The announcers said it is 55,000.
Not a sell out…tons of empty seats at most bowl,games
This game is completely meaningless like most of the bowl games. Expanding the playoffs is the best path to increasing interest in the games.
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It wasnt meaningless for Baylor…Their first Sugar Bowl appearance since 56! If Brewer doesnt get hurt, Baylor could have continued their 2nd half comeback and game couldve become VERY interesting.
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To say the game is meaningless is promoting a fallacy. Does anyone think they want their last memory of a great season to be getting their ass kicked?
It didn’t seem to be meaningless to Georgia.
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It did last year !
The meaningless Cartel 4 Team Invitational is the main thing hurting bowl game attendance.
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Crappy bowls in locations no one would go to otherwise, and against teams one fan base thinks of as inferior, mid week, and with some weird sponsor, is why attendance is falling.
How many people went to our bowl disaster against army? I didn’t even follow any of it when it happened but it was the armed forces bowl so I assume it was in ft worth.
If the Sugar Bowl is meaningless, then every Coog game is meaningless since a NY6 is the highest an AAC can achieve currently.
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There are several factors for the low attendance. One, unlike Georgia, Baylor doesn’t have the fanbase to contribute to filling up the Super Dome. If the game featured Texas vs Georgia, or Michigan vs Georgia, the attendance more likely would have attracted 60,000 or 70,000 fans. Two, casual Louisiana fans are more focused on the national championship game in two weeks held in the Super Dome featuring LSU, which makes the Sugar Bowl a lesser interesting bowl game. Why spend limited personal discretionary funds on the Sugar Bowl when the mother of bowl games to determine the NC is two weeks away in the same stadium? It’s possible, if the NC game was being hosted in another city other than NO, the Sugar Bowl would have attracted more fans.
Here is an interesting report on bowl ticket prices for last season’s big games. Forking over these kinds of dollars for fans of teams that get there every year will start to add up. I am glad that I decided to go to the Peach Bowl in 2015 since UH has not come close to another NY6 since then but I am not sure I could justify $150 to $200 every postseason if the Coogs went to one every year.
This is why I like my idea for 8 team playoff starting with 4 major bowls, semis at higher seed, neutral championship. It will push the college season back another week, but would be worth it and be a much better situation for fans. These would have been the matchups this season:
Sugar Bowl - #1 LSU (SEC champ) vs #4 OU (Big 12 champ)
Rose Bowl - #2 Ohio St (Big 10 champ) vs #6 Oregon (PAC champ)
Orange Bowl - #3 Clemson (ACC champ) vs #5 Georgia (at large)
Cotton Bowl - #17 Memphis (G5 rep) vs #7 Baylor (at large)
I picked Cotton Bowl over Peach or Fiesta because Dallas is central and super easy to get to. Sure, you will have some years where #1 and #2 play in the quarterfinals, but who cares. Keep teams in their region and traditional bowl games. This system will never be used exactly like this because it is too friendly to the best G5 champ.
2015 matchups just for fun:
Sugar Bowl - #2 Alabama (SEC champ) vs #4 OU (Big 12 champ)
Rose Bowl - #3 Michigan St (Big 10 champ) vs #6 Stanford (PAC champ)
Orange Bowl - #1 Clemson (ACC champ) vs #7 Ohio St (at large)
Cotton Bowl - #18 Houston (G5 rep) vs #5 Iowa (at large)
A 12 team playoff as The NFL does would involve 11 Stadiums and thus solve most attendance problems
Could it be Baylor was the problem? I checked the Peach and Alamo Bowl attendance and both were close to sold out. In fact the Alamo was their 3rd highest attendence ever.
Baylor is a small school and doesn’t excite a lot of national interest. Their contingent of fans obviously does not travel well.
A good question is how the ratings were for hr sugar bowl.
Several posters mention that a big playoff would draw viewers wanting upsets, like in March madness.
I disagree and think schools with low attendance won’t draw much better when they get a chance to play a big game.
If I’m a casual NO or Louisiana football fan, why would I spend money to attend the Sugar Bowl to watch two teams with limited local interest at the Super Dome when LSU is playing for the N.C. in the Super Dome in 2 weeks? Answer: I wouldn’t attend the Sugar Bowl. I’m pretty sure the Sugar Bowl organizers didn’t expect LSU to be playing for the N.C.
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Brewer has left the last 3 games with a concussion.
The main thing hurting bowl attendance is the locations and the matchups, the Frisco bowl only holds 20,000 I think about 500 people showed up to watch Utah St and Kent St. Asking people to travel that far during the holidays isn’t realistic, it’s just dumb. Outside of the NY6 Bowls there should be regionally friendly matchups that people can get to without breaking the bank. There must be so much TV money involved that they don’t care if anyone shows up. Most of the bowls are more than half empty
The Superdome also hosts a Saints playoff game this coming weekend.
One week later LSU.
Sugar Bowl easily becomes the odd man out.
The Superdome is the worst stadium I’ve ever attended. However, it maybe a dump, but the party scene makes up for it.
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