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Annual Empty Report - 2016-17 Edition
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rabidTU2 Offline
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Annual Empty Report - 2016-17 Edition
Well folks, the grandaddy of all CFB magazines is now on the newstands, Phil Steele CFB - 2016 edition. Its a bit pricey at $13, but PS doesn't compromise the facts and stats to produce a cheaper product. This magazine is for the serious CFB fan.

I have done the "empty report" for several years now to show the relation of the BCS/P5 to the "others" - of which we are one. To clarify, the empty report is a comparison of empty seats between TU and some selected other schools. I usually selected the P5/BCS schools to compare, but this year I have decided to include our AAC conference brothers as well. Now remember, "empty" refers to the "average" attendance difference between the official number of attendees listed and the stadium capacity of the home field.

Now of course, the success of the teams is a huge factor and you must remember we were picked last in the AAC in 2015, yet ended up in a very good bowl at the end of the year. So the stats should reflect the idea we started out with low expectations.

School--------Stadium Cap-------2015 Avg Att-------Difference
Tulsa------------30,000-------------19,522--------------10,378
Houston---------40,000-------------33,980---------------6,020
Navy-------------34,000------------32,338---------------1,662
Memphis---------59,308------------43,802--------------15,506
SMU--------------32,000------------20,831--------------11,169
Tulane------------30,000------------22,930---------------7,070
Cincinnati--------40,000------------37,096----------------2,904
USF---------------65,857------------25,578--------------39,281
Temple-----------69,176------------44,159--------------25,017
UCONN-----------40,000------------28,224--------------11,776
ECU---------------50,000------------43,274---------------6,726
UCF---------------44,200------------30,065--------------14,141

Source - Phil Steele CFB Magazine

So that is the breakdown of AAC 2015 home attendance. Next I will compare our (TU) attendace to some other BCS/P5 schools.

More Later.
(This post was last modified: 07-05-2017 09:52 PM by rabidTU2.)
06-23-2016 10:22 AM
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jfisher Offline
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RE: Annual Empty Report - 2016 Edition
It is a shame Tulsa can't even get 20,000 people in the stands......they need to improve their marketing desperately!!!
06-23-2016 05:06 PM
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rabidTU2 Offline
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RE: Annual Empty Report - 2016 Edition
There are so many dynamics involved in attendance. My next post on this thread will hopefully address that. Empties are a lot more prevalent in CFB than people think. But schedules can make a difference when all is said and done. You might have noticed I'm very critical of scheduling the NCAT game and attendance is the main problem I have with that. One bad home opponent can spoil the attendance average because some folks don't want to waste their money on seeing a schedule that includes a team noone knows anything about, so they won't purchase a season ticket.

But I'm a big believer in making the parking situation better. Most folks don't agree, but I think we have to cultivate our fans more than some of the other schools we compete against. IMO
06-23-2016 06:46 PM
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rabidTU2 Offline
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RE: Annual Empty Report - 2016 Edition
So if we were to compare our program to "some" of the programs in the Big10, Big12, ACC, Pac12, would we stack up much worse than them? Well, lets cherry pick a few and look at this. Now you must remember that these programs have ALL the advantages. If they have a great year, they will be considered for the "Final Four" Bowls and the NC. They have the local news media fawning over them, have P5/BCS schedules built in and they are annointed with media dollars we will probably never experience. So again, let me cherry pick.

The BCS/P5 schools that average more empties than the University of Tulsa (10,378).

