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Dayton and Cincinnati are basically the same area now anyway, but my point is that we're not exactly on a farm out in the panhandle. Manhattan, Kansas has like 50,000 residents and it's 2 hours from any city of any size and they average 3,000 more fans a game than we do.

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Even if the Texas A&M campus was located on the moon, the Fall 2015 University enrollment for the College Station campus was 57,934 students. The undergraduate enrollment was 49,545 students.

http://dars.tamu.edu/Data-and-Reports/Student/files/EPFA15.aspx

A&M is a REALLY BIG campus with more students wandering around on it than most other campuses nation wide.

Now, compare A&M's average basketball attendance last season with a school like...oh...say Texas Tech. Which is for all practical purposes located on the moon.

Texas A&M
2015 Enrollment Size: 57,934
Good basketball team? Very Good, Top-25 ranked all season, SEC Co-Champ, NCAA Sweet Sixteen
Years Since Last NCAA tourney appearance: 5 years
Average Attendance: 8,955 (#50)

Texas Tech
2015 Enrollment Size: 35,893
Good basketball team? Decent, Finished 7th in Big 12, NCAA First Round
Years Since Last NCAA tourney appearance: 7 years
Average Attendance: 8,294 (#56)

Texas Tech from attendance numbers even when absolutely sucking has seemed to pull close or better average basketball attendance numbers than Texas A&M, even in seasons when A&M won a higher percentage of games, despite a smaller enrollment size.

My theory on that has been because Lubbock, TX is like living on the Moon

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I also think that interest in soccer specifically (which I assume you consider a "non traditional" sport) is way up for the younger generation and is the second most popular sport in America behind football by most metrics in the 18-30 age cohort. But I don't think that hurts the other sports necessarily. Sports overall is a relatively small part of the leisure/ entertainment world and it isn't zero sum. Increased interest in soccer doesn't necessarily hurt baseball or basketball any more than increased interest in Star Wars or Game of Thrones.

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I'd like to see the study you're referencing regarding interest in soccer among the 18-30 age cohort. I'm in that age group and the only people I know who actually legitimately follow soccer are people that played soccer in high school.

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http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21699484-more-and-more-americans-watching-people-kick-round-balls-kick-turn

http://sportspath.typepad.com/files/soccer-popularity-continues-to-climb.pdf

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I also think that interest in soccer specifically (which I assume you consider a "non traditional" sport) is way up for the younger generation and is the second most popular sport in America behind football by most metrics in the 18-30 age cohort. But I don't think that hurts the other sports necessarily. Sports overall is a relatively small part of the leisure/ entertainment world and it isn't zero sum. Increased interest in soccer doesn't necessarily hurt baseball or basketball any more than increased interest in Star Wars or Game of Thrones.

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I'd like to see the study you're referencing regarding interest in soccer among the 18-30 age cohort. I'm in that age group and the only people I know who actually legitimately follow soccer are people that played soccer in high school.

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http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21699484-more-and-more-americans-watching-people-kick-round-balls-kick-turn

http://sportspath.typepad.com/files/soccer-popularity-continues-to-climb.pdf

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The second article is age 12-24, not 18-30, unless I missed something, and I don't see a reference to the poll itself to see how it was conducted. The first article says the highest proportion of soccer fans are 18-30 compared to the other sports, but that doesn't equate to their being more soccer fans than mainstream American sports.

Maybe it is the case that popularity of watching soccer is growing among young people in the US, but it would be very surprising to me if it really has overtaken basketball. I'd like to see those numbers corrected for the general population shift to more hispanics. The Houston Dynamo game I went to last summer certainly seemed to be more of a reflection of that population shift than it did to be of a bunch of young people.

I'd probably put myself in that category even though I won't be in that age bracket much longer. Taking my favorite teams out of the mix, I'm way more likely to watch a random soccer match than a random NBA/MLB game and certainly more than an NHL game.

check out the average attendance for MLS games. The numbers continue to grow.

I'm a soccer fan, and it surprised me.

