UCF's football team has "bounced back from last year's devastating 0-12 season" with a 6-5 record, but several donors and alumni are "concerned about declining attendance," according to Matt Grant of Orlando-based WESH-NBC. UCF's Bright House Networks Stadium holds 45,301 fans, but only 30,346 attended the last home game against Cincinnati on Nov. 12. Video taken heading into the third quarter "showed most of the upper bowl, and half the stadium, empty." Attendance figures provided by the team show that they "averaged 35,934 fans per home game." That is "up from last year when an average of 30,064 attended," but down from '14 and '13. In '13, an "average of 41,310 fans attended each home game." UCF AD Danny White said that the school will be "doing things 'differently' next year to bring more fans out but would not elaborate" (WESH.com, 11/19).
DESERTED DEN: In Reno, Chris Murray noted attendance for Nevada football has "been on the decline from the start of the season." Season-ticket sales were down 14% this year to 9,751, the "lowest figure since the pre-Colin Kaepernick days." Overall attendance is down 16.6% and "below 20,000 fans per game." With Nevada using future ticket sales to "pay off the loan taken out" for Mackay Stadium’s $11.5M renovation, it is "reasonable to ask if Nevada can afford to give [coach Brian] Polian another season if more declines in attendance are in the forecast" (RENO GAZETTE- JOURNAL, 11/20).
EMPTY NEST: In Ft. Lauderdale, Matthew DeFranks noted FAU finished its home schedule on Saturday night with a 42-24 loss to Old Dominion, "witnessed by the smallest crowd in FAU Stadium history." The announced attendance of 5,843 was the "fewest since the stadium opened" in '11. It capped a six-game home slate that "averaged 10,073 fans per game, the lowest mark in the facility's history." This season "featured the four smallest crowds in FAU Stadium's existence." This season's attendance came after FAU "averaged 17,707 fans last year, the highest mark in program history" (South Florida SUN-SENTINEL, 11/21).
