San Diego State football this past season averaged 28,619 fans over seven home games according to turnstile figures, marking the school's "highest average attendance recorded in the 16 years" figures have been kept, according to Kirk Kenney of the SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE. That figure was a 12.5% increase from '16 and a 36.5% increase from '15. The gains come as SDSU has "won a school-record 32 games over the past three seasons." But while the "turnstile increase is significant," it is "substantially less" (about 27%) than the announced attendance at games. SDSU’s announced average this season was 39,347, which "reflects tickets sold, distributed to students and/or in trade for goods or services but not necessarily used." SDSU Associate AD/External Relations Steve Schnall said, "We report tickets out. It’s what are the tickets out without any indication of who’s going to show or not show for any reason. For us, internally (announced) is our actual number. Obviously, turnstile is a different way to look at it, but certainly what we’re doing we feel is an accurate representation of what we have for tickets out for a game." Kenney noted SDSU released details "two weeks ago for a new 35,000-seat stadium in Mission Valley, a size that falls in line with this year’s attendance." Home crowds for SDSU's games against UC Davis and Stanford were "virtually at that benchmark while the Boise State crowd exceeded it by nearly 4,000" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 12/13).
