[UAzipsMan]

But that was deep into the playoffs.

thats precisely my point. taking weather conditions at gametime will only show a part of the story as you have the added variable of "marquee" matchups and the playoffs. It would still be another good way to look at attendance, I was just pointing out a valid flaw in the data such considerations would produce.

[Doug Snyder]

But that was deep into the playoffs.

thats precisely my point. taking weather conditions at gametime will only show a part of the story as you have the added variable of "marquee" matchups and the playoffs. It would still be another good way to look at attendance, I was just pointing out a valid flaw in the data such considerations would produce.

Yea...there are lots of variables. But if you look at our attendance trend over the past years and some of the ACC schools...it appears that attendance declines when the weather gets cold and or rainy. Even big names draw less in late fall. I am not trying to throw water on the analysis...quite the opposite. Bobbyake spent lots of time (incredible actually) putting this together. I think some are disappointed that the attendance has dropped. I am trying to show that weather will play a big role...even in a National Championship year. We should be very proud of our attendance. My guess is that we do not take as big a hit as other big soccer programs at this time of year.

[bobbyake]

Weather was the cause for the Penn State game, but temperatures weren't too bad for Hartwick. The casual fans will eventually turn into hardcore fans, the biggest change in attendance seems to be coming from the student section. I believe adding additional seating would help. Does anyone know the exact number of seating available for FE/CC?

BTW, I overheard someone working the ticket stand say over 1,300 season tickers were sold. So at worst, Akron's attendance would be 1,300.

[UAzipsMan]

Agreed. Weather inevitably affects attendance regardless of the sport and our position in this region forces that hand. I too am happy to see our attendance is still up even with the weather getting colder and less "perfect"

[Zip_ME87]

It seems that chasing a National Championship is strong motivation. Your analysis would be improved if you added weather conditions for both years. I am wondering if weatehr played a bigger role this year over the last 2 games.

thats an interesting point as we all know that attendance lags when the weather is crappy...

HOWEVER.... we had a pretty large crowd during the playoff game against Cal last year...

From what I remember, the only bad weather last season was during the Cal game. For some reason, although bad weather was predicted for a number of games, it always cleared up or held off for the 3+ hours (warm ups through end of game) for our Men's Soccer team. I guess it was a sign of destiny. And, of course, weather probably didn't keep many away from the Elite 8 game vs. Cal.

[Dave in Green]

Weather isn't the only variable. There are other variables including day of the week, whether or not classes are out and students are out of town on holiday, whether or not other major local or televised events are going on, etc., etc. Actually, you can drive yourself crazy trying to keep up with all the variables. I think bobbyake is doing a good job of tracking the basic stats without making himself go crazy trying to track all the variables.

[bobbyake]

Final Attendance figures for the regular season:

A 1.2% increase.

After all regular season games are performed, I'll update the rest of the NCAA so we can see how we compared.

BTW, Akron's attendance would rank 3rd in the NASL, 4th in the USL-Pro, and 2nd in the PDL.

[Zipmeister]

But that was deep into the playoffs.

thats precisely my point. taking weather conditions at gametime will only show a part of the story as you have the added variable of "marquee" matchups and the playoffs. It would still be another good way to look at attendance, I was just pointing out a valid flaw in the data such considerations would produce.

It is critical in this type of analysis to identify both invalid and valid flaws.

[bobbyake]

But that was deep into the playoffs.

thats precisely my point. taking weather conditions at gametime will only show a part of the story as you have the added variable of "marquee" matchups and the playoffs. It would still be another good way to look at attendance, I was just pointing out a valid flaw in the data such considerations would produce.

It is critical in this type of analysis to identify both invalid and valid flaws.

comparing weather conditions would help determine your hardcore base vs casual, but I'm not interested in pulling the stats for that.

[bobbyake]

Akron moved down to the 3rd spot in regular season attendance average. I only updated the top 15 teams from my last pull which covers all teams up to Oct 7, so this top 15 list isn't official. But the odds of a team that was below the top 15 passing Akron with only a few games left are less than 1%. Also note that the teams that aren't highlighted still have a home game to play, which will all take place today.

[bobbyake]

Here's the top 20 for regular season attendance. I did not update schools beyond the top 20, which means some from 15-20 might not be in the top 20. I made the data public for anyone to update https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key...bE03UmZCWFBxRXc

Here's the top 20:

[bobbyake]

Attendance for other teams against Akron:

Cal St. Fullerton @Northridge 539
Cal St. Northridge 1097
St. Louis 4637
Tulsa 795
Western Michigan 1431
UC Santa Barbara 4340
Michigan 750
Buffalo 316
Florida Atlantic 453

Total 14358
Average 1595

Our attendance for every team except for UC Santa Barbara should be higher than their season averages. It will be interesting to see how many people SMU can get to the game.

[bobbyake]

I went ahead and put together the stats for the Lady Zips:

[bobbyake]

I found attendance figures posted on University of Nebraska Omaha's website. Not sure if these are official, the NCAA website does not have them posted yet.

NCAA Division I Home Attendance
1. UC Santa Barbara 4782
2. Maryland 3781
3. New Mexico 3749
4. Connecticut 3579
5. Akron 3300
6. Louisville 3023
7. Creighton 2909
8. Cal Poly 2140
9. Clemson 2111
10. Wake Forest 2007
11. Indiana 1928
12. Saint Louis 1885
13. North Carolina 1828
14. Charlotte 1542
15. Notre Dame 1447
16. Virginia 1444
17. USF 1405
18. St. John's 1371
19. South Carolina 1327
20. Michigan 1136
21. Nebraska Omaha 1130
22. Portland 1112
23. Furman 1096
24. West Virginia 1087
25. College of Charleston 1017