School---------------------------------Average Empties for 2015

Maryland------------------------------------11,562
Northwestern-------------------------------13,964
Illinois---------------------------------------18,023
Purdue---------------------------------------19,728
California------------------------------------13,667
UCLA-----------------------------------------24,278
USC------------------------------------------18,249
Arizona St-----------------------------------11,536
Colorado-------------------------------------10,794
Kansas---------------------------------------22,789
Boston College------------------------------14,295
Syracuse-------------------------------------17,160
Miami (FL)-----------------------------------17,421
North Carolina-------------------------------13,357
Pitt--------------------------------------------20,250
Duke------------------------------------------11,577
Virginia---------------------------------------18,215
(17 Total Schools)


UCLA is the National "Empty" Champion in 2015 with 24,278 (average) empties per game. BTW, their home schedule in 2015 included Virginia, BYU, Arizona St, California, Colorado, Washington St. Not a single La Monore or FAU on their home schedule to limit attendance.
(This post was last modified: 06-24-2016 08:39 AM by rabidTU2.)
06-23-2016 08:47 PM
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rabidTU2 Offline
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RE: Annual Empty Report - 2016 Edition
(06-23-2016 10:22 AM)rabidTU2 Wrote:  Well folks, the grandaddy of all CFB magazines is now on the newstands, Phil Steele CFB - 2016 edition. Its a bit pricey at $13, but PS doesn't compromise the facts and stats to produce a cheaper product. This magazine is for the serious CFB fan.

I have done the "empty report" for several years now to show the relation of the BCS/P5 to the "others" - of which we are one. To clarify, the empty report is a comparison of empty seats between TU and some selected other schools. I usually selected the P5/BCS schools to compare, but this year I have decided to include our AAC conference brothers as well. Now remember, "empty" refers to the "average" attendance difference between the official number of attendees listed and the stadium capacity of the home field.

Now of course, the success of the teams is a huge factor and you must remember we were picked last in the AAC in 2015, yet ended up in a very good bowl at the end of the year. So the stats should reflect the idea we started out with low expectations.

School--------Stadium Cap-------2015 Avg Att-------Difference
Tulsa------------30,000-------------19,522--------------10,378
Houston---------40,000-------------33,980---------------6,020
Navy-------------34,000------------32,338---------------1,662
Memphis---------59,308------------43,802--------------15,506
SMU--------------32,000------------20,831--------------11,169
Tulane------------30,000------------22,930---------------7,070
Cincinnati--------40,000------------37,096----------------2,904
USF---------------65,857------------25,578--------------39,281
Temple-----------69,176------------44,159--------------25,017
UCONN-----------40,000------------28,224--------------11,776
ECU---------------50,000------------43,274---------------6,726
UCF---------------44,200------------30,065--------------14,141

Source - Phil Steele CFB Magazine

So that is the breakdown of AAC 2015 home attendance. Next I will compare our (TU) attendace to some other BCS/P5 schools.

More Later.

Ranking Empties - Most to least
1. USF*
2. Temple*
3. Memphis*
4. UCF
5. UCONN*
6. SMU
7. Tulsa
8. Tulane
9. ECU
10. Houston
11. Cincinnati
12. Navy

*Off campus venues*
06-24-2016 08:54 AM
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rabidTU2 Offline
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RE: Annual Empty Report - 2016 Edition
So lets look at the leagues once again as far as attendance is concerned, but from the other end of attendance.

Teams with the smallest attendance in each league.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

G5 Teams

Sunbelt - Georgia St (10,347)

CUSA - North Texas (13,631)

MWC - San Jose St (15,312)

MAC - Eastern Michigan (4,897)

Independent - UMASS (11,133)

AAC - TU (19,622)

Once again the AAC leads the leagues in attendance - from the opposite end of counting. And of course, there were no premiere games on the schedule to spike attendance either. The MAC was by far the worst league from an attendance standpoint overall. Overall, the AAC and MWC were once again the best as viewed from the opposite end of attendance among the G5.

------------------------------------------------------------------


P5 Teams

SEC - Vanderbilt (32,134)

Big10 - Northwestern (33,366)

PAC12 - Washington St (29,407)

Big12 - Kansas (27,282)

ACC - Duke (26,427)

Again, its obvious that the P5 schools get a bump because of their schedules which are loaded with other P5's. Just look at Duke (lowest average P5). Their home schedule included Northwestern, Ga Tech, Boston College, Miami (Fla) and Pitt. But in spite of their advantages they only averaged 26,000 plus. And they also finished 8-5.

