I think all college fans over 35 preferred the days where conferences were smaller, and regional, and they each had their own identity. For me, even though Maryland was the red-headed stepchild, I loved watching the ACC back in the day before expansion. But that ACC is long gone. The typical Maryland fan knows they are better off where they are now...
Ha ha, the other teams didn't think so. We were "Alaska" to them. Constantly derided as "Yankees" by their fans, which is their worst insult possible. Our teams were in the ACC basketball tournament finals down in Greensboro a zillion times, but all of a sudden they all became "anybody but Maryland" fans, and it became an away game. None of us can forget the 1980 ACC championship game where Duke's player nearly killed Buck Williams, who was about to win the game for the Terps, but the referees wouldn't call the foul in that environment.
But even with all that, I agree with you...
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