Last night's UCF-Baylor Tostitos Fiesta Bowl drew a crowd of 65,172 at Univ. of Phoenix Stadium, the "smallest Fiesta Bowl turnout" since Texas-Penn State in '97. The attendance was "nearly 8,000 fans fewer than a sellout" (SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS, 1/2). The atmosphere at the game was "better than expected." There were "empty chunks of seating," but it was a "respectable crowd considering the lopsided predictions and the reality that one of the teams was coming from a warm-weather state on the other side of the country" (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 1/2).
Below are attendance figures for bowl games over the last three days, with 10 of the 14 games drawing smaller crowds on a year-over-year basis.
| BOWL |
DATE
|
MATCHUP |
ATTEN.
|
PREV. MATCHUP |
ATTEN.
|
| Rose Bowl |
1/1
|
Michigan State-Stanford |
95,173
|
Stanford-Wisconsin |
93,359
|
| Tostitos Fiesta |
1/1
|
UCF-Baylor |
65,172
|
Oregon-Kansas State |
70,242
|
| Chick-fil-A |
12/31
|
Texas A&M-Duke |
67,946
|
Clemson-LSU |
68,027
|
| Valero Alamo |
12/30
|
Oregon-Texas |
65,918
|
Texas-Oregon State |
65,277
|
| Capital One |
1/1
|
South Carolina-Wisconsin |
56,629
|
Georgia-Nebraska |
59,712
|
| Franklin American Mortgage Music City |
12/30
|
Ole Miss-Georgia Tech |
52,125
|
Vanderbilt-NC State |
55,801
|
| National University Holiday |
12/30
|
Texas Tech-Arizona State |
52,930
|
Baylor-UCLA |
55,507
|
| Outback |
1/1
|
LSU-Iowa |
51,296
|
South Carolina-Michigan |
54,527
|
| AutoZone Liberty |
12/31
|
Mississippi State-Rice |
57,846
|
Tulsa-Iowa State |
53,687
|
| TaxSlayer.com Gator |
1/1
|
Nebraska-Georgia |
60,712
|
Northwestern-Mississippi State |
48,612
|
| Heart of Dallas |
1/1
|
North Texas-UNLV |
38,380
|
Oklahoma State-Purdue |
48,313
|
| Hyundai Sun |
12/31
|
UCLA-Virginia Tech |
47,912
|
Georgia Tech-USC |
47,922
|
| AdvoCare V100 |
12/31
|
Arizona-Boston College |
36,917
|
Ohio-Louisiana Monroe |
41,853
|
| Bell Helicopter Armed Forces |
12/30
|
Navy-Middle Tennessee |
39,246
|
Rice-Air Force |
40,754
|
