In Kyle Flood’s final season as the Rutgers football coach, the school sold more than 31,000 season tickets.

Four years later, Rutgers is on track to sell approximately half that total heading into a pivotal 2019 season under Chris Ash.

An analysis of Rutgers’ football season-ticket numbers by NJ Advance Media revealed a 46.8 percent decrease from 2015 and a 27 percent dip from last season.

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NJ Advance Media obtained the latest ticket figures through an Open Public Records Act request.

Rutgers has sold 16,585 season tickets for the 2019 season, which begins Aug. 30 at SHI Stadium against the University of Massachusetts. It’s the lowest total since at least 2012, when Rutgers was accepted into the Big Ten.

In 2015, Rutgers sold 31,168 season tickets. In 2016, Rutgers sold 28,478. In 2017, Rutgers sold 23,812. Last year, Rutgers sold 22,709.

The data obtained by NJ Advance Media shows:

A 64 percent renewal rate of season-ticket orders. Rutgers’ renewal rate for season-ticket sales was at 87 percent last summer.

4,798 total season-ticket accounts. Rutgers had 6,454 prior to the 2018 season.

299 new-alumni season tickets. Rutgers had 571 at this time last year.

A nationwide struggle to sell tickets for college football games coupled with the Scarlet Knights’ on-field woes are likely reasons why Rutgers’ ticket sales are down. After exceeding expectations with a 4-8 record and three Big Ten wins in 2017, Rutgers finished 1-11 overall and winless against Big Ten opponents in 2018.

While Rutgers officials are holding out hope that its season-tickets number could increase slightly over the next 2 1/2 weeks, athletic director Pat Hobbs said Rutgers is focusing on single-game sales.

“We’re down a bit. Not surprising after 1-11," Hobbs said in April. “I think we’re going to focus very much on some of our single-game sales this year and some packaging around our (games). We’re getting much better data on who’s buying our tickets, and that’s going to help us do some more target-marketing as we go through the summer."

According to an NCAA report released earlier this year, college football games at the FBS level averaged 41,509 fans in 2018. That marked a 1.6 percent decrease — or roughly 700 fans fewer per game — from 2017.

Rutgers’ 37,799 announced-attendance average was the lowest figure since the team averaged 33,184 per game in 2005. Among Big Ten schools, only Illinois (36,151) and Maryland (33,594) had a lower average-attendance figure last season.

But figures obtained by NJ Advance Media shows Rutgers’ announced attendance was far greater than the actual attendance for games last season.

Rutgers’ actual-attendance average for its seven-game schedule in 2018 was 20,071. That marked a 17.8 percent decrease from 2017, when Rutgers’ average actual-attendance was 24,416 fans per game.

Like most college football teams, Rutgers lists announced attendance, which essentially accounts for the number of tickets sold/distributed. University officials told NJ Advance Media they have had issues with their scanning process in the past, citing human error as a factor that could result in the scanned figures appearing lower than the data shows.

Here are Rutgers’ 2018 scanned ticket numbers, with its announced-attendance figure in parentheses:

Texas State: 23,303 scanned (40,124 announced)

Buffalo: 17,222 scanned (34,574 announced)

Indiana: 15,880 scanned (32,056 announced)

Illinois: 17,302 scanned (36,702 announced)

Northwestern: 16,096 scanned (32,514 announced)

Michigan: 24,750 scanned (43,768 announced)

Penn State: 25,941 scanned (44,840 announced)

According to the university’s annual fiscal-year reports, Rutgers football produced a record $11.8 million in ticket sales in 2015, when the school sold 31,168 season tickets.

In 2016, Rutgers’ 28,478 season-ticket sales total resulted in $12.8 million in ticket revenue.

But in 2017, when Rutgers sold 23,812 season tickets, the school’s football ticket-revenuefell to $8.4 million. It marked Rutgers’ lowest ticket-revenue total since $8.7 million in 2013 — the team’s first and only season in the American Athletic Conference.

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The Big Ten ranked second among conferences in home attendance, with its 14 teams averaging 65,376 fans per game. That number is boosted by eight schools — No. 1 Michigan (110,737), No. 2 Penn State (105,485), No. 3. Ohio State (101,947), No. 10 Nebraska (89,034), No. 16 Wisconsin (77,153), No. 18 Michigan State (72,584) and No. 21 Iowa (68,043) — that ranked in the top-21 nationally in home attendance.

According to an NJ Advance Media analysis of other Big Ten schools, Ohio State produced the highest football ticket-revenue total in the 2017 season, which is the most recent financial data available.

Ohio State totaled $59.4 million in football-ticket revenue, followed by Michigan ($39.8M) and Penn State ($34M) in 2017.

Among Big Ten schools, only Indiana ($6.7M), Maryland ($6.9M) and Illinois ($6.95M) had lower ticket-revenue totals than Rutgers’ $8.4 million in 2017.

Rutgers’ struggles to sell tickets can’t be attributed to an increase from last season. Rutgers officials say the prices for both season-ticket and single-game sales remained flat this offseason.

A single season ticket for Rutgers’ 7-game home schedule starts at $210 (in the far corners of the upper deck) and top out at $385 for lower-bowl seats around midfield.

Rutgers also has a 3-game plan — which includes Ohio State and two other games of a fan’s choosing — starting at $150.

Single-game tickets for Rutgers’ season opener against UMass range from $40 to $80 per seat.

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Keith Sargeant may be reached at ksargeant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @KSargeantNJ. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.