[Redrum]

...which I caught them mid/ late last season.  Even with some artful camera shot selection, the camera was not kind to their claims that the corner had been turned on attendance.  I don't remember the opponent, but the game was decently exciting but there was almost zero energy making it to my TV and LOTS of empty seats.  The saddest part was were the shots of their "premium" seats which are in the end zone as part of the the new football facilities and club suites.  They were using actual broadcast time breaks to  promote the sponsorship opportunities for the club suites, coaches' offices, meeting rooms, auditoriums, locker rooms and other physical features.

  Over the last five home games,  the Spartans averaged about 17,500 per game, with the median at 16,000 when the best attended Fresno St. ( 23,000) was excluded. [Fresno St. travels well]  Their lowest attended game was 10,500 against Utah St.    Those figures might be generous. Supposedly there was a dictum sent that attendance numbers-- contrary to the practice in previous decades-- would count actual butts in the seats,  not simply tickets sold.  There was constant pushback against that more pessimistic approach and it got caught up for a while in the piecemeal migration of WAC teams to the Mountain West Conf.    Seems likely that SJSU's precarious football situation played into the MWC's reluctance to take them along with the original WAC transferees (Hawaii, Fresno St., Nev. Reno and Boise St.)  But it makes it difficult to tell, over the long run,  how successful they are at increasing attendance over very mushy previous attendance figures.

[Redrum]

...which I caught them mid/ late last season.  Even with some artful camera shot selection, the camera was not kind to their claims that the corner had been turned on attendance.  I don't remember the opponent, but the game was decently exciting but there was almost zero energy making it to my TV and LOTS of empty seats.  The saddest part was were the shots of their "premium" seats which are in the end zone as part of the the new football facilities and club suites.  They were using actual broadcast time breaks to  promote the sponsorship opportunities for the club suites, coaches' offices, meeting rooms, auditoriums, locker rooms and other physical features.

  Over the last five home games,  the Spartans averaged about 17,500 per game, with the median at 16,000 when the best attended Fresno St. ( 23,000) was excluded. [Fresno St. travels well]  Their lowest attended game was 10,500 against Utah St.    Those figures might be generous. Supposedly there was a dictum sent that attendance numbers-- contrary to the practice in previous decades-- would count actual butts in the seats,  not simply tickets sold.  There was constant pushback against that more pessimistic approach and it got caught up for a while in the piecemeal migration of WAC teams to the Mountain West Conf.    Seems likely that SJSU's precarious football situation played into the MWC's reluctance to take them along with the original WAC transferees (Hawaii, Fresno St., Nev. Reno and Boise St.)  But it makes it difficult to tell, over the long run,  how successful they are at increasing attendance over very mushy previous attendance figures.