The Univ. of South Carolina football team's 7-6 season last year "hasn’t dampened enthusiasm" for '15, as the school is "on pace to at least match the approximately 54,000 season tickets sold last year," according to David Cloninger of the Columbia STATE. South Carolina AD Ray Tanner said, "We’re practically at the same place now as we were this time last year in season-ticket sales." He and Assistant AD/Ticket Operations Lance Grantham said that as the first phase of season-ticket ordering has completed, the school has "sold over 50,000 tickets." Throughout the summer and the next phase -- seat selection -- they expect the school to "match the mark" of '14. Cloninger notes season-ticket capacity at Williams-Brice Stadium "is 55,000," and tickets have "remained the same price" since before the '13 season (Columbia STATE, 5/15).
ATTENTION TO ATTENDANCE: The FLORIDA TIMES-UNION notes the SEC and Big 10 "continue to lead the way in college football attendance, which fell" in '14 among the NCAA’s larger schools. Five of the 10 attendance leaders "were SEC schools and four were from the Big 10." Texas (eighth) was the "only school from outside those two conferences in the top 10." Average attendance at games in '14 for FBS schools "was 44,603, a drop" of 2.3%, or "more than 1,000 fans per game from the previous season" (FLORIDA TIMES-UNION, 5/15). ESPN.com's Darren Rovell noted football teams "had their worst average attendance this past season since the NCAA began compiling" FBS averages in '03. Michigan lost the attendance title for only the second time since '74 due to a "lackluster season combined with fan apathy." UM "had the sixth-biggest drop of any FBS school, as an average of 6,683 fewer fans showed up to games last season versus the previous year." Meanwhile, Texas A&M "saw its attendance rise by 17,998 fans per game, the most of any FBS school." That was thanks to its "expanded capacity of Kyle Field, which added more than 22,000 seats last season" (ESPN.com, 5/14).
