With Cincinnati’s glorious monument to Bearcats football Nippert Stadium under a month away from completion (!!!), it’s never too early to boast about how tremendous of a venue it truly is. Even more so, how UC fans have lined up for years to get a piece of the action.
To help, former UC player Alex Apyan (@AeroApe51) compiled the below sets of data to show exactly that.
UC average attendance since 2007.
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Nippert percent capacity since 2007.
Granted, half of these years were during Cincinnati’s Golden Age, with Brian Kelly guiding the program to back-to-back BCS bowl games. And 2011 was kind of a drag, likely due to the fact that UC’s two marquee games were played at Paul Brown Stadium. But I find it most encouraging that during the Bearcats’ first year in the AAC, a second tier conference at least in comparison to the Big East, Cincinnati fans filled Nippert Stadium to over 90% capacity, the most since 2009. UC also posted two shutouts and packed more bodies into Nippert when they played Purdue than during any game in the history of the program.
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2014 was a lost year attendance wise. I consider it a sunk cost, for you financiers. They’re not at all reflective of the loyalty of these fans. Nobody liked the idea of see our beloved Bearcats play in the concrete mortuary that is Paul Brown Stadium and the numbers prove it. But we sucked it up and will be rewarded with a renovated Nippert Stadium in a few weeks.
Long term, these trends illustrate the devotion of UC’s fanbase. Filling the stadium to at least 80% capacity six of the last seven years is beyond excellent. Specifically, 2013 proved the fans’ loyalty and the fact that almost half of the seats at Nippert in 2015 have been gobbled up by season ticket holders does so as well.
I would hope the Big 12 understands this because I’d hold these attendance numbers against those of any other team vying for a life raft out of the Group of Five.
To the detractors, it’s ridiculous to compare Cincinnati’s attendance to that of South Florida’s, who claimed to average 34,701 in 2013, three thousand more than the Bearcats. UC counts actual butts in seats whereas USF merely considers how many people paid for tickets. This practice, shared by the likes of the Pitt Panthers, artificially inflates the reported number of fans actually watching the Bulls get drubbed by McNeese State 53-21.
Secondly, even if the methodology for reporting attendance is different, looking at raw numbers also skews the perceived strength and loyalty of a school’s fanbase. Purdue averaged 35,269 through seven home games in 2014, slightly more than Cincinnati averaged in any season dating back to 2007. But that only represents crowds that filled Ross-Ade Stadium to 62% of its maximum capacity. This compared to 87% for the Bearcats at Nippert.
I don’t know about you but give me the smaller, fuller stadium over the empty, cavernous pit any day of the week and especially on Saturday. I’d hope the Big 12 feels the same.
Thanks again to Alex for putting these stats together. It’s always great to see clearly just how awesome all of you are!