
The announced crowd at Saturday's Jacksonville State-Georgia State game in Atlanta's Georgia Dome was 15,425, but from photos provided by Wiz correspondent Greg Laughlin, that number might be a stretch.
This is Georgia State's first season as a member of Division I-A and the Bulldogs are having a rough go of it. They lost in overtime Saturday, 32-26, and stand 0-4.
But back to the attendance. Comments made on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's recap of the game suggest that number was inflated. Here's a couple of posts:
"I'm 130 miles from Da Dome and watched on ESPN3. According to the ESPN website attendance was 15,425.
"From what I could see, about 10,000 of those people were disguised as empty seats.
"Anyone who's ever worked on a political campaign knows you always rent a hall that's too small. Your candidate looks better if the crowd is too big for the place you have your rally. Better to have people trying to get in and find a seat in your small venue than have a large one that's only 1/3 full.
"Is there a stadium that holds between around 20,000 you could play in, or is the prestige of playing in an NFL stadium too much to give up?"
—Peachstealth
"I count 69 students out of a school of 32,000 in the student section right now. That would be .002% of enrollment."
—Passion of the Panther
More evidence after the jump.