The Trojans came into the 2018 season with high expectations, but after a 1-2 start and back-to-back double-digit losses for the first time since 2000, things are not going exactly as planned for Clay Helton and company.

These less-than-favorable results on the field couldn’t be happening at a worse time for a program that is already inconveniencing its fan base with a controversial stadium renovation. The under construction Coliseum now has no on-site pay parking, far fewer tailgating spots and thousands of displaced season ticket holders.

And with a Friday game many Angelenos would have to leave work soon after lunch to have any chance of making it to the Coliseum by kickoff. On normal Saturday games, fans can arrive early to both tailgate and park on campus. But with classes going on all tailgating on campus is prohibited and most of the campus parking structures will not open until 5 p.m.

For Game 1 against UNLV, the Trojans brought in 58,708 fans, the lowest attendance for a home opener since 2001 (45,568 for Pete Carroll's first game against San Jose State). USC returns home this weekend for a Pac-12 contest against Washington State, but with a two-game losing streak and horrific Friday traffic, there will likely be even fewer Trojans in the stands at kickoff for this one.

(On a side note, USC should have never allowed the Pac-12 to schedule a weekday home contest while the Coliseum was being renovated).

To make matters worse, all of this is going on during a universal downturn in college football attendance. CBS Sports college football columnist Dennis Dodd did a interesting piece back in February reporting that 2017 saw the largest drop in college football per-game attendance in 34 years, and the second largest drop ever since the NCAA started keeping track in 1948.

“Attendance among the 129 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams in 2017 was down an average of 1,409 fans per game from 2016. That marked the largest drop since 1983 when average attendance declined 1,527 fans per game from 1982.

“The 2017 FBS average of 42,203 fans per game is the lowest since 1997. “

Dodd also noted that for the first time in history, average college football attendance declined nationally for four consecutive seasons.

The Coliseum under construction as seen before the UNLV game.

Interestingly, the SEC leads all conferences in average attendance and has for two decades, but it also had the largest drop from 2016 to 2017, down an average of 2,433 fans per game (3.14%). The Pac-12 by comparison was down just 472 fans (0.09%) but averaged about 25,000 fewer fans than the SEC.

Looking at the numbers since 2012, the Pac-12 has experienced the biggest overall drop of any Power Five league with 4,078 fewer fans per game. Last season the conference’s average attendance of 49,601 was its lowest since 2001.

Combining together the poor on-field performances, the weekday night game, the Coliseum renovation and the overall downturn in college football attendance is creating what will likely be a perfect storm of reasons for Trojan fans to stay home Friday night. (The game also isn’t on Pac-12 Network, which would give some fans who don’t get the channel a reason to show up).

USC has responded by trying to drum up interests in other ways. One is by offering free ticket upgrades as seen in this tweet:

There are also many, many discounted tickets available for the Washington State game through a Groupon deal. Tickets in section 1 on USC’s main ticket website are going for $39 each, plus an $11 fee. On the Groupon page you can get the same seats for just $21 and a $4 fee. On the higher end, for section 18 tickets are $75 plus an $11 fee from USC, but just $56 and a $4 fee from Groupon.

If you brought a family of four to the game, you would be saving over $100 buying those better seats with the available Groupon deal.

A quick check of the ticket broker app SeatGeek shows tickets going for as low as $14 with a $6 fee for end zone seats high up in section 15.

The question is, will these cheaper ticket options be enough to overcome this perfect storm and entice more USC fans to show up on Friday or will the attendance numbers be historically bad?

The lowest attendance for a Trojan home game this century was in 2000 during Paul Hackett's last year. USC had lost five of their last six games heading into a November 11 matchup with Washington State. The Trojans lost 33-27 and just 40,565 fans showed up for Hackett's third-to-last game.

Prior to that, there was a heavy rain game in 1987, a Halloween contest against Washington State that drew just 24,834. USC was 4-3 at the time but ended up winning that game plus the next three and going to the Rose Bowl. The game notes said it was “played in a constant rain,” and that “nearly 30,000 ticket buyers were kept away by the rain."