Attendance ? Can someone who was there enlightened us.

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ruppertflywheel

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Tough too tell by watching on TV, but was there even 20,000 there? How many Gopher fans?
 

ruppertflywheel said:
Tough too tell by watching on TV, but was there even 20,000 there? How many Gopher fans?
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I posted pictures of the stands from nearly every angle in the stadium on the official thread, so you can judge from there (although take into consideration the band pictures were halftime when many left their seats).

The lower level Gopher section was fairly full, although you could easily find vacant seats in every section. Syracuse first level was much less full, maybe 60%. The lower level suites seemed to be occupied, but almost none of the upper level suites were used. The club level had more people inside the club than out in the seats, but was only 10% full. There were a few people up in the 600 level, although I have no clue why they didn't just move down to better seats.

There was a good group of students who rode the bus next to the band. They stayed somewhat rowdy, although a few of them were so drunk they probably didn't even know there was a football game going on. Never did find the Syracuse student section.
 

UOKUs5K.jpg
 


I would say 20k is about right. There were definitely more Gopher fans in attendance than last year. Gopher fans outnumbered Syracuse fans 2 to 1 easily. The Pride of Minnesota made the Syracuse band look and sound like a small town middle school band. They filled 4 of the 5 point of the star during the playing of Deep in the Heart of Texas.

image-388495098.jpg
 


Looking at the crowd it's a wonder that more people didn't sell their tickets for 75 cents.
 

per the STrib:

Small turnout

The announced paid attendance was 32,327, which included a slew of Houston Texans season-ticket holders who didn’t show. There were only a few thousand fans in the seats.

The previous smallest announced attendance for this bowl game was 50,386 for last year’s game between Minnesota and Texas Tech.

This year, the Gophers sold 3,375 tickets, well short of their 12,000-seat allotment but up from 3,163 last year. Minnesota fans greatly outnumbered Syracuse fans at the game.

http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/237774901.html?page=all&prepage=1&c=y#continue

Go Gophers!!
 

BleedGopher said:
per the STrib:

Small turnout

The announced paid attendance was 32,327, which included a slew of Houston Texans season-ticket holders who didn’t show. There were only a few thousand fans in the seats.

The previous smallest announced attendance for this bowl game was 50,386 for last year’s game between Minnesota and Texas Tech.

This year, the Gophers sold 3,375 tickets, well short of their 12,000-seat allotment but up from 3,163 last year. Minnesota fans greatly outnumbered Syracuse fans at the game.
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"A few thousand fans" sounds about right...

There are typically more in the MetroDome for the 5A/6A Minnesota state high school football championship games every November.
 






MplsGopherFan said:
Not that it matters, but to say there were only a "few" thousand fans there is not a fair representation. KARE11 had a very different perspective:
http://www.kare11.com/story/sports/college/minnesota/golden-gophers/2013/12/28/hunts-late-td-run-lifts-syracuse-over-minnesota/4232451/
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Yeah, I've thought the "few thousand" comments were a little off. It was a bad crowd, but even if the lower level was only a third of the way full, that has to be close to 10,000.
 




GopherJake said:
They should have more bowl games.
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I agree. I mean, why not have something akin to the "Last Place Bowl", where the only teams without any wins at all this season can get together and play, and we can find out who the worst team in all of Div 1A football truly is, because its killing me not knowing exactly who that team is!!!!
 

PartoPitinosPosse said:
I agree. I mean, why not have something akin to the "Last Place Bowl", where the only teams without any wins at all this season can get together and play, and we can find out who the worst team in all of Div 1A football truly is, because its killing me not knowing exactly who that team is!!!!
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I'd watch that! The loser has to pay the winning teams travel expenses!

In all seriousness, this isn't the only bowl game with horrible attendance. A lot of these minor bowls don't draw anyone - they're just programming for ESPN and other networks who know that a LOT of people will watch ANY football game if it's on.
 



Will there be a push for a 'Minnesota Bowl' once the new Vike stadium opens?
 




