PhDeac
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From a USF blogger:
http://www.voodoofive.com/2014/1/14...tended-season-in-the-bcs-era-for-usf-football
We submitted a public records request to the Tampa Sports Authority for the actual attendance of every game USF Football has ever played, and here's what we found: USF is losing ground in terms of attendance and support, and 2013 saw the greatest padding of attendance numbers in team history.
The announced attendance by the TSA, which can be requested after each game, is the actual number of people that scanned a ticket (including students that used their ID back in the day) to enter either Tampa Stadium (1997) or Raymond James Stadium (1998-Present) to watch a USF Football game.
...
A few caveats:
1. Every school lies about attendance. There's fudging everywhere, but the amount of extreme fudging lately is almost comical.
2. We're not breaking any NCAA rules. According to the 2012-13 NCAA Statistics' Policies & Guidelines: "Attendance figures for official box scores and/or NCAA reports can be calculated by turnstile count, tickets sold or estimates." It's just that our "estimates" are getting less and less credible.
3. The writer of this story has helped to make up attendance numbers for games at multiple schools (USF and Delaware State). If at a USF Baseball game in 2004 one team had two runs on five hits and one error in the bottom of the eighth inning, the attendance very likely could be 251. The attendance could be someone's birthday, or a player's batting average if they were on a hot streak. The press box as a group made it up. Basically every school does this for Olympic sports with lousy attendance. But obviously the standard is usually much different for revenue sports.
...
* The five games with largest percentage difference between announced and actual attendance in history:
Davidson '97 (27,919 - 12,811, 45.89%)
Memphis '13 (30,831 - 14,795, 47.99%)
Charleston Southern '97 (25,361 - 12,226 48.21%)
Liberty '01 (21,056 - 10,288 48.86%)
SMU '13 (28,397 - 14,240 50.15%)
* The five games with the least percentage difference between announced and actual attendance in history:
Citadel '98 (32,598 - 31,452 96.48%)
Kentucky Wesleyan '97 (49,212 - 46,406 94.3%)
Louisville '03 (36,044 - 33,247 92.24%)
West Virginia '07 (67,012 - 61,664 92.02%)
C. Florida '05 (45,139 - 40,988 90.8%)
Notice that's five of the iconic games in USF history: the first-ever game at Raymond James Stadium, the first-ever game, the first C-USA game, the biggest game in team history at home after beating Auburn, and the first C. Florida game. So when things are going well, the spread between announced and actual is much smaller than usual.
http://www.voodoofive.com/2014/1/14...tended-season-in-the-bcs-era-for-usf-football
We submitted a public records request to the Tampa Sports Authority for the actual attendance of every game USF Football has ever played, and here's what we found: USF is losing ground in terms of attendance and support, and 2013 saw the greatest padding of attendance numbers in team history.
The announced attendance by the TSA, which can be requested after each game, is the actual number of people that scanned a ticket (including students that used their ID back in the day) to enter either Tampa Stadium (1997) or Raymond James Stadium (1998-Present) to watch a USF Football game.
...
A few caveats:
1. Every school lies about attendance. There's fudging everywhere, but the amount of extreme fudging lately is almost comical.
2. We're not breaking any NCAA rules. According to the 2012-13 NCAA Statistics' Policies & Guidelines: "Attendance figures for official box scores and/or NCAA reports can be calculated by turnstile count, tickets sold or estimates." It's just that our "estimates" are getting less and less credible.
3. The writer of this story has helped to make up attendance numbers for games at multiple schools (USF and Delaware State). If at a USF Baseball game in 2004 one team had two runs on five hits and one error in the bottom of the eighth inning, the attendance very likely could be 251. The attendance could be someone's birthday, or a player's batting average if they were on a hot streak. The press box as a group made it up. Basically every school does this for Olympic sports with lousy attendance. But obviously the standard is usually much different for revenue sports.
...
* The five games with largest percentage difference between announced and actual attendance in history:
Davidson '97 (27,919 - 12,811, 45.89%)
Memphis '13 (30,831 - 14,795, 47.99%)
Charleston Southern '97 (25,361 - 12,226 48.21%)
Liberty '01 (21,056 - 10,288 48.86%)
SMU '13 (28,397 - 14,240 50.15%)
* The five games with the least percentage difference between announced and actual attendance in history:
Citadel '98 (32,598 - 31,452 96.48%)
Kentucky Wesleyan '97 (49,212 - 46,406 94.3%)
Louisville '03 (36,044 - 33,247 92.24%)
West Virginia '07 (67,012 - 61,664 92.02%)
C. Florida '05 (45,139 - 40,988 90.8%)
Notice that's five of the iconic games in USF history: the first-ever game at Raymond James Stadium, the first-ever game, the first C-USA game, the biggest game in team history at home after beating Auburn, and the first C. Florida game. So when things are going well, the spread between announced and actual is much smaller than usual.
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