FSU Football, ACC See Rise in Attendance During 2016 Season

FSU football saw a rise in the number of people who made their way to Doak Campbell Stadium to watch the ‘Noles play last season.

It’s no secret that one of the hardest things for many college athletic departments is figuring out a way to get people to actually make their way to the campuses for football games in the fall. Most schools, like FSU football, have been competing with the ability to watch all the action from the comfort of you home by adding new amenities inside the stadium – such as the Champions Club at Doak Campbell Stadium and doing things like making the WiFi better and offering different food.

Of course, it helps when the product on the field is a success and you have a schedule that featuring opponents fans will travel from places like Miami, Fort Myers, Atlanta and other areas with a large Seminoles fan base to Tallahassee for the action. According to stats released by the NCAA, Florida State can brag about seeing more butts in the seats of Doak last season than 2015.

A break down of the numbers for FSU football and all programs in every division of college football can be found here, but the cliff notes are as follows:

• Florida State had a total of 460,801 people attend the six combined games last season played in Tallahassee – an average of 76,800 for each game and good for 18th highest in the FBS and 2nd in the ACC behind Clemson.
• The per game average in 2016 – a season that included home games against Florida, Clemson and North Carolina – was up just under 3,600 from the 2015 season which had the Miami game as the only marquee attraction.
• When you account for all games – including the opener in Orlando vs. Ole Miss and the two games in South Florida against Miami and the Orange Bowl against Michigan – FSU football had a total of 864,386 people attend their games for an average of 66,491 per game.

Florida State Seminoles Football

That last stat also goes to show how the Seminoles actually helped their rivals from the 305 last season. The Hurricanes saw a jump in per game average attendance of just over 11,000 – the second best number in all of FBS football. Having their once every two seasons sell out when FSU football comes to town was a large source of that.

As a conference, the ACC had the largest increase in per game attendance for the Power Five conferences – of course, that might be a little misleading since they still had the lowest per game attendance based on small capacity stadiums such as Wake Forest and Duke. The ACC averaged 49,734 per game last year, up 703 people from 2015. Both the SEC and Pac 12 saw a drop in per game attendance of over 1,000 people while the Big Ten and Big 12’s increase was less than 200.

The Seminoles could see an increase in their numbers during the 2017 season. With home games against Miami and Louisville – a game where the ‘Noles will be looking for redemption from last year’s embarrassment – separated nicely on the schedule, fans will be able to make multiple trips to Tallahassee next season. Add the opener against Alabama and road games vs. Florida and Clemson and you have a recipe for Florida State to crack the top 10.