Attendance & Crowd at the Tub

[mdove903]

Good morning Blue Hens! Really looking forward to getting a chance for our Hens to play another week. With that being said I saw some comments on the Delaware Football Facebook page from Montana fans how horrible the crowd was on Saturday. I have to agree with them, I felt there was as many Lafayette fans there, if not more. Our crowd doesn't even seem interested watching the game. No cheering, no excitement, and no energy. We have a Nine win team and one of only 16 teams now playing. If we make the move to the FBS I hope we get crowds and they actually make some noise.

GO HENS!!!

[bluehens2005]

Good morning Blue Hens! Really looking forward to getting a chance for our Hens to play another week. With that being said I saw some comments on the Delaware Football Facebook page from Montana fans how horrible the crowd was on Saturday. I have to agree with them, I felt there was as many Lafayette fans there, if not more. Our crowd doesn't even seem interested watching the game. No cheering, no excitement, and no energy. We have a Nine win team and one of only 16 teams now playing. If we make the move to the FBS I hope we get crowds and they actually make some noise.

GO HENS!!!

Absolutely even when the stadium is full you can hardly tell. I am sure the many years of us not doing well and not making the playoffs definitely had folks
Making other plans an no longer counting on UD football as one of them after the holiday. There are many factors to why our crowds are more on the lame side today, but to think those that showed up were the hardcore and it was so quiet in there is scary.

[udsb97]

We had an opportunity to grab the season by the bal** against Nova and we totally blew it. Not a person I know outside of the STH's had any interest in Lafayette and again, not knowing the accurate health of our QB or RB didn't help. I assumed O'Connor was out and didn't have a clue about Yarns. Same with this week but both may end up starting in Montana . Hard to get excited last Saturday even in person when your team is blah for the 1st half against a Patriot team.

Honestly listening to those not on gohens, all they see is the Hens beating a bunch of loser schools and getting smacked by Penn State and Villanova when it counts. The season will probably end with the Griz doing the same. The faithful will claim progress and wait until next year while the real world will forget about the Hens and move on . Sad but that's what I see.

Maybe a conference change will refloat the boat but if the regular season schedule is exactly the same, which is possible without the best CAA brothers in the pic , then you'll have the same doubt as to the quality of the product on the field or at the head coach position. I know that may sound weak on here but that's how the outside world looks at Hen sports.

[UD '01 grad]

Again, what do you want the crowd to cheer for in the first half. Four turnovers? Through halftime of Laffy game, that marked six consecutive blah (or worse) quarters of late November football.

Those that were there and wearing Blue and Gold were loud during the second-half comeback, with our maroon-clad brethren stunned into silence.

Agree with those on earlier thread who said there were more folks than the reported attendance. Good for Laffy for having a good road turnout. School is only two hours away or so.

[GhostOfThePeeWall]

The Hens have put on a clinic for the last two weeks as to how to immediately take the crowd out of the game. There was a packed house for Nova that was looking for any reason to cheer and were given none. Want crowd involvement? Don't go down 28-7 to start the game. There was plenty of excitement and cheering in the 4th quarter, but you're not going to get crowd involvement for a 3rd down when the team is down 3 scores.

This weekend is historically bad for attendance across the board, with the students at home and people travelling. I can't imagine playing the week after our yearly Nova beatdown is good for ticket sales either.

[rooneyguy]

Well, if UD is really going to CUSA, we won't have to complain about poor attendance for games played at home after Thanksgiving because there won't be any.

And, If the much discussed move to FBS does materialize, I would not be surprised if attendance numbers actually go down. Mid-week games, unfamiliar opponents, and preferences to stay at home and watch on TV "for free" will all contribute to that, not to mention some difficulties in being able to compete at that level for a couple of years. However, that's what college sports has become and there is no going back, IMHO. Rest in peace.

[BigBlueRooster]

Play off attendance is always relatively low even back in the 90's and early 2000's. I have seen the tub Rocking with 12,000 in the stands and dead with 20,000. Just enjoy the ride. We just won a play off game with a true freshman third string QB who had to step up and make some big time throws and he came through. Energy is contagious if you bring it those around you will join in.

[Baltimore Hen]

Absolutely even when the stadium is full you can hardly tell. I am sure the many years of us not doing well and not making the playoffs definitely had folks
Making other plans an no longer counting on UD football as one of them after the holiday. There are many factors to why our crowds are more on the lame side today, but to think those that showed up were the hardcore and it was so quiet in there is scary.

