re: A&M Student "Section"

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Here's a breakdown from VT's ticket office. I have no idea when this was taken, but it looks like Georgia has a fairly high allotment, the highest in the SEC at 19% of their total capacity and 17,500 tickets.

Bowling Green leads the pack at 39% with A&M in 2nd at 36%.

Other SEC schools

Florida 25%/21,500
Arkansas 14%/10,000
LSU 16%/14,700

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Thanks for the info and link - good stuff.

Look at TCU's "Enrolled in Stadium" figure, very impressive.

I hope the Aggies keep the 30K student allotment and "finish" the stadium (i.e. other end zone) to accomodate the increased demand.

I saw Byrne's quote regarding decreasing football attendance nationwide - IMO that may be more of an NFL thing and not an SEC thing...

aTm stadium expansion

While I know the SEC has loyal fans unlike the Big 12, the facts do show that attendance has somewhat leveled out over the past few years, it doesn't just keep going up and up.

Total attendance at SEC games in 2006 was 6,586,408
Total attendance at SEC games in 2010 was 6,521,151

We can talk all we want about crazy growth, but at some point it does end. I know, alumni continues to grow and create new demand, but the facts show that there are less people interested in shelling out large portions of their shrinking disposable income on sporting events, even in the south.

People staying home to watch dozens of games in HD glory on their 70"+ TVs vs. spending thousands of dollars to score decent seats at a game is a reality.

Why not, they've been doing it for years already. I dont think you guys quite understand that even the old Ags like having a large student section.
It may decrease some, but its not going to be anything significant.

46,422 total, 36,952 undergrads, so sayeth the great and all knowing wikipedia. That was for spring 2011.

Larger than I assumed! Guess I should have known since the school is in Texas.

I like how people assume that A&M is some small college and we're going to have to figure out how to sell tickets and seat fans if we start playing in the SEC. Actually had this argument with my LSU-obsessed father who hasn't been to an A&M game in over a decade.

Aggies are insanely loyal even in down years. 76k will show up to see a creampuff game in a mediocre year.
Students pay half of face value for public seats, and they are guaranteed sales for crappy games. Any money being "left on the table" is made up when the marketing and fundraising people set the new "donation" levels for season ticketholders. And we're close to selling out this season.

The only way students lose seats is if they slack off in attendance; it's happened before. But otherwise, donors will give to keep them there.

IF we go to the SEC, I imagine we'll see the bowl closed to add visitor seating and luxury. I was involved in fundraising for the last stadium expansion, and that was how the big donors wanted it: suites/club in the zone, leave the student section alone.

But I agree demand will level off (especially if the team drops off like it did in the decade after our last stadium expansion) and you don't want to overbuild.

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That figure is how much they have allotted to the students not how many they have attend. TCU never sales out their stadium. Which means any student can go and has a seat. TCU just tore down there stadium and have plans to build a smaller one.

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You're trying to make it sound like TCU is downsizing from 50K to 30K to ensure sellouts. The stadium after over 150M in upgrades are complete will barely have fewer seats than prior but it will have far more SRO, club balconies, and suites, so the total possible capacity is actually going north of the attendance record set with Utah in '09.

Edit: plus there are plans for closing in the upper decks over the north endzone, which will add significantly to the capacity. The donors are there (as they always have been), but the athletics department is saying we're going to need to see at least a season of nearly all sell-outs, if not a season ticket sellout before they'll pull the trigger.

You're right about there always being enough seats for students though. That's one of the perils of being awful from the late 50s until the late 90s--there are lots of students and young alumni interested, but it's just starting to seep into the 30+ crowd. That doesn't change the fact that our student section has been jam-packed many times, and with the section having the capacity for every full-time student, that means a very high percentage was in attendance. I can think of half a dozen times it was like that when I was there and several more since.

good question - student ids were required to get through the gates on that side of the stadium when i was a student. i have a feeling that the students will be pulling tickets in large force the next couple of years. i would think the bleachers in the south end zone (open to anyone)could be dedicated to a larger visitor allotment

stadium expansion (enclosing the south end zone) would have to be the logical next step IF we're in the SEC and IF demand for open to the public tickets demand justified it