Superdome Several Thousand Short Of Capacity For Sugar Bowl Game

Michigan’s 23-20 OT win over Virginia Tech in the Allstate Sugar Bowl last night drew an announced attendance of 64,512, “nearly 12,000 short of capacity” at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Virginia Tech was selected in part “because of how well its fan base travels to bowl games, but there were large swaths of empty seats in Superdome’s upper deck” (WASHINGTON POST, 1/4). ESPN’s Chris Fowler prior to kickoff said, “There’s some Virginia Tech faithful who have made it but it’s unusual, frankly, to see this many empty seats in a Sugar Bowl game” (“Bud Light BCS Pregame Show,” ESPN, 1/3).

Total attendance for the 29 bowl games prior to the Sugar Bowl is “nearly 2% lower this season than it was last season.” If the trend “holds for the remaining six games, the average bowl attendance for the season will fall below 51,000 for only the second time since 1979.” The '02-03 bowl season drew an average attendance of 50,575 (USA TODAY, 1/4).