Home Opener Attendance Since 2000

Donate To GopherHole
Iceland12

Iceland12

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 12, 2008
Messages
24,584
Reaction score
2,326
Points
113
The numbers being talked about for the Oregon State game are pretty normal for Home Openers and certainly no reason for angst.

Date - Day of Week - Opponent - Announced Attendance

9/2/00 - Sat - UL Monroe - 40,183
9/8/01 -Sat - La-Lafayette - 35,089 #
8/31/02 -Sat - SW Texas ST. -32,209
8/30/03 - Sat - Tulsa - 36,623
9/4/04 - Sat - Toledo - 45,144
9/10/05 - Sat - Colorado St. - 40,221#
9/16/06 - Sat - Temple - 45,612 #
9/1/07 - Sat - Bowling Green - 49,253
8/30/08 - Sat - NIU - 44,029
9/12/09 - Sat - Air Force - 50,805 *
9/11/10 - Sat - USD - 49,544#
9/10/11 - Sat - NMS - 48,807#
9/8/12 - Sat - New Hampshire - 47,022#
8/29/13 -Thur - UNLV - 44,217
8/18/14 - Thur - Eastern Ill. - 44,314
9/3/15 - Thur - TCU - 54,147


# 2nd game of season.
* TCF Stadium Opener
 

When it comes to obsessing over attendance Gopher fans are number one in the nation
 


So this shows me that having football back on campus has increased attendance 5,000-10,000. When did they start the free tickets to the freshmen?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Thanks for compiling. Interesting to see. I didn't realize how bad some of those Dome openers were.

Go Gophers!!
 



Obviously the Fair and/or Vikings exhibitions and or Twins. Jeezus.
 

BleedGopher said:
Thanks for compiling. Interesting to see. I didn't realize how bad some of those Dome openers were.

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...

Those dome openers could be very brutal for many reasons. It was always much harder to go into that awful dome in the early half of the schedule when the outdoor weather was incredible. For me, unless it was raining heavily and cold , I'd take being at TCF or anywhere outdoors anytime. In fact I'd take TCF over the Metrodome anytime in any conditions.



The other issue with the Dome and early attendance was that the Mason teams were known to completely wipe out the milk can/ cup cake caliber teams we usually played, so the outcome was not considered in doubt by the ticket buying public that might show up for the Big Ten games, assuming Mason's teams did not lose the Big Ten games right out of the chute.

One of my problems with Brewster and Kill, was the their inability to destroy the weak NC teams, by huge margins, like the Mason teams almost always did.

About the only good thing that ever happened in the Dome was the 2002-2006 resurgence of the student section that grew to about 11,000, and blowing out all the bad teams by huge margins most of the time. Of course the 2003 Michigan (and Michigan State) games changed that all for the worse. Mason's big wins were mostly on the road or at mid-tier Bowl games, so short of the 2003 Wisconsin or 2006 Iowa win (Maturi had already torpedoed Mason), no good things ever occurred at home.
 

Iceland12 said:
The numbers being talked about for the Oregon State game are pretty normal for Home Openers and certainly no reason for angst.

Date - Day of Week - Opponent - Announced Attendance - Result

9/2/00 - Sat - UL Monroe - 40,183 - W 47-10
9/8/01 -Sat - La-Lafayette - 35,089 # - W 44-14
8/31/02 -Sat - SW Texas ST. -32,209 - W 42-0
8/30/03 - Sat - Tulsa - 36,623 - W 49-10
9/4/04 - Sat - Toledo - 45,144 - W 63-21
9/10/05 - Sat - Colorado St. - 40,221# - W 56-24
9/16/06 - Sat - Temple - 45,612 # - W 62-0
9/1/07 - Sat - Bowling Green - 49,253 - L 31-32 (OT)
8/30/08 - Sat - NIU - 44,029 - L 27-31
9/12/09 - Sat - Air Force - 50,805 * - W 20-13
9/11/10 - Sat - USD - 49,544# - L 38-41 (OUCH)
9/10/11 - Sat - NMS - 48,807# - L 21-28
8/8/12 - Sat - New Hampshire - 47,022# - W 44-7
8/29/13 -Thur - UNLV - 44,217 - W 51-23
8/18/14 - Thur - Eastern Ill. - 44,314 - W 42-20
9/3/15 - Thur - TCU - 54,147 - L 17-23


# 2nd game of season.
* TCF Stadium Opener
Click to expand...

I added the results in each game.
 



Wow, the trend in the offensive output post 2006 is quite notable. Under Mason, Minnesota averaged almost 50 points per game in every home opener. Tulsa, Toledo, and Col. St. were actually fairly solid teams with solid expectations in those years. Minnesota also pounded Houston, Baylor, Iowa State and others in those years in the NC schecdule.
 


oak_street1981 said:
One of my problems with Brewster and Kill, was the their inability to destroy the weak NC teams, by huge margins, like the Mason teams almost always did.
Click to expand...

I have no statistics to back this up, but it seems to me that big blowouts just don't happen nearly as often anymore in general. The gap in talent seems to have dwindled in recent years. Maybe I'm wrong.

I do agree to your point to some extent though. Would be nice to have wins early on that don't go down to the wire.
 

GophersInIowa said:
I have no statistics to back this up, but it seems to me that big blowouts just don't happen nearly as often anymore in general. The gap in talent seems to have dwindled in recent years. Maybe I'm wrong.

I do agree to your point to some extent though. Would be nice to have wins early on that don't go down to the wire.
Click to expand...

Agree with both of you. Mason loved running it up, Brewster couldn't and Kill/Limegrover were kings of "not showing anything" in the Non-Conference season.

Agree too that talent levels have been spread out some, particularly with players who would be 2nd or 3rd stringers on Top 20 teams searching for other schools where they could play. Not on the ridiculous level of Basketball, but seems much higher than before.

Would only add that many "Helmet Schools" started putting in reserves and backed-off on throwing deep earlier when "margin of victory" was eliminated from BCS consideration. Hard to believe that the Poll voters don't still take it into consideration, but you no longer here Coaches saying they "had to run it up" because of the polls.
 



Iceland12 said:
Agree with both of you. Mason loved running it up, Brewster couldn't and Kill/Limegrover were kings of "not showing anything" in the Non-Conference season.

Agree too that talent levels have been spread out some, particularly with players who would be 2nd or 3rd stringers on Top 20 teams searching for other schools where they could play. Not on the ridiculous level of Basketball, but seems much higher than before.

Would only add that many "Helmet Schools" started putting in reserves and backed-off on throwing deep earlier when "margin of victory" was eliminated from BCS consideration. Hard to believe that the Poll voters don't still take it into consideration, but you no longer here Coaches saying they "had to run it up" because of the polls.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I remember actually getting bored during a bunch of Non-con games where Mas ran up the score. Stat lines were awesome to look at though. Think there were a couple of those where we almost had three rushers over 100 yds.
 


I'm pretty sure the 2012 New Hampshire game was not played in early August.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom