Attendance Thoughts

The NCAA has released attendance figures for the 2009 college football season. From the NCAA report:

After three consecutive record-breaking seasons, college football attendance declined slightly for the first time in five years. A total of 48,284,673 fans attended games at all 630 NCAA schools during the 2009 season (including home games, neutral-site games and postseason contests), a drop of 554,330 from the record set in 2008.

So how did Ivy League teams do in home attendance last fall? Here are their averages from highest to lowest per the NCAA:

(3) Yale 21,245
(29) Harvard 10,701
(30) Penn 10,600
(43) Princeton 8,178
(50) Cornell 7,177
(63) Brown 6,034
(90) Dartmouth 4,103
(91) Columbia 4,027

Dartmouth's 2009 and future non-league opponent averages per the NCAA:

(47) Holy Cross 7,552
(48) New Hampshire 7,543
(84) Colgate 4,642
(108) Georgetown 2,511
(109) Butler 2,473
(113) Sacred Heart 1,839

Leading the nation at 24,417 was Montana, which should come as no surprise. In 118th – and last place – among the teams ranked by the NCAA over a full season: Duquesne with 1,274 per game.

For the full FCS attendance report, click here.

Those numbers got me thinking about the impact of attendance on budget, even at a small Ivy League school, in these financially challenging times.

Consider that Dartmouth football averaged 7,195 fans per home game in the undefeated 1996 season and 4,103 last fall. That's a difference of 15,461 fans between the two seasons.

Individual ticket prices this year were $10 per game for adults, $5 for kids. Season tickets were $35 for adults, $27 for Dartmouth employees and $15 for kids. You do the math.

The breakdown on who would have bought what is for others to figure out, and clearly there are more costs involved with higher attendance, but suffice it to say another 1996-type season – on the field and in the stands – would have made a difference in the bottom line.

And that got me thinking ...

Men's basketball is averaging 626 fans per home game this winter. Even in the 2003-04 season when the Big Green went 3-25 the attendance was 1,083 per game. That's a difference of 457 per game.

Basketball tickets this year are $8 reserved, $6 general admission, $3 for kids and $29 for season tickets. Again, how the ticket sales would break down is for someone else to work up, but no matter how you slice it, a difference of 457 fans per game would work out to an extra 6,855 ticket buyers this winter.

Now compare this year on the hardwood to 1988-89, when Dartmouth went 17-9 overall and 10-4 in the Ivy League. That winter the Big Green sold out (2,100) nine games and averaged 1,831 fans.

If Dartmouth matched the 1988-89 average attendance this year it would bring an additional 15,665 people into Leede Arena. Multiply that over the average ticket price, and it's a significant amount of money.

No, this isn't Penn State or Ohio State where football and basketball can cover the cost of running an athletic department. But clearly the impact of success in the football, men's basketball and ice hockey programs (whose statistics don't include attendance information or I would have broken that sport down as well) on the bottom line is of some importance.

Speaking of attendance, add Princeton to the list of Ivy League football teams that will have six home games next fall. schedule link (Should have mentioned this earlier: Montana's 24,417 average attendance was for nine home games, counting the playoffs.)

A western Pennsylvania quarterback is headed to the University of New Hampshire after attracting recruiting interest from Dartmouth, Princeton and Penn. link

Spring football has kicked off. In San Marcos, Texas, at least, where the Bobcats began drills on Monday. link

If you are watching the Olympic four-man bobsled, keep your eye out for former Cornell safety Jamie Moriarty '03, who is the subject of this story. The onetime All-Ivy choice is writing a blog about his Olympic experience here.

From a US News & World Report story:

What sets Dartmouth apart? Skiing. It's still safe to call Dartmouth's ski team a pipeline of Olympic talent. The 100-year-old program, the first of its kind in collegiate athletics, has sent—by its own count—97 skiers to the Winter Games since the inception of the Winter Olympics. It makes sense: Dartmouth had five All-American skiers last year alone, and the program has won three NCAA titles since 1958 while competing against the wealthier, larger powerhouses like the University of Colorado and the University of Utah.

From a Daily Dartmouth story about the women's tennis team finishing second at the ECAC Indoor Tennis Championship last weekend:

Over the course of the three-day tournament, the Big Green collected over 100 pounds of donated items from six of the other seven competing teams for Dartmouth’s Haiti earthquake relief efforts. Among the donated items were shoes, clothing, food, water bottles, tents and other necessities.

Shortly after the team arrived back in Hanover, the supplies were flown down to Haiti along with a group of Dartmouth doctors and health workers.

The Daily Dartmouth also has a profile of acting Dean of the College Sylvia Spears, whose route to her present role has been anything but traditional.

And finally – and I do mean finally – it's a snow day for those two certain Hanover High students and their classmates. We've gotten only about 6 inches up here on the mountain so far, but the plow guy has already cleared our driveway. With up to another foot due in the next day or so, he's going to be back making up for lost time. Hard to blame him. Plow drivers have to feed their families as well.