Why isn’t the stadium full?

[W16Ute]

Not sure if anyone else has mentioned this, or noticed. But looking across the stadium I see a lot of open seats. Look to my side and the best I can tell it looks the same. 

In the Weber game I thought, well it’s Weber and a Thursday. On the Wazzu game, I thought, well we haven’t been playing great football. On the Az St game I couldn’t believe that the seats weren’t packed. Again on Saturday, a lot of empty seats.

I know that they were looking hard for new season ticket renewals even within a month of the start of the season. I’m wondering now if those tickets just never got sold. I know that the price of tickets is ever increasing and some of my family who have been going for 35 years now without missing a season, are starting to consider giving up their tickets. 

They haven’t announced attendance at all that I’ve seen this year. Did our streak of sell outs come to an end? Weird that we expand the stadium finally and attendance drops. Mostly, I’m just sad to see empty seats. 

Maybe people are just preferring to watch it on TV. I can understand that to an extent, but I moved back to Utah with main motivation to go to Utah games (which is likely pathologic if I’m being honest). Maybe it’s still a COVID concern. Peoples reasons are their own. Just hoping to see those seats completely full again someday soon. 

[dystopiamembrane]

Fair weatherers, I fear.

[Utegibby13]

I have been absolutely DYING to go to a game this year. Military life makes that a bit harder to navigate, with requesting leave and whatnot. Also, had some car problems prevent us from making them. Its been.a rough few years for the utegibby home. Im sad to hear that seats are empty. Go Utes!!!

[HCHooligan]

Last Saturday’s game set the attendance record: “The press box PA announcer said the official attendance for Saturday’s game was 51,922, a new record for Utah at Rice-Eccles Stadium. The capacity listed online for the stadium is 45,807. UCLA still trails 28-10.”

[MauchDawgUte]

I would imagine it is a combination of many things…late starts, Halloween, covid fears etc. I have been disappointed in the muss attendance. I remember when a muss ticket was hard to come by and now the top is mostly empty.

[RedRocks]

I think the top of the MUSS often looks empty because the students tend to gravitate downwards and pack together. Maybe I am wrong.

[Utesbyfive]

Yeah, it has been a much discussed phenomena way back to the pre-Ute Hub, utefans days.

[Xanthis]

I am pretty sure the MUSS is full. They just pack together. 

[Sweetness]

I don’t understand why we do this. We also are reporting 100% attendance in our public statistics. Maybe all the tickets are being sold but having attended a couple games this year and based on what it looks like on TV, we can’t be more than 70-80%, which would put us in the low-mid 40s.

[Tony (admin)]

Yeah it’s full in terms of butts and seats. But the Muss moves down closer. 

[Ghost of the HEB]

You make it sound like the stadium was half full. Sure, every seat in the upper sections and corners weren’t packed full, but the stadium felt very full vs ASU and UCLA. The muss was very full by 2nd Q of UCLA. Then some students clearly left at half time with score being 28-10 and there being Halloween night shenanigans to take part in.

Weber was a hard day+time+hurricane hit the stadium during the 1st Q. Wazzu was hotter than hell from kick to finish — tons of people either left early or hid out in the concourses most of the game. I’ve been pleased with the crowds and energy and overall feel of the stadium being full vs ASU and UCLA. The players have, too.

looks pretty full tbh

[W16Ute]

I certainly didn’t mean it felt empty, just that I’m noticing more empty seats than in years past. The energy was good, but with full capacity attendance not just sold then I think that it could have been even louder. 

[Ute Dub]

I think some people were trick or treating Saturday night with their kids, who they for some reason love more than Utah football. 

[uteinzoobcounty]

I had tickets, but my wife was 9 months pregnant she was due Monday. Ending up going into labor on the second series.  So that’s why I couldn’t go lol

[W16Ute]

Congrats. 

[Tony (admin)]

That’s no excuse…. My dad was at a Utah football game when I was born. They called his name over the PA and told him to go to the hospital! Utes won that day. Beat Wyoming 42-3.

[AllInUteFan]

I know a few older boosters who don’t typically go to late /bad weather but haven’t given their seats away because they have no idea how to do it with the online tickets. Likely small, but still a contributing factor.

[PhiladelphiaUte]

Utah’s streak of sold out games had NOT ended.  I believe the streak is now up to 72 consecutive sell-outs.  

And for what it’s worth, not only had Utah sold out every single Home game dating back to 2010, we’d averaged OVER 100% capacity every year.  Our current Home attendance is 51,660, or over 100.4% capacity.

Fans worried about Utah’s attendance can stop wringing their hands.  We have the league’s best attendance in terms of percentage of capacity, and the only one at-or-over 100%.  

They also need to understand that this isn’t the Oscars.  There are no “seat fillers” when somebody gets up to…

1. Go to the restroom

2. Hit the concession stands

3. Crowd down lower to the field

4. Leave their seat during Halftime

And finally, they need to be aware that all those pictures the zoobs take of our “poor attendance”, are almost always taken before the opening kickoff, and NEVER shown after the first 5-min of the 1st-Qtr’s game clock ticked off.  If folks paid close enough attention, they’ll often notice that fans in the stands aren’t the only thing missing from those exaggerated zoob pics.  They’ll also notice that the teams aren’t even on the sidelines either, as they’re still in the locker rooms, and hadn’t even taken the field to stretch yet.

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