From Ohio Football Twitter


but. lets break the attendance down a little more:

       Avg  Hm Gms  Mid-week                               Sat Attend     Mid-wk Attend
2009 17,947   6     Temple(F)14,135                         18,709          14,135
2010 19,046   6     Buffalo (Th)15,112                      19,845          15,112
2011 19,891   6     Temple(Wed)17,490; Miami(Tue) 15,155    21,675          16,322
2012 21,844   6     EMU(Th)16,789; BG(Wed)19,122            23,788          17,955
2013 20,672   7     Kent(Tue)17,181; UMass(F)13,162         22,872          15,171

Breaking down the odd games:
Tuesday Games - 15,155; 17,181 Average 15,122
Wed Games- 17,490; 19,122 Average 18,306
Thur Games - 15,112; 16,789 Average 15,956
Fr after Thanksgiving Games - 14,135; 13,162 Average 13,648

Interestingly Wednesday games are not that bad, while Tuesday and Friday after Thanksgiving games are the worst.

Conclusion: Attendance was off a little last year, but really not that much considering that it wasn't a great year. It looked worse than it really was because it had both a Tuesday game and a Friday after Thanksgiving game. Meanwhile, page hits and student attendance continue to climb. It all looks very good.

Projection: This fall there are 6 home games. One is a Wednesday game against Buffalo, the other is a Tuesday game before Thanksgiving against NIU. How well attended those last two games are probably depends in part on whether Ohio is still in the MAC East race at that point. Coming just before Thanksgiving, I doubt NIU will be much over 13-14,000 anyway.

Edit - Fixed Table to remove my error re:2009 Buffalo game

I think the 6 year growth is based off of the not-so-great 2008 season (which isn't displayed).

The 2009 Buffalo game was played at UB.

Oops, thanks. I should have known there was something wrong as it was the lowest attendance in the entire table. I fixed it, and the correction just makes the uptrend more clear.

While I'm at it, here are the Saturday games, by year:
2009 - U.Conn, Cal Poly, Miami, Kent, N. Illinois (18,709)
2010 - Wofford, Toledo, BG, Akron, La-Lafayette (19,845)
2011 - Gardner-Webb, Marshall, Kent, Ball State (21,645)
2012 - New Mexico St, Norfolk St, Buffalo, Akron (23,788)
2013 - N. Texas, Marshall, Austin Peay, CMU, Miami (22,872)
2014 - Idaho, E. Illinois, BG, Akron

I went ahead and bolded the games against BCS teams, rivalry games against Marshall, and Miami, and also the top two teams from both the East and the West each year.

Something very interesting stands out here. There is no correlation at all between attendance and the years with the best schedules, but there is a strong correlation with the degree of expectation of winning. From a quality of schedule standpoint, by far the most attractive of these would have to be 2009, with a BCS team (U.Conn), plus Miami and NIU, yet it has the lowest attendance. Meanwhile the worst of these has to be 2012, with no games of particular interest, yet it has the highest attendance. Then comparing 2012 and 2013 from a quality of schedule standpoint, 2013 would have to be higher than 2012, yet attendance fell.

Looking at it from an expectation of winning standpoint, 2009 was coming off a disappointing 2008 season, so expectations were not that high, and even with the good schedule, attendance was low. Meanwhile 2012 had high expectations. Coming off a bowl game win, and a huge win at Penn State, many, including myself, were projecting the possibility of not just a bowl, but a potential undefeated season and a BCS bowl. 2013 had somewhat lower expectaions (especially later in the season) than 2012, and attendance fell.

What can we expect this fall? For 2014, expectations are relatively low, but it is true that the projected #1 and #2 teams in the East are both home games on a Saturday, and there are also non-Saturday games against the projected #1 team in the west, and the #3/4 team in the East. Therefore this has the potential of a season with very good attendance...but only if the Bobcats can win perhaps 2 of the 3 opening road games, and increase the expectations of winning.