The University of Akron put its first winning football team on the field in a decade last season but still struggled to attract fans to InfoCision Stadium.
The school — which had the worst reported paid attendance among all 125 NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision teams in 2014 — says the total number of fans going through the turnstiles rose 2.3 percent to 32,280 during six home games last season.
That’s an average of 5,380 per home game.
InfoCision Stadium, a sparkling facility that cost $65 million to build, holds about 30,000.
UA hopes that its winning season, which featured an 8-5 record and first-ever bowl victory at the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, translates to more fans in the upcoming season.
“Attendance always does lag performance,” said Athletic Director Larry Williams II, a former professional football player and attorney who took over the sports department in August.
“I’m really looking for big things coming next year,” he added.
With the university subsidizing football operations by about $8 million a year, UA officials have said they need a stronger football program. The school axed its baseball program last year as part of a series of cost-cutting moves and there have been complaints from some faculty and students about spending on football.
In an essay in the Wall Street Journal last month, the president of Drexel University in Philadelphia criticized schools that chase big football dreams, citing UA and its stadium as an example. His school doesn’t offer Football Bowl Subdivision football.
“Our Division I athletic programs create a strong sense of pride on campus,” he wrote. “But we focus entirely and exclusively on our mission: delivering a high-quality education for all students. More universities should feel welcome to join us.”
Attendance puzzling
The low attendance last season at UA games is puzzling for reasons beyond the improved product on the field.
UA blamed its poor paid attendance in 2014 on bad weather and multiple games being held on weeknights as part of the Mid-American Conference’s deal with ESPN. The team also was mired in its ninth consecutive losing season.
Last season, though, there were no Tuesday night games and the school hosted rival Kent State, giving UA a built-in advantage over the previous year. The weather again didn’t cooperate for some of the contests.
Williams blamed the response, in part, to a slow start to the season.
“We really didn’t get on our hot streak until the last half of the year,” he said, alluding to the fact that the team won its last five games. “I understand it a little bit relative to why the fan base may not have shown up to the start of the year. To give them credit, they vote with their wallets and their feet and they were saying, ‘No, we haven’t seen it yet.’ And we didn’t show them until the latter part of the year.
“I’m not going to be critical of the fan base or the local community. But my hope is that now that we’ve demonstrated that we can do it, that we can entice them to come out and vote positively with their wallet.”
Paid attendance
In a new report to the NCAA, UA says paid attendance — which is different than fans actually showing up — hit 92,570 last season.
The NCAA figures are based on estimates and include tickets bought by the university, school officials said.
UA purchased 58,992 tickets, estimated at $10 each, last season to inflate its average game attendance to meet a NCAA requirement to play at college football’s highest division.
It’s a common practice among universities that have difficulty filling their stadiums.
It also means that UA’s paid attendance figures bounce wildly up and down from year to year — and makes the reported NCAA figures less than reliable.
UA reported paid attendance of 55,019 in the 2014 season when it bought no tickets.
“Ultimately, the goal is to get to the point where there’s demand for our tickets and we don’t have to procure our own tickets,” UA Chief Financial Officer Nathan Mortimer said.
Student support
During the 2014 season, the university reported student attendance of about 11,000.
But last season, only 4,400 of the university’s more than 25,000 students showed up.
It’s unclear why student interest dropped so severely, although the lack of school spirit for sporting events is a problem for many colleges and universities nationwide.
In 2014 as part of a special promotion, the school gave away free tuition for a semester to three students who attended a game against Bowling Green.
That promotion didn’t return last season.
Sophomore Dan Danford, 20, a pre-med major from Columbus, attended the game offering free tuition. He hasn’t been back since.
“It’s just never really kicked off,” he said about his or his friends’ interest in the team.
But he did say it was great to watch UA on television winning a bowl game.
Danford and friend Evan Morris, 19, a freshman from Columbus studying digital forensics, said there’s more interest in the school’s successful soccer program.
Asked what would attract them to games, they both said higher-profile teams.
Moving forward
Williams knows that it’s important to energize the students.
He kidded that his college-age daughter has her nose stuck in her cell phone. It’s difficult to get her attention away from the phone, he said.
“We’ve got to ask hard questions about what they desire and how we might be able to deliver what they are looking for,” he said.
Williams, who played for the Cleveland Browns, knows that people in Northeast Ohio love football.
He wants to replicate the passion that fans have for the Browns at UA.
The university already is trying to drum up support for the team. The school pulled out the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl trophy last month and allowed fans to take photos with it.
Football coach Terry Bowden and the team also attended a basketball game this month urging fans to buy tickets.
While the university is still working on other promotions to drive attendance, Williams wants to turn each home game into a party and interactive experience.
He said there may be pre-game concerts and food trucks.
“This is Akron’s team,” Williams said. “This is Akron’s enterprise. Take pride in it. This is your team. I want people to experience that same sense of pride that drew me back here.”
Rick Armon can be reached at 330-996-3569 or rarmon@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter at @armonrickABJ.