Almost 7,000 fewer fans per game in 2014 vs 2013, per ESPN. Decreased attendance isn't surprising given on-field results, but what is surprising is that we lost the fifth most fans per game of any program in FBS.
There are plenty of other struggling FBS programs out there, but we bled fans worse than almost all of them. You could look at that many ways, though. Other perennially bad programs might be near rock bottom for attendance (i.e. down to just the loyal diehards). Given the good will built up from the 80s-early 2000s plus good seasons in 2007 and 2011, and initial optimism about the coaching change in 2010-11, UVA has probably had a lot of "fairer weather" fans to lose.
How far until rock bottom? Who knows. My suspicion is that a derelict UVA program would probably draw about 30k on average per game ... we averaged 39k last year (no VT home game hurt). We averaged more than 59k in 2007, but it's been downhill from there. Not only are we fighting a downward program trajectory, but college football as a whole is facing an attendance crisis (lowest attendance since 2003 last year). That might explain why we only averaged 45.7k in 2011 despite the good season and more popular (then) head coach.
http://espn.go.com/college-football...e-football-attendance-hits-worst-average-2003
There are plenty of other struggling FBS programs out there, but we bled fans worse than almost all of them. You could look at that many ways, though. Other perennially bad programs might be near rock bottom for attendance (i.e. down to just the loyal diehards). Given the good will built up from the 80s-early 2000s plus good seasons in 2007 and 2011, and initial optimism about the coaching change in 2010-11, UVA has probably had a lot of "fairer weather" fans to lose.
How far until rock bottom? Who knows. My suspicion is that a derelict UVA program would probably draw about 30k on average per game ... we averaged 39k last year (no VT home game hurt). We averaged more than 59k in 2007, but it's been downhill from there. Not only are we fighting a downward program trajectory, but college football as a whole is facing an attendance crisis (lowest attendance since 2003 last year). That might explain why we only averaged 45.7k in 2011 despite the good season and more popular (then) head coach.
http://espn.go.com/college-football...e-football-attendance-hits-worst-average-2003
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