MplsGopherFan said:
Not that it matters, but to say there were only a "few" thousand fans there is not a fair representation. KARE11 had a very different perspective:
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KARE-11 can spin it any way they'd like - and I'm glad the Gophers were able to push a couple hundred more tickets than last year - but the crowd was still abysmal, and did nothing to help Minnesota's reputation for bringing fans to bowl games. I had several people text me during the game asking if the crowd really was a sparse as it looked on television. It was worse, because upon seeing the replay last night, I noticed ESPN rarely showed the upper deck, which was totally empty. I spent the first half in the 500 level at the 50-yard-line (just for a different perspective since I rarely see Gophers games from that angle) before moving down next to the band/student section for the second half.
 

Thought I'd share a comment on B1G bowl attendance.

Stuck in PHX for the Cards-49ers game for the weekend, I picked up some good seats for the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl with Michigan and Kansas State. I have to say I was blown away by the attendance. I don't know what it looked like on TV, and obviously not "full" but there were a lot more than ever expected.

With KSU just in Tempe last year for the Fiesta Bowl, I figured them for a MUCH lighter turnout. Michigan I just figured wouldn't show for such a lesser bowl. One thing to remember about this bowl tho, it's usually very well attended by ANY Midwest team because of the snowbirds in PHX.

There was definitely love in the air tho. Pretty sure I was on the brink of a handjob from the blonde housewife KSU fan sitting next to me who was having a tough time holding her booze. She spent the better portion of the first half with her head on my shoulder, in the middle of the back of the poor elderly KSU fan in front of her, and flag out leaning straight back into the laps of the fans behind her, along with a hand on my leg for the rest of the time. I felt bad for her hubby; here he is in PHX to see his favorite team in a big game and he spent a good portion of the game helping her to the bathroom. Poor bastard.

Anyway, I digress. Way better attendance than I ever expected on both sides and as much as I hate to say it, there never would have been as many Gopher fans there as there was for Big Blue. Too bad the team didn't show up for the game
 

I think practically the smaller bowls need to have at least one local team for attendance reasons. My son and I were at the game. Gopher fans were at least 2X more than Syracuse which in light of the fact we were there year is not bad.
 

i think more Gopher fans bought tickets on stub hub than through the the U where they could have spent much less. I paid 150.00 for two tickets and could have spent 20.00 for 50 yard line tickets.
it seemed that more Texan season ticket holders didnt show due to the 50 degree weather. they also didnt think the tow teams were high profile enough.
I thought the game was a good football game i didnt like the out come but it was exciting.,

too bad the team came out flat and the refs seemed to come out flat and the coaches were flat.

the Gopher fans caused several off sides penalties from Cuse so we represented well as a group
 

Yea the loss sucked, but the overall game was a blast. I was able to see a few friends that I tailgate with and another group of people my age (mid 20's) accepted me into their group at the game. But, I will definitely try to lock down a few of my friends for next years game because it's not quite the same traveling alone.
 

DoubleB said:
i think more Gopher fans bought tickets on stub hub than through the the U where they could have spent much less. I paid 150.00 for two tickets and could have spent 20.00 for 50 yard line tickets.
it seemed that more Texan season ticket holders didnt show due to the 50 degree weather. they also didnt think the tow teams were high profile enough.
I thought the game was a good football game i didnt like the out come but it was exciting.,

too bad the team came out flat and the refs seemed to come out flat and the coaches were flat.

the Gopher fans caused several off sides penalties from Cuse so we represented well as a group
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We traveled down to Houston and had a great time. We'd do it again. We felt that it was a good and enthusiastic showing by the Gopher fans. And it was interesting that Syracuse was giving away orange and blue T-shirts for free before the game started.

It seems like the only people complaining about poor attendance at the game are the folks who didn't go.
 

harley_gopher said:
It seems like the only people complaining about poor attendance at the game are the folks who didn't go.
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I agree, I sat near the students area on the corner and looking down the rows I was happy with the turonout. Guess you just had to be there!
 

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