Source - Phil Steele CFBM
(This post was last modified: 08-11-2016 01:27 PM by rabidTU2.)
08-09-2016 07:25 PM
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Tulsafanzz Offline
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RE: Annual Empty Report - 2016 Edition
(06-23-2016 05:06 PM)jfisher Wrote:  It is a shame Tulsa can't even get 20,000 people in the stands......they need to improve their marketing desperately!!!

+ 1000!! Couldn't agree more, Fisher.

I think it starts with seeing TU athletics as the best sports entertainment option in a metro area of 1 million people, with no pro sports.

Instead, TU seems to pride itself as being "the smallest FBS school ". This may bring some internal athletic department pride in a "doing more with less " mentality.

However, I think this view leads to an under estimation of TU's athletic department potential. I think that played out with Tulsa being the only all sport AAC school to not even apply to the Big XII. ( BTW, if TU1978 is correct about TU applying, I will happily back off of that last statement.)
08-14-2016 03:42 PM
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rabidTU2 Offline
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RE: Annual Empty Report - 2016 Edition
I really hope noone takes offense to this next statement, but its just my opine.

Hiring a marketing person from Eastern Michigan Univ (which has the worst attendance in america for a DI school - less than 5,000 per game 2 of the last three years) as Dr Gragg did was not a good move for a school that struggles with attendance most years like TU. We need good home schedules of nonconference teams that bring a lot of visiting fans to Tulsa, but will not jack up ticket prices for our wonderful fans to pay, thus jeopardizing their patronage. Nor is the body bag one and done game a good thing since it forces our coaches to leave too soon for a better situation and our players to play in a no win scenario game.

Thanks for the input on this!!!!!
(This post was last modified: 08-14-2016 07:02 PM by rabidTU2.)
08-14-2016 07:01 PM
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goldenhurricane2 Offline
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Annual Empty Report - 2016 Edition
(08-14-2016 07:01 PM)rabidTU2 Wrote:  I really hope noone takes offense to this next statement, but its just my opine.

Hiring a marketing person from Eastern Michigan Univ (which has the worst attendance in america for a DI school - less than 5,000 per game 2 of the last three years) as Dr Gragg did was not a good move for a school that struggles with attendance most years like TU. We need good home schedules of nonconference teams that bring a lot of visiting fans to Tulsa, but will not jack up ticket prices for our wonderful fans to pay, thus jeopardizing their patronage. Nor is the body bag one and done game a good thing since it forces our coaches to leave too soon for a better situation and our players to play in a no win scenario game.

Thanks for the input on this!!!!!

The marketing director TU has right now is from James Madison university. Just FYI.
08-14-2016 08:59 PM
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rabidTU2 Offline
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RE: Annual Empty Report - 2016 Edition
Thanks for that info. I didn't know they had hired a new one. Nothing against the former Marketing person, but there hasn't been much to brag about on that front. Good move on TU's part.

But the schedule maker has as much to do with attendance as anyone. When you schedule a team from 1,500 miles away that noone knows about, the crowd will obviously be small, so the answer is "don't do that!" Its not rocket science.

I will say we need to pay attention to which visiting teams bring the most fans (who don't demand an unfair contract) and keep scheduling them. An example was Texas St a couple years ago and most teams from Texas usually will bring a good contingent of fans to Tulsa. But again, why NC A@T? We don't recruit there and have never played them before, so there's no rivalry factor. Makes no sense. IMO
(This post was last modified: 08-24-2016 04:53 PM by rabidTU2.)
08-14-2016 11:39 PM
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Hurricane Drummer Offline
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RE: Annual Empty Report - 2016 Edition
(08-14-2016 11:39 PM)rabidTU2 Wrote:  Thanks for that info. I didn't know they had hired a new one. Nothing against the former Marketing person, but there hasn't been much to brag about on that front. Good move on TU's part.

