Inexpensive, quality entertainment.  Stuff for all ages to do.  You get to see Division I football but from a better seat location than in the Big Ten.  You have a better chance to get to know the team, coaches, staff, etc., than you would at a Big Ten program.  Program is investing in improvement and it's paying off on the field.  It's worth supporting.  It's a way to bring different parts of the community together around a common cause.  Pregame tailgating is very fun and family friendly.  Plus, you get to make a lot of new friends, especially if you also get involved at bobcatattack.com.

The Marching 110 does a post game show.

All this plus you don't have to park two or three miles away and no matter where you sit you have one of the greatest views in all of football -- the Ohio campus to the north and the hills to the south.  Nothing like it, especially in October.

What he said. 

Over here checking in on a rival for the first time in 2012 and saw this thread.  I was in Athens last year for our game and saw many positives and a few (albeit likely expensive to fix) negatives with the experience (not talking about the outcome obviously).  The positives far far outweigh any negatives.  I loved what Athens and the atmosphere had to offer.  You all have easy access for visiting fans.  The setting on the river is wonderful.  You have a lot of parking and wide open green spaces for tailgating and the like.  You have a good team playing an exciting brand of football.  The setting of the area surrounding stadium is something to envy.  

It is quite honestly beyond my comprehension why a fan, especially a student, would not come out to a game in Athens.  Especially at the prices I saw for tickets (and I assume students get in free).  I cannot believe any fan needs to be sold on the band to get them in the door.  It just boggles the mind.  I would consider coming to Athens for a game to see Ohio play against someone other than us when Marshall had an open date.  

I can only imagine that you all need to keep winning and work your way into the polls.  The only negative I see that may affect attendance is the need for facility upgrade.  I am not criticizing or throwing stones.  We don't exactly play in Cowboys Stadium.  I understand the economic realities of the facilities arms race.  However, I think Peden needs an upgrade, though some of the limitations of the place are not really fixable short of rebuilding.  You can take half measures though and be even more successful in that stadium.   

We're not Miami.

You are quite correct. http://www.ohiobobcats.com/facilities/peden-stadium-main....

Marshall2004 is right about the stadium and I've said before that their stadium is something to be envied at our "level" of football. It's not overly huge, but provides much better seating, look and feel than Peden could ever offer. A better stadium is a draw by itself. Look at what the convo does for us!

We have the setting, but we do not have the stadium.  Those endzone sections were a catastrophic error. Yes, we had some need for additional seats, but why not add them in a way that actually improves the stadium? or at least doesn't look like a big friggin' mole that covers half of an otherwise fairly attractive face? uh... don't get me started.

One thing I noticed at our near capacity games that also had cheap tickets (UCONN and Marshall come to mind) that bugged me was the ridiculous line at will call.  Maybe a remodel of the ticket booths are in order.

And two of those stadiums can only reach capacity if the moon, stars and sun all align.

We DO NOT need to expand Peden. Renovations...sure. But expansion is completely unnecessary. After we achieve 5 straight sell-out seasons, then we'll talk.

I would say any capacity number above 28k to 30k is WAY too high.  Personally, I could see a reason to somehow connect the corner sections to the sideline sections.  Also, I remember an image at one time back about a decade ago when there was talk of adding a second deck to the student section side of the stadium.

As for the original topic, about raising attendance:  I could be off, but living in Columbus, it doesn't seem like there is nearly enough awareness being promoted of the quality of the program, and how affordable it is to make the day trip to Athens for a home game.  Yes I know it's Buckeyeville, but there are also a huge number of people who are NOT OS-Who fans, and twenty-some-thousand alumni in Columbus and surrounding areas.

Big thanks to everyone that posted. I was able to EASILY right a persuasive speech thanks to the help of you guys. It is awesome to have the help of fellow bobcats at hand when needed, which really speaks to the culture of the school. Thanks again friends