Baseball attendance....

[AUgrad00 7]

On AuburnUndercover Philip Marshall wrote a column on I think Friday or Saturday inquiring how AU can have like only 2500 fans for the UT series. I know school is not in session but I wonder that myself. Ole Miss will have 10,000 a game for Auburn next week and Auburn cannot generate even half that. I do not really understand that.

Oh before I get bashed I live in Huntsville but went to the entire UT series.

[TitanTiger 20,499]

I went Friday night. I guess I didn't think it was bad attendance. The stadium seats 4000, and only 3200 of it is in the chairback seats. Friday was graduation and we're between semesters. I guess I just didn't see attendance in the 2600-3000 range as that bad all things considered. And I also disagree that the crowd was "closer to 2000" on Friday as PM said. It was sparse at the start, but kept filling in as the game went on. I think it was certainly at 2600 by midway through.

And I'll say this too: Ole Miss had 6800 at their last home game vs Arkansas. They were battling them for the SEC West lead. So I hardly think 10,000 at Ole Miss is a given. Not to mention, Ole Miss isn't coming off 6 straight years of missing the SEC tourney.

[TitanTiger 20,499]

I also did a little checking on some other teams. Florida is a top 5 team this year. In their last three series, they've had attendance ranging from 2800 (Arkansas) to 4300 (Georgia). Their stadium holds 5500.

Tennessee had won 9 of their last 10 coming into the series against Auburn this weekend. Their last two home game attendance figures: 1800 and 1100. Capacity: 3712

Alabama has had pretty good success the last several years and has a stadium that holds 6500+. They hovered right around 4000 in attendance their last two series against top teams Ole Miss and Florida. And you know the Ole Miss games had more than a few Rebels who made the short trip over to Tuscaloosa.

I think Auburn can and will do better in baseball attendance, but it will have to build. It's not going to just appear after this many years of mediocrity.

[TitanTiger 20,499]

One last point. Auburn is currently ranked #25 in the nation in baseball attendance for this season:

1. LSU - 10,661

2. Arkansas - 7455

3. Ole Miss - 6687

4. South Carolina - 6614

6. Miss. State - 6074

10. Alabama - 4103

15. Florida - 3284

22. Georgia - 2680

25. Auburn - 2433

29. Vandy - 2175

32. Kentucky - 1879

http://www.sportswriters.net/ncbwa/news/2010/100503attendance.pdf

I think given that Auburn has been a program in disarray since 2003, we're doing pretty well. And if we sustain success for back to back seasons, you'll see those figures go up.

[RunInRed 16,438]

LSU is case in point. They are having a sub-par year (they might not even make the SEC tourney) but they are #1 in attendance after having many years of success.