There’s no question that there are more empty seats in Lane Stadium than there have been in years, but even with the decline in attendance, Virginia Tech still ranks among the ACC’s leaders in average attendance and percent of capacity filled.
With the regular season over, the official NCAA stats page lists the following figures for attendance among ACC schools – CLICK ON ANY COLUMN HEADING TO SORT BY THAT COLUMN:
| School | Cumulative Attendance | Average Attendance | Stadium Capacity | Percent Capacity | Games |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boston College | 198,035 | 33,006 | 44,500 | 74.2 | 6 |
| Clemson | 563,677 | 80,525 | 81,500 | 98.8 | 7 |
| Duke | 182,431 | 26,062 | 33,941 | 76.8 | 7 |
| Florida St. | 527,947 | 75,421 | 82,300 | 91.6 | 7 |
| Georgia Tech | 343,542 | 49,077 | 55,000 | 89.2 | 7 |
| Maryland | 233,269 | 38,878 | 51,802 | 75.1 | 6 |
| Miami (FL) | 376,857 | 53,837 | 74,916 | 71.9 | 7 |
| North Carolina | 360,500 | 51,500 | 63,000 | 81.8 | 7 |
| NC State | 425,420 | 53,178 | 57,583 | 92.4 | 8 |
| Pittsburgh | 348,188 | 49,741 | 65,500 | 75.9 | 7 |
| Syracuse | 229,661 | 38,277 | 52,000 | 73.6 | 6 |
| Virginia | 370,234 | 46,279 | 61,500 | 75.3 | 8 |
| Virginia Tech | 383,993 | 63,999 | 65,632 | 97.5 | 6 |
| Wake Forest | 170,484 | 28,414 | 31,500 | 90.2 | 6 |
There is no mention on the NCAA’s site about how attendance is calculated and reported, but, for example, if you have watched Miami play in Sun Life Stadium, you know there’s no way they averaged 53,837 fans per game, fourth-highest in the ACC. Their season-ending game with Virginia is listed as having attendance of 44,732. Uh … no.
Similar disparities exist in attendance figures reported throughout the conference. Most likely, each school reported tickets sold as attendance. Knowing that the numbers don’t necessarily reflect reality, it’s nonetheless interesting to look at them.
Worth noting:
- Virginia Tech is fourth in cumulative attendance (almost 384,000), third in average attendance (63,999 – couldn’t one more person have shown up?!?), and second in percent capacity (97.5% full).
- Cumulative attendance: Clemson (563k+) and FSU (528k) are far ahead of #3 NC State (425k, by virtue of eight home games) and Virginia Tech (384k). Wake Forest, Duke, and Boston College were south of 200,000 total attendance.
- Average attendance: As noted above, no way did Miami average 53,587 fans. Only six of the 14 ACC teams came in over 50,000 fans per game, with Wake Forest (28,414) and Coastal champion Duke (a paltry 26,062) scraping bottom.
- Stadium capacity: With stadium capacities over 80,000, Clemson and FSU have the most potential to generate revenue, as shown by their huge lead in cumulative attendance. Miami is the only other stadium over 70k capacity (74,916), but that’s comparing apples and oranges, because Miami rents their stadium. VT is fourth in stadium capacity at 65,632, just a smidge ahead of Pittsburgh (65,000) — again, a rented/shared stadium.
- Percent capacity: Every ACC team reportedly came in over 70% capacity, but as noted above, Miami in particular couldn’t have averaged 71.9% capacity in actual attendance … last in the ACC, and way too optimistic at that. Five teams came in above 90%.
Digging down into the NCAA archives, which go back to 2008, here’s what we found for the Hokies:
| Season | Cumulative Attendance | Average Attendance | Stadium Capacity | Percent Capacity | Games |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 383,993 | 63,999 | 65,632 | 97.5 | 6 |
| 2012 | 393,792 | 65,632 | 65,115 | 100.8 | 6 |
| 2011 | 397,398 | 66,233 | 66,233 | 100.0 | 6 |
| 2010 | 463,631 | 66,233 | 66,233 | 100.0 | 7 |
| 2009 | 397,398 | 66,233 | 66,233 | 100.0 | 6 |
| 2008 | 397,398 | 66,233 | 66,233 | 100.0 | 6 |
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Nc sun gets 8 home games. Would be nice.
Proud of Va. Tech fans as usual. Basketball, on the other hand would be abysmal-and hard to calculate with the percentage of students who occupy the facility. But, it might be a hoot-I guarantee We are dead last with a bullet.
I’m sorry, but there is absolutely no way in hell that Miami truly averages 53,000 people a game. For most of their home games this year I’ll bet there weren’t any more than 15,000 people in the stands.
Why did VT’s capacity change from 2011-2012-2013? And how did we exceed capacity in 2012 by more than 500 on average; where did these people sit/stand?
easy VT took out some regular seats for premium seats. This is to push more sales of premium seating. (these seats make more per seat than regular seating).
I believe the change (drop) in capacity was because VT redid the outdoor club seats … they were cramped, so VT wiped them out and replaced them with more expansive seating, thus fewer seats.
As for exceeding capacity in 2012, I’m not sure how that happened. The NCAA’s data may be off.
I think you could find info on how ACC teams report attendance – for example, it’s well known that UNC reports a number that is ‘estimated from the pressbox’, unless it’s a noted sellout before kickoff. VT is seats sold, as is Miami…some perhaps do actual counts.
I could do that, if I wanted to call all 13 other ACC schools. I obviously don’t want to do that. This is very much a “hey, look at this data … I think I’ll turn it into an article” type of article.
Ha-Ha. VT w/ more total attendance than UVa despite 6 home games vs 8.
Good thing ML got all his victories at home, otherwise the fans might be restless ;>)
Which reinforces, once again, that it truly sucks to be a Hoo!!!
Very surprised at Florida State, in a National Championship run, at only 91% of capacity.
I’m impressed by NC State fans showing so well for a lousy team this year.
Not bad with a couple of down years accourding to stats. But you can get numbers to say anything. I wonder what the actual attendence was per game?
Every ticket is scanned by a hand-held computer. Should be easy to get the attendance with the info inside those things.
Depends on if this is based on tickets sold or actual game day attendance. No way we had 100% attendance for 4 seasons straight. Even question when we had games where the visiting teams returned tickets and if we sold all to general public (FAU game?).