Spring game attendance

The University of Colorado put together an attendance survey of all the spring football games this year (two yet to be played) and found that more than 1.3 million people attended 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, you can download the PDF here.

If you read the full chart, notice how different schools approached charging for admission. Locally, UCLA was free while USC was $10 (free for students and children age 12 and younger). 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 UCLA and USC would still only rank 8th 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, UCLA easily had its highest attendance in the last decade — 15,052 at the Rose Bowl. Previously, games were held on campus at Spaulding Field (holding maybe 3,000) or Drake Stadium (holding maybe 11,000). There were a lot of signs that interest in Bruin football is rising under new Coach Rick Neuheisel. This year's attendance was particularly impressive considering the game was held on a busy Saturday night in Los Angeles and the top two quarterbacks were out with injuries. An info clinic called Lady Bruin 101 sold out well before the game and taught about 150 people the fundamentals of football.

Chart courtesy Jason Siffring / Big Red Network