Nope! This is solely the result of an aging fanbase. UD football for as long as I have been associated, has always been quiet and subdued. They have done nothing to build a strong fanbase that is enthusiastic and boisterous.....they instead want a "family friendly" environment, which is great, but is all you are offering is an acitvity to do with the kids and not doing anything to bring in die hard football fans, you get what we see. an old fanbase, and families looking for something to do on a fall saturday with little to no interest in whats going on on the field...

[UD '01 grad]

Another thought ... maybe folks don't want to hear 25-year-old WWE-theme music and dance tunes/"Sweet Caroline" when the home team is down 21 points in the first half?

Someone should do a poll on that ...

[77HEN]

There would have been more energy and a larger crowd if the Nova game had gone differently. That loss was very deflating to all.

[hensfan40yrs]

As i have said before, at one time long long ago, Saturdays were Delaware Football for the whole state, it was the only show in town so to speak. Those fans are long gone (or pushed away) and today there are much more things to do on Saturdays, FCS or FBS, the needle wont move much.

[UD '01 grad]

As i have said before, at one time long long ago, Saturdays were Delaware Football for the whole state, it was the only show in town so to speak. Those fans are long gone (or pushed away) and today there are much more things to do on Saturdays, FCS or FBS, the needle wont move much.

THIS is the main thing. Festivals, travel sports (for families with young children and teens), breweries/wineries, anything and everything. There's only so much time and so many priorities.

[HensRock]

Baltimore Hen,
I feel just the opposite. They have NOT tried to make it Family-Friendly. One listen to the PA system blaring modern music at high decibels will tell you that. I think they are trying to appeal to the younger/student population. Problem is: no one in that generation is going to give rats azz about FCS football. They want to see their school on ESPN SportsCenter and maybe they can get on camera and become famous. That's what they want.

So in chasing this market segment, UD admin has actually lost the older generation of fans while the younger generation is simply not interested. Hence the low attendance numbers.

There are 2 solutions:
1. Do a 180 and target the older (now mostly gone) generation, getting them to indoctrinate the youngsters (like we used to do)
2. Move to FBS so the younger gen will actually give a damn.

Looks like we have our answer on which they chose.

[Brookside kid hen]

I grew up in those east stands at Delaware Stadium, we lived next door in brookside to Dr. Rylander and his wife, he gave my dad some tickets to a game when I was 8 in 1974 and I was hooked. Something me and my dad shared for all this time until he passed in 2022, following from afar, me in East Tennessee and him in South Florida. It's been a near lifelong obsession for me, I've made the trip the last two years for November games and it's not the same crowd or experience that it was before I moved away in 1990. I'm 58 now, so I understand that my dad's generation and now even my generation of fans is starting to die off, but the university really screwed the pooch in creating new fans, and keeping those generational fans( kids+grandkids) of fans like my dad and me invested in UD football and UD athletics overall. I know that several of you on the board have kept that tradition alive, but it looks to be like a lot more just don't care anymore. Hopefully with this move up a new generational handing down of the special thing that is Blue Hen football will start anew.

[Gannonfan]

I grew up in those east stands at Delaware Stadium, we lived next door in brookside to Dr. Rylander and his wife, he gave my dad some tickets to a game when I was 8 in 1974 and I was hooked. Something me and my dad shared for all this time until he passed in 2022, following from afar, me in East Tennessee and him in South Florida. It's been a near lifelong obsession for me, I've made the trip the last two years for November games and it's not the same crowd or experience that it was before I moved away in 1990. I'm 58 now, so I understand that my dad's generation and now even my generation of fans is starting to die off, but the university really screwed the pooch in creating new fans, and keeping those generational fans( kids+grandkids) of fans like my dad and me invested in UD football and UD athletics overall. I know that several of you on the board have kept that tradition alive, but it looks to be like a lot more just don't care anymore. Hopefully with this move up a new generational handing down of the special thing that is Blue Hen football will start anew.

It all turned in 2008 (or 2009, can't remember exactly) when they instituted de facto seat licenses, greatly inflated the price of a seat, told the 11k season ticket holders that they never really supported the program, and then didn't give them anything (even a new scoreboard) to go along with the steep jump in price. That gutted the generational family support that had been the lifeblood of Delaware football and we never got it back since. Hopefully, this is the start of bringing new people on who can restart that, I agree.