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Old Cage · Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2010 10:47 am Post subject: Delaware playoff attendance

After all we hear about the hordes of loyal Hens fans, only 8770 rattled around in their 22,000 seat stadium for their playoff win over UNH on Friday night.

What say you, Tubster??
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"Jack didn’t have any envy in him," Calipari said. "He was the greatest coach to ever coach here."

Quann · Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2010 11:02 am Post subject:

Wow, that is actually very shocking. Especially against a conference rival like UNH.

Jack · Hall of Fame Joined: 23 Aug 2006 Posts: 3033

Maybe folks stayed away b/c Biden was there. Smallest crowd in 42 yrs at UD.

When UD can't draw 15K+ for a playoff game against UNH then thats a pretty good sign we should be looking to get out of the CAA.

Jackman · Senior Joined: 02 Jun 2006 Posts: 1978

Appalachian State's playoff attendance was also about half their regular season average. We're obviously familiar with comparatively small crowds for first round playoff games at UMass against Patriot League opponents, but the last time we hosted a quarterfinal game, we sold out. It's really a head-scratcher. I can understand people being less interested in FCS football than FBS football, but why are they so much less interested in the FCS playoffs than the FCS regular season? I guess it's somewhat similar to the phenomena with on-campus NIT games being poorly attended, except that this is the highest level tournament a FCS program can ever participate in.

InnervisionsUMASS · Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2010 2:04 pm Post subject:

Could it have been the weather? What was the weather like?

This is 100% a headscratcher. I don't get it at all. Maybe it is a fan revolt against either team not making the move up to 1-A? I don't know... very very very odd.
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Stop waiting for UMass to do something big and help UMass do something big. - Shades

Jack · Hall of Fame Joined: 23 Aug 2006 Posts: 3033

It was "cold" in Delaware and the game was on TV.

lane one · Junior Joined: 17 Aug 2003 Posts: 676

The Army-Navy game drew close to 70,000 on Saturday in South Philly. Could this have affected the croud in Delaware the day before? If I were looking for one college game to attend in the area, it wouldn't have been Delaware. The weather was about what you expect for a night in December, but maybe thats cold.

jjmc85 · Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2010 4:32 pm Post subject:

http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20101210/SPORTS07/12100313/Delaware-Blue-Hens-football-Diehard-fans-don-t-plan-to-bow-to-frigid-weather

Say what you will, but this dude is intense:

BostonBert · Senior Joined: 28 Sep 2004 Posts: 1229

Are you sure that was the actual attendance? How soon we forget that for the playoff game vs. Lafayette in '06 they said the attendance was only 5388 which to anybody at the game seemed absurd. UMass pinned it on the NCAA for reasons I do not remember..maybe it is the same thing happening here.

InnervisionsUMASS · Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2010 2:36 pm Post subject:

Valid point! I remember that... that was just ridiculous and made zero sense on all levels.
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Stop waiting for UMass to do something big and help UMass do something big. - Shades

Jackman · Senior Joined: 02 Jun 2006 Posts: 1978

I would have believed that the stadium was a little over half full, judging from what I saw on TV. Those first round games at UMass had larger crowds than were reported as well. But it takes a gigantic amount of under-reporting to go from 22,000 to 8,000. Or to go from 28,000 to 15,000 in App State's case. And both Delaware and App only had 13,000 for their first round games. There's under-reporting going on, but they're still way below regular season crowd sizes.

Old Cage · Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2010 2:46 pm Post subject:

I was hoping that our friend Tubby would check in.
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"Jack didn’t have any envy in him," Calipari said. "He was the greatest coach to ever coach here."

jjmc85 · Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2010 4:13 pm Post subject:

Why would the NCAA under report? Just to claim no one likes playoffs? Confused

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UMass Football: 22-3 at home when I was a student.

meff · Senior Joined: 10 Nov 2003 Posts: 896 Location: Hanover

It could be the schools under reporting to give less money to the NC$$

Jackman · Senior Joined: 02 Jun 2006 Posts: 1978

The two explanations I've heard are:

1. The NCAA only counts paid attendance at NCAA-sponsored events.

2. The hosts of the games intentionally under report attendance so that they don't have to give the NCAA as large a cut of the revenue.

I don't know if either are true. Both could be true.