ChicagoDuke
Well-known member
Let's just get this one out of the way....
I've seen lots of references to how pathetic JMU's attendance is, and thought it might be informative to give you some facts and theories about what's going on with JMU football Playoff attendance. This is not meant to give excuses....rather, just reasons why it is what it is. And trust me, we die-hards get frustrated this time of year.
First the facts: Bridgeforth stadium holds about 25K. We average ~22K during the regular season. That will always include two sellouts for Homecoming and Family weekend. Excluding those we average about 20K for a normal game. Maybe a little more in September when the weather is nice, and a little less in November for meaningless games against teams like Elon, Stonybrook, or Towson. We only had ~12K for our recent game vs. SELA.
So we can have a nice crowd all season long, but then it really diminishes in the Playoffs. So what's going on? This has roundly debated among the JMU faithful, and here are the most likely reasons....
First I'll address students: During the early games in the season + HC + Family, all 5000 student tickets will be used. But come playoff time, especially if it's the weekend before finals, a portion of those who might normally be inclined to attend are going to stay home to study. I know that might sound silly, but JMU kids study quite a bit (which is different than when I was there in the late 90's). I would expect 4000 students to show up on Friday night, but a lot of them will be late, and if the game is boring or if the weather is sub-optimal quite a few will leave early to get an early start to partying.
But the biggest issue are the Adults/Alumni. In order to understand what's going on here, you have to understand the make-up of our fanbase. When we're talking about JMU fans, almost always talking about an actual graduate of the university (or their significant other). We don't really have casual fans or local fans. I think that stems from the fact that we don't have Virginia in our name like UVA or VT. I'm sure you guys get some of that too.....incredibly passionate fans who root hard for Montana but never actually attended. Rather, they cheer for Montana simply because the Griz represent the great state of Montana. And that's fantastic! So while you've got 1 Million + Montanans (minus the degenerates who chose Montana State) to cheer you on and potentially fill up your stadium, we've only got our 100K alums to draw from. All things considered, I think we've just got a smaller fan base than schools like you, NDSU, etc.
Another point to keep in mind is geography. Very, very few of our fans and alums live anywhere near Harrisonburg. Our biggest concentrations of alumni live in DC, Richmond, or the Norfolk area, which are all 2-3 hours away (but with DC traffic, expect much longer!). So going to a game is kind of a full-day affair. That's quite doable when you have months of notice of dates and times for Saturday games, but it's a heck of a lot harder for a Friday night game announced 6 days earlier. All this is to say not everyone can just wrap up our work day and mosey on down to the game. I guess you could theoretically leave at the end of the workday and get to the stadium right at kick-off, but you've missed the best part, tailgating with your friends. At that point, might as well stay warm and cheer from the couch.
But I think this is the biggest reason: December is just a tough month for folks to drop everything and head to Harrisonburg for a football game. Almost everyone I know has a million obligations this time of year.....work parties, kids holiday concerts, NFL or NBA games, all of that kind of stuff. There's a lot of competition for folks time in December. Many JMU fans will admit that they just can't afford to block off Friday and Saturday for 3 straight weekends in early December to make sure they can attend the games. It sucks, but that's how it is.
So what can you expect on Friday? I think you'll see a late arriving crowd, finally filling in mid-first quarter. I think we'll probably hit 15K, maybe 16K if we're lucky. But those who do show up will be considerably louder than a sold out Homecoming Crowd. It's going to be a good atmosphere, even if it's only 65% capacity.
Sorry for the long post, and thanks for reading this far. Let's all hope for a good game, and regardless, NDSU goes down next week! Go Dukes!
I've seen lots of references to how pathetic JMU's attendance is, and thought it might be informative to give you some facts and theories about what's going on with JMU football Playoff attendance. This is not meant to give excuses....rather, just reasons why it is what it is. And trust me, we die-hards get frustrated this time of year.
First the facts: Bridgeforth stadium holds about 25K. We average ~22K during the regular season. That will always include two sellouts for Homecoming and Family weekend. Excluding those we average about 20K for a normal game. Maybe a little more in September when the weather is nice, and a little less in November for meaningless games against teams like Elon, Stonybrook, or Towson. We only had ~12K for our recent game vs. SELA.
So we can have a nice crowd all season long, but then it really diminishes in the Playoffs. So what's going on? This has roundly debated among the JMU faithful, and here are the most likely reasons....
First I'll address students: During the early games in the season + HC + Family, all 5000 student tickets will be used. But come playoff time, especially if it's the weekend before finals, a portion of those who might normally be inclined to attend are going to stay home to study. I know that might sound silly, but JMU kids study quite a bit (which is different than when I was there in the late 90's). I would expect 4000 students to show up on Friday night, but a lot of them will be late, and if the game is boring or if the weather is sub-optimal quite a few will leave early to get an early start to partying.
But the biggest issue are the Adults/Alumni. In order to understand what's going on here, you have to understand the make-up of our fanbase. When we're talking about JMU fans, almost always talking about an actual graduate of the university (or their significant other). We don't really have casual fans or local fans. I think that stems from the fact that we don't have Virginia in our name like UVA or VT. I'm sure you guys get some of that too.....incredibly passionate fans who root hard for Montana but never actually attended. Rather, they cheer for Montana simply because the Griz represent the great state of Montana. And that's fantastic! So while you've got 1 Million + Montanans (minus the degenerates who chose Montana State) to cheer you on and potentially fill up your stadium, we've only got our 100K alums to draw from. All things considered, I think we've just got a smaller fan base than schools like you, NDSU, etc.
Another point to keep in mind is geography. Very, very few of our fans and alums live anywhere near Harrisonburg. Our biggest concentrations of alumni live in DC, Richmond, or the Norfolk area, which are all 2-3 hours away (but with DC traffic, expect much longer!). So going to a game is kind of a full-day affair. That's quite doable when you have months of notice of dates and times for Saturday games, but it's a heck of a lot harder for a Friday night game announced 6 days earlier. All this is to say not everyone can just wrap up our work day and mosey on down to the game. I guess you could theoretically leave at the end of the workday and get to the stadium right at kick-off, but you've missed the best part, tailgating with your friends. At that point, might as well stay warm and cheer from the couch.
But I think this is the biggest reason: December is just a tough month for folks to drop everything and head to Harrisonburg for a football game. Almost everyone I know has a million obligations this time of year.....work parties, kids holiday concerts, NFL or NBA games, all of that kind of stuff. There's a lot of competition for folks time in December. Many JMU fans will admit that they just can't afford to block off Friday and Saturday for 3 straight weekends in early December to make sure they can attend the games. It sucks, but that's how it is.
So what can you expect on Friday? I think you'll see a late arriving crowd, finally filling in mid-first quarter. I think we'll probably hit 15K, maybe 16K if we're lucky. But those who do show up will be considerably louder than a sold out Homecoming Crowd. It's going to be a good atmosphere, even if it's only 65% capacity.
Sorry for the long post, and thanks for reading this far. Let's all hope for a good game, and regardless, NDSU goes down next week! Go Dukes!
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