But the schedule maker has as much to do with attendance as anyone. When you schedule a team from 1,500 miles away that noone knows about, the crowd will obviously be small, so the answer is "don't do that!" Its not rocket science.

I will say we need to pay attention to which visiting teams bring the most fans (who don't demand an unfair contract) and keep scheduling them. An example was Texas St a couple years ago and most teams from Texas usually will bring a good contingent of fans to Tulsa. But again, why NC A@T? We don't recruit there and have never played them before, so there's no rivalry facotr. Makes no sense. IMO

I'll second Texas State. They probably brought more people than any other non-conference team we played in my 5 years at TU. I think they even had an alumni and/or fan tent set up on Harwell.
08-15-2016 04:12 PM
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rabidTU2 Offline
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RE: Annual Empty Report - 2016 Edition
(08-15-2016 04:12 PM)Hurricane Drummer Wrote:  
(08-14-2016 11:39 PM)rabidTU2 Wrote:  Thanks for that info. I didn't know they had hired a new one. Nothing against the former Marketing person, but there hasn't been much to brag about on that front. Good move on TU's part.

But the schedule maker has as much to do with attendance as anyone. When you schedule a team from 1,500 miles away that noone knows about, the crowd will obviously be small, so the answer is "don't do that!" Its not rocket science.

I will say we need to pay attention to which visiting teams bring the most fans (who don't demand an unfair contract) and keep scheduling them. An example was Texas St a couple years ago and most teams from Texas usually will bring a good contingent of fans to Tulsa. But again, why NC A@T? We don't recruit there and have never played them before, so there's no rivalry facotr. Makes no sense. IMO

I'll second Texas State. They probably brought more people than any other non-conference team we played in my 5 years at TU. I think they even had an alumni and/or fan tent set up on Harwell.

The reason we should schedule teams like that are because they cover our attendance numbers in the down years. Even if we have a bad team or a bad run of teams, those kinds of games help us through those seasons. IMO We should always schedule Texas teams if possible. Another team I'd like to get on the schedule from that region is UTSA on a consistent basis. They seem to travel well. We also need North Texas to improve, that is a school we can travel to easily and them here. Places we recruit should have the priority. But a contest versus a North Carolina DI-AA school is a game noone wants to attend.
(This post was last modified: 08-15-2016 08:14 PM by rabidTU2.)
08-15-2016 08:13 PM
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TulsaEye Offline
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RE: Annual Empty Report - 2016 Edition
Scheduling a team like North Carolina A&T is what I call desperation scheduling. Obvious some team pulled out at the last moment. Unable to schedule a D-I team Gragg or whoever pulls out their list of body bag teams. Teams who will play for a fee to keep money coming in to keep their program afloat. Almost any any other team from say Texas, or Louisiana would have been a better choice name wise. That didn't happen. Does the scheduler have the connections to pull that off probably not, most likely not though. Problem though is scheduling teams like A&T is just a short term solution. Wouldn't even call it a solution though. Attendance wise this kind of scheduling puts the Tulsa program into an attendance deficit. I can guarantee this game will have the worst attendance of the season. Hardly anyone from this area knows much about A&T or cares. You look at the rest of the football schedule, this game stands out as red herring. A&T was just a horrible choice. Too bad as the rest of the schedule is not that bad.
(This post was last modified: 08-20-2016 05:31 PM by TulsaEye.)
08-20-2016 04:28 PM
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rabidTU2 Offline
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RE: Annual Empty Report - 2016 Edition
Agree with everyones sentiments on this. Its a big mistake. IMO There just has to be a strategy in case some program backs out of the game and the cost of backing out needs to come with a hefty dollar cost to the "backer out team". That obviously wasn't Graggs fault as I understand. But it will cost us heavily in money, season tickets sold, and possibly a better bowl at seasons end. Scheduling an old Valley or CUSA or a Sunblelt team is a much better option. They would bring some fans from a place we might be able to recrtuit and who would spread the word of TU football and the city. But a North Carolina team? Shoot, we already play ECU here this year anyway!

