Despite an economy that continues to struggle, attendance to bowl games this past season held steady, according to numbers compiled by Jon Solomon of the Birmingham News.
Although 20 games had an increase in attendance, up from only 11 the previous season, the gains were offset by big drops for the Meineke (23,323), International (17,999), Little Caesars (11,088), Hawaii (10,837) and Cotton (10,247).
Attendance to the five BCS games rose by 4,152, but that gain can be attributed to a larger venue for the title game. The Rose Bowl packed in 16,438 more fans than the Orange Bowl when it played host to the title game the previous season.
The Orange and Sugar bowls combined for a decrease of 14,136. The Texas Bowl, featured Missouri and Navy, drew a bigger audience than either the Orange or Sugar.
Another winner was the Independence between Texas A&M and Georgia, which was played on a Monday afternoon in Shreveport. It outdrew the Outback, which featured Northwestern and Auburn on a rainy New Year's Day in Tampa.
Note that figures are from box scores and those numbers often reflect the number of tickets sold rather than actual fans who attended the event.
A look at attendance losers after the jump.
I find it impossible that the Orange Bowl actually lost people in the seats. I remember half the stadium being empty for the VT/Cincy game. Even at with the tickets sold, I still find it hard to believe there was that big of a drop. Did the stadium lose seats?
Posted by: formerlyanonymous | January 21, 2010 at 06:42 AM