By the end of next season

[Coug1990]

Moose? Seriously?

Biill Moose?

 

[MikeFingLeach]

My point is that fans are showing up again because they believe that we are going to win home games again. Leach deserves credit for crafting a program that is winning games and creating that feeling. The attendance in 2013 tells you that it isn't just about the coaching style alone because the stadium was 1/3rd empty despite the fact that we were playing for bowl eligibility in that final game in 2013. Knowing the psychology of fans is undoubtedly beyond the expertise of any of us.

I did find the attendance figures for the 1998 Cougs (3-8 finish) and found the following on wikipedia.

1998
Illinois - 31,568
Idaho - 36,770
Oregon - 37,196
USC - 31,178
ASU - 34,039
UW - 37,251

The stadium was bigger back then, but we averaged 34,667 fans for that season. The next season dropped dramatically with 5 out of 7 games not hitting the 30,000 mark. Ironically, the attendance in 1997 was worse than that in 1998 (under 200,000 total). Again, my point is that fans show up when they feel that they are going to win and that bump often lasts for one season after a big season. 2007-2013 tells us that it gets pretty bad if the suckitude extends very long. Late season games become a wasteland.

But I'm probably wrong.

Predicting poor draws at WSU home games is actually pretty easy.

Labor Day attendance usually sucks
Seattle game attendance usually sucks
Weekday game attendance always sucks
Pre-Thanksgiving game usually sucks
Back to back Nov games...the second game usually sucks.

 

[95coug]

There were more "official" sellouts or near sellouts in 2003 and 2004 than people realize.

According to the official site, following is the attendance for home games in 2002, 2003 & 2004:

2002 - (37,600 capacity)
Idaho - 30,110
Montana State - 23,713
USC - 36,861
ASU - 37,444
Oregon - 37,600
UW - 37,600

2003 - (35,117 capacity)
New Mexico - 32,334
Arizona - 34,923
OSU - 35,117 (this game was used in a lot of media pictures)
UCLA - 33,846
ASU - 30,43

2004 - (35,117 capacity)
Idaho - 34,858
Oregon - 35,117
Stanford - 34,963
USC - 35,117
UW - 34,334

The fans obviously weren't buying into early blowout games against Idaho or MSU in 2002 but the momentum built quickly as the year went along. The loss to USC in 2003 apparently knocked some of the bandwagon fans off the bus and the back to back games in Pullman with UCLA and ASU probably didn't help. It will be interesting to see how many people show up for Colorado on 11/21 for a late season comparison. 2003 had great official attendance numbers overall. The fact that WSU was not bowl eligible at the time of the Apple Cup probably had an impact on that number.

Recall that the '02 Montana state game was the 3rd lackluster home opponent (Nevada and Idaho), and followed the loss at Ohio state.

The '03 UCLA/ASU games were the dreaded back to back November set, and Kegel was on the bench for ASU. UCLA followed a poor showing at SC, which still leaves a bad taste because of the poor officiating.

 

[Coug95man2]

Recall that the '02 Montana state game was the 3rd lackluster home opponent (Nevada and Idaho), and followed the loss at Ohio state.

The '03 UCLA/ASU games were the dreaded back to back November set, and Kegel was on the bench for ASU. UCLA followed a poor showing at SC, which still leaves a bad taste because of the poor officiating.

Your memory is amazing, man. I vaguely remember what I did yesterday...

 

[How_did_this_happen?]

Your memory is amazing, man. I vaguely remember what I did yesterday...

Reminds my of Ed. He can rattle off the the gory details of our 7-11 conference season under Tony Bennett. What a disaster!

 

[95coug]

Your memory is amazing, man. I vaguely remember what I did yesterday...

I confess it's not 100% straight out of my head. I looked at the archives to jog the memory.

'02 Nevada was the first Seattle game, and it'll be my contention til the day I die that that game hurt attendance at Martin....especially in '02, when 62K went to Seattle, and the next two at home were uninteresting opponents.

By that point in '03, Kegel was a walking injury list. As I recall, they sat him down for ASU because he had injuries to all 4 limbs by then, and ASU was bad enough that we just needed Swogger to take care of the ball. He did it that week, not so much the next against UW. And USC was supposed to be a showdown - #3 v. #6 or something like that - and was a dogfight for the first half. Second half, we're in the red zone when USC clearly jumped offside and hit our center, but the refs called it a fumbled snap and gave SC the ball. After that, Kegel starting pressing too hard, turned it over a couple times, and what had been a tight game ended up being a blowout.

 

[Fab5Coug]

WSU is currently offering 2 free tickets to any student whose parents are coming to pick them up for break. Parents get in free if student sticks around.

Any conversation about expanding Martin Stadium should cease at that point.

 

[kayak15]

WSU is currently offering 2 free tickets to any student whose parents are coming to pick them up for break. Parents get in free if student sticks around.

Any conversation about expanding Martin Stadium should cease at that point.

This is a good idea. Won't bring in increased revenue but should put butts in some of those empty seats. Do you know if this was arranged previously and if it was advertised to the student/parent pairings or is this a result of a last minute decision by Moos? Can I assume that those students who already have tickets are able to get a parent in too?

Again, a good idea. Looks like we will have up to 10,000 unused seats during the Colorado game especially considering the dire weather forecast. Might as well pack the stadium as full as possible and increase the crowd energy. Could possibly increase future interest in Coug football among some of those who currently are non-attendees. I like it.