MLS Attendance numbers

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Dayton and Cincinnati are basically the same area now anyway, but my point is that we're not exactly on a farm out in the panhandle. Manhattan, Kansas has like 50,000 residents and it's 2 hours from any city of any size and they average 3,000 more fans a game than we do.

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Sure. We are neither exceptionally good or bad (after you account for certain factors including local population) when it comes to attendance. We compare ourselves unfavorably to Arkansas and Tennessee but Fayetteville Metro has 463,000, Knoxville Metro has 1 million, Tuscaloosa Metro is a bit bigger than BCS and significantly closer to Birmingham that BCS is to Houston, Columbia, SC Metro has 800,000, etc, etc.

But ultimately, I don't really think it is a problem. If we can get that up a bit to 9,000-10,000 it should in no way be an impediment to success.

I'm not sure how this flipped to an argument over the relative popularity of soccer by the way, but I agree that the popularity of "non traditional sports" (if that's what we're going with) doesn't impact the popularity of the traditional ones.

I think our attendance just is what it is. If we start staying good year over year, keep improving the atmosphere at Reed (DJ this year was a nice touch), and start to develop some rivalries in this league then it will improve.

Until then, everyone just has to keep doing the best they can. Bring someone new from work, if you're a student bring along your friends, Reed Rowdies should do everything they can to spread the word viral-style on campus (chalk, signs, kidnapping students, whatever).

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I'd like to see those numbers corrected for the general population shift to more hispanics. The Houston Dynamo game I went to last summer certainly seemed to be more of a reflection of that population shift than it did to be of a bunch of young people.

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What difference does it make? Plus, the demographic shift is a big part of the same trend. 25% of children in the US now are Hispanic.

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I'm not sure how this flipped to an argument over the relative popularity of soccer by the way, but I agree that the popularity of "non traditional sports" (if that's what we're going with) doesn't impact the popularity of the traditional ones.

I think our attendance just is what it is. If we start staying good year over year, keep improving the atmosphere at Reed (DJ this year was a nice touch), and start to develop some rivalries in this league then it will improve.

Until then, everyone just has to keep doing the best they can. Bring someone new from work, if you're a student bring along your friends, Reed Rowdies should do everything they can to spread the word viral-style on campus (chalk, signs, kidnapping students, whatever).

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If I am being completely honest I kinda enjoy attendance the way it is now as a fan.

I like being able to get pretty decent season ticket seats for $100 each.

I thought we had a good environment at the big games and that was fun.

I also, frankly, enjoy the non conference games when I can get extra tickets for all of my kids and nephews on flashseats for $2 each and we have plenty of room in the upper deck for me to stretch out and the kids to have room to wiggle.

Maybe you have higher standards than me. I think section 206 is a great place to watch a basketball game.

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Maybe you have higher standards than me. I think section 206 is a great place to watch a basketball game.

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Sorry, should have just posted the picture without directing it toward you.

And UNC wants a new Dean Dome too. Amazing.

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2000 more per game and we jump to no. 36 or so. I feel a larger arena coming on.

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Not sure if serious

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Why is that? If what everyone says is true, that A&M students have to have a winner to attend now, and since there has been talk since Reed was built about needing a pure basketball stadium and not a special events center, and with the seating problems when the students do decide to come......

Give it 5 years of a program at this level with no reason for it to end and then chuckle.

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2 spots behind Duke

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Cameron has a smallish fixed size (9314). Sellouts for years.

I was being facetious

The big drop from BCG years was in student attendance, Student seats use to sell out for games with tu, Baylor and Tech (at least in Bobby knight years). The only game that draws a lot of students in SEC is Kentucky. High prices and being on TV every game has hurt non student attendance. Many fans dropped their season tickets (or moved from men's to women's season tickets) after the great depression due to high prices. Last year's team was exciting to watch and I expect season ticket sales and student attendance to rise this year. There has been a lot more Corps students at games in the past couple years.

The product on the floor matters and attendance lags improvement in quality on the floor and is sensitive to volatility in quality.

But this fall looks good for a better than rebuilding campaign.