I think the underlying problem with stuff like this (scheduling a team like NCAT) is Dr Graggs unfamiliarity with the TU program in general and the idea he spent time in the Arkansas athletic dept where they have a disdain and upity attitfude toward the TU FB program. IMO a TU AD who doesn't embrace the history and significance of the TU program needs to immdeiately re-educate on that. And now we get word the IPF is toast. Another setback under "the doctor".

So just exactly what has Dr Gragg done that justifies his position other than "sign off on" the hiring of PM? That was pretty much a done deal with or without his signature BTW. People have to be accountable for their failures as well as their accomplishments.
08-21-2016 11:30 AM
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rabidTU2 Offline
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RE: Annual Empty Report - 2016-17 Edition
Bump[/b]
(This post was last modified: 07-09-2017 11:47 AM by rabidTU2.)
06-22-2017 10:51 AM
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rabidTU2 Offline
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RE: Annual Empty Report - 2016-17 Edition
I do this every year because it puts attendance into perspective. For instance we have a 30,000 seat stadium and generally are 2/3 full of fans. Now thats not ideal of course, but its common place throughout the CFB world at both the FCS and FBS. So how does our "empty" attendace compare to our conference brothers? Well, lets take a look.

School---------------Stadium Max--------------2016 Attendance Average----------Difference---------------Empty Rank

USF---------------------65,857------------------------37,539---------------------------28,318---------------------2

Temple-----------------69,596-------------------------27,225---------------------------42,371---------------------1

UCF---------------------44,206-------------------------35,802----------------------------8,404---------------------6

Cincy--------------------40,000-------------------------33,585----------------------------6,415---------------------9

UCONN------------------40,000-------------------------26,796----------------------------13,204-------------------4

ECU----------------------50,000-------------------------44,113----------------------------5,887--------------------10

Houston------------------40,000-------------------------38,953----------------------------1,047--------------------12

Tulsa---------------------30,000--------------------------19,234---------------------------10,766-------------------5

Memphis-----------------56,862--------------------------37,346----------------------------19,516------------------3

Navy----------------------34,000--------------------------31,571-----------------------------2,429-----------------11

SMU-----------------------32,000--------------------------23,712-----------------------------8,288------------------7

Tulane---------------------30,000--------------------------22,718-----------------------------7,282------------------8


Source - PSCFBM


More Later
(This post was last modified: 07-09-2017 11:48 AM by rabidTU2.)
06-29-2017 10:49 AM
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rabidTU2 Offline
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RE: Annual Empty Report - 2016-17 Edition
There are several teams in P5 leagues that average more empties than TU. Here is the list according to PSCFBM.

SEC - Missouri

Big10 - Maryland, Northwestern, Purdue, Illinois

Pac12 - USC, UCLA, Cal

Big12 - Kansas

ACC - Boston College, Syracuse, Pitt, UNC, Duke, Virginia

The significance of this has always been that the schools in these P5 leagues have a built in advantage of scheduling other P5 teams at home, something that cannot be done at TU or the rest of the AAC at the moment.
(This post was last modified: 07-09-2017 11:48 AM by rabidTU2.)
07-02-2017 11:28 AM
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rabidTU2 Offline
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RE: Annual Empty Report - 2016-17 Edition
Teams from leagues other than the AAC who "win" the (low) attendance contest. Empties in parenthesis.


SEC - Missouri (18,932)

Big10 - Purdue (22,785)

PAC12 - USC (25,148)

Big12 - Kansas (24,243)

ACC - Pitt (22,324)

MWC - Hawaii (25,672)

MAC - Akron (19,663)

CUSA - UAB (50,159) *program restarted

Sunbelt - New Mexico St (19,308)

Source - PSCFBM
(This post was last modified: 07-09-2017 11:49 AM by rabidTU2.)
07-03-2017 08:20 AM
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