Memphis football attendance falls by 9.4 percent for 2018, declines for third straight year

After Memphis’ season opener against Mercer, fans openly complained about the announced attendance of 33,697. Some reported issues with tickets being scanned, and even university president David Rudd posted on Twitter that he thought the number was too low.

In fact, the actual game attendance was 24,107, according to documents obtained by The Commercial Appeal via a public records request.

Mercer was Memphis’ second-most-attended home game of the year as the Tigers struggled to attract fans to the Liberty Bowl despite winning the AAC West for the second straight season. Average per-game attendance at the Liberty Bowl declined for the third consecutive season, and actual attendance was even lower.

Over its seven home games in 2018, Memphis’ announced attendance was 211,247 fans, an average of 30,178 fans per game. The attendance is a 9.4 percent decrease from 2017’s announced attendance of 233,150, and the per-game average is the lowest since Memphis averaged 28,537 fans in 2013.

But announced attendance is different than the number of fans who actually attend a game. Announced attendance is the number of tickets handed out or sold, not how many actually show up for a game.

Based on actual attendance, Memphis totaled 124,643 fans this past season, which averages out to 17,806 fans per game. That’s less than 2017, when the Tigers had 127,153 actual fans for an average of 18,165 fans.

The 2017 total does not count Memphis’ appearance in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl, which the school considers a neutral-site game.

Breaking down the numbers

When schools announce attendance, it reflects tickets sold or distributed. Fans might not always show up to the game for various reasons.

The Mercer game was only one of two at which Memphis had more than 20,000 fans in actual attendance based on tickets scanned. Memphis’ biggest crowd came on Oct. 13 when the Tigers hosted Central Florida in a nationally televised game.

It was announced that 38,831 fans were in attendance as the Tigers lost 31-30. The actual attendance was 24,117 – a difference of more than 14,000 seats.

Memphis’ Friday night home game against Georgia State on Sept. 14 drew 17,121 fans. While that game had to compete with high school football games around the city, it ended up being the third-best-attended game on the schedule.

The Tigers’ worst-attended game came against Tulsa with only 12,059 tickets scanned – more than 15,000 fewer than the announced attendance of 27,905.

Explaining the attendance gap

The gap between actual attendance and announced attendance is nothing new to college football. In August, The Wall Street Journal reported the average count of tickets scanned at home games during the 2017 season was close to 71 percent of announced attendance based on information collected from 96 schools, including Memphis.

Memphis’ actual attendance for 2018 was 59 percent of its announced attendance, up from 54.5 percent in 2017.

The Tigers’ declining attendance is also part of a national trend. In 2017, average attendance for NCAA FBS games declined for the fourth consecutive year. The 3.2 percent decrease in per-game attendance was also the sharpest decline since 1983.

Across the state, Tennessee’s announced attendance for its seven 2018 home games was 650,887, a 2.9 percent drop from 2017. The Vols’ actual attendance was 545,343.

In the AAC, seven of the 12 schools saw a decrease in announced average home attendance in 2018. Memphis had the third-steepest decline percentage-wise behind ECU (10.4) and Navy (10).

Other AAC schools that had a decline in attendance were Houston, Temple, SMU and Tulsa. UConn had a 2.9 percent increase in announced attendance, but according to the Hartford Courant, the Huskies averaged only 10,032 fans in actual attendance.

The AAC’s average announced attendance was 28,333, a 1.2 percent decline from 2017's average attendance of 28,669. It's the third consecutive year the conference has seen a decline in attendance, although this season wasn't as steep as 2017 when attendance dropped 9.3 percent.

Memphis athletics director Tom Bowen said before the season started that his goal was to average between 40,000 to 45,000 fans. It was a lofty goal but one based on high expectations after Memphis ended the 2017 season nationally ranked following a 10-win campaign.

"A lot of things in life that are unexpected, family situations," Bowen told The Commercial Appeal on Monday. "The weather plays a huge part in attendance.

"We had four Saturdays that were good and we had some good attendance and I thought Black Friday was a well attended game because it was in the day and against Houston."



Bowen added the athletics department relies on ticket sales to help with revenue; the school doesn’t own the Liberty Bowl and therefore doesn’t receive revenue from parking or concessions.



"For us, the most critical thing for us is for people to buy tickets, whether season tickets or group tickets, purchase bundles or come purchase single tickets to come to the game," Bowen said. "Attendance is really up to the individuals and we’re trying to create what I think is one of the best day of game experiences with what we do with Tiger Lane and what we've done with Tiger Walk.

"We have a lot of faithful people there every game, and the crowds have been bigger since we began (in 2012 under Bowen) and we’re feeling good about it."

Memphis 2018 actual attendance vs. announced attendance

Here is a look at Memphis home attendance figures for the 2018 season. The actual attendance is listed first with announced attendance in parentheses, based on data obtained by The Commercial Appeal.

Mercer – 24,107 (33,697)

Georgia State – 17,121 (27,678)

South Alabama – 15,439 (27,765)

UConn – 16,734 (27,581)

UCF – 24,117 (38,831)

Tulsa – 12,059 (27,905)

Houston – 15,066 (27,790)

Total – 124,643 (211,247)

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