Spring Game Attendance

The University of Colorado surveyed attendance at all the spring football games this year (two yet to be played) and found that more than 1.3 million people went to 96 games for an average of 14,331 per scrimmage. Subtracting the top and bottom 10, the average dips to 10,710 -- about the size of a small tailgate party in the SEC. For complete results, download the PDF here.

If you read the full chart, notice how schools approached charging for admission. UCLA was free and USC was $10 (free for students and children 12 and under). The only school with a higher gate fee was Notre Dame, which ranged up to $15 (or about $5 per win last season).

These numbers aren't exactly certified (the survey warns "If marketing people are involved, some numbers could be inflated") and many seem to round to the nearest 100 or 1,000. Still, it's a good way to measure just how important football is to different communities. Note that the combined attendance of USC and UCLA would rank only eighth in the nation.

Over at the Big Red Network, Jason Siffring put together a great post with a bar chart (pictured) to give you a little perspective.

This year, USC set a record with 22,000 fans at Trojan Huddle. A little digging and some help from USC's sports information department reveals the following historical attendance data. All games were in the Coliseum unless otherwise noted. Also, the Coliseum scrimmage was often held midway through spring practice instead of at the end.

1998 - 1,000 (Howard Jones Field, raining, Paul Hackett's first year)
1999 - 2,000 (Howard Jones Field)
2000 - 4,000
2001 - 2,000 (raining, Pete Carroll's first year)
2002 - Unknown
2003 - 5,000
2004 - 10,000
2005 - 15,000
2006 - 15,000
2007 - 15,000
2008 - 22,000

Chart courtesy Jason Siffring / Big Red Network