Arizona State's football schedule this month is "daunting and exciting," with home games against USC, Oregon and Arizona, but it is still fair to wonder if that will be "enough to get ASU fans off their couches and into Sun Devil Stadium," according to Kent Somers of the ARIZONA REPUBLIC. In a project completed before the '18 season, more than $300M was "spent to renovate Sun Devil Stadium" while also reducing the seating capacity from 71,000 to about 55,000. But ASU has "yet to sell out a game even at the lower capacity." In 10 total home games, the school has "topped 50,000 just three times, all coming last season." Over the past five years, ASU's administration has "done its part to upgrade the program." A football complex was "built in the north end zone," and the stadium's seats "now have backs." Additionally, coach Herm Edwards was "hired to invigorate a dormant program." In the Phoenix metropolitan area where 4.7 million people reside, "getting 55,000 of them into a stadium for a big game doesn't seem an unreasonable expectation" (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 11/4).
GOIN' SOUTH: In Tucson, Greg Hansen wrote Saturday's announced attendance of 36,309 for Oregon State-Arizona was the "smallest homecoming crowd at Arizona Stadium" since '75, and the "second-smallest crowd in any UA game in Tucson" since '97. Hansen: "The old stadium was lifeless." Interest in Arizona football has "diminished so greatly" that the school has "drawn fewer than 40,000 fans in three of its last four games" (ARIZONA DAILY STAR, 11/3).
