Crowd sizes for 2023. Any thoughts?

Ha! I've witnessed that during November FCS playoff games.

The ones that took place the Saturday after Thanksgiving and competed against the Iron Bowl?

Exactly.

Besides, I disagree with the supposed SOP of doubling attendance and adding 1,000.

I used to sit at games back in the pre- and post-2010 expansion days and make rough guesstimates of attendance simply by looking at each section of the stadium. If one appears full, count it as 1,000. If it's 3/4 full, call it 750. Half full, count it as 500. And so on.

Add em all up, and you get a number. Now, fudge with the last three digits to make it sound more believable: 14,500 becomes 14,304 or 14,628.

More often than not, my guesstimate was usually within a few hundred of the announced attendance. It was close enough on a regular basis that I was positive that was exactly how the official numbers were calculated.

It makes sense why this works so well: There are 23 sections (A-W) plus club level, or 24 sections total. Stadium capacity is 1,000 times that (24,000). Some sections (such as H and I) are much smaller than 1,000 seats, but that's offset by other sections which are a bit bigger, as well as attendees who are in other parts of the stadium (field house, press box, concessions, etc.).

For games where there was a discrepancy, such as playoff games in bad weather or games opposite the Iron Bowl, it seemed there was usually a solid reason why you'd end up with sold tickets and no-shows in the stands. Since the school had to account for the playoff tickets, one would expect those numbers to be closer to actual tickets sold than a quick guesstimate. If a season ticket holder stays home (or goes to Tuscaloosa/Auburn) to watch the Iron Bowl, that ticket still counts as sold, whether or not they used it to get into Burgess-Snow. So if I guessed 9,500 and the "actual" attendance was announced as 13,874, I didn't run around screaming, "ILLEGITIMATE!" I just figured a few thousand fans had trouble remembering which college they attended. And that's a whole 'nother discussion.

I’d have a hard time believing they got 15k for the season.


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