Charleston Pony wrote:Looks to me like we could very well see something similar to 2011 when JJ's SMU team had just beaten TCU to go to 4-1 (lost the opener to A$M) and hosted UCF (who had beaten us 17-7 in CUSA Championship game the previous year). We had drawn 26,691 for the opener vs UTEP that year and 20,083 for Northwestern State and I think JJ thought we would pack Ford but expressed his disappointment when "only" 22,932 showed up to watch SMU whip UCF 38-17 (the ONLY time we have ever beaten UCF).
I think this is yet another major difference between JJ and Sonny because I think if we could draw 22,932 for Tulsa, Sonny would be pleased to see fan support momentum building.
During that 2011 season, when JJ's team went 8-5 with a win against Pitt in the Compass Bowl in Birmingham, we went on to draw 20,106 vs Tulane, 21,080 vs Navy and 14,472 vs Rice. The home attendance average that year was 20,894.
We are who we are and as Sonny has said, it's a long process to boost attendance. With weather expected to be clear and 90/69, we can expect some bandwagon alumni/students but I'd be pleasantly surprised if we can even reach that 22,932 figure. Tulsa, after all, is the smallest school in our conference so it's up to SMU fans to fill Ford next Saturday.
I know we announce those numbers, but whenever I’m at a game and I do the math in my head, it usually looks like about 1/3 of the actual seats (if that) are full. Even on the west side, maybe 1 in 3 seats is actually taken. So in a 32k stadium, I never count more than about 12k.