Cardinal Stadium & National Football Attendance Evaluation

Mark BlankenbakerJuly 29, 2019

Despite adding on the North End Zone grandstand, suite and loge areas in 2018 Cardinal Stadium’s attendance for Louisville Football home games was an average of 50,250.7 per game. There was the unfortunate luck of the deluge of the 1st home game of the season vs. Indiana State essentially washing out any chance of a good opening crowd in the new expanded stadium. But as the season wore on the attendance from Cards fans continued to slip as did the play on the field.

Cardinal Stadium fell short of a capacity crowd by an average of 10,750 in 2018 as could be expected in a 2-10 season. The expansion however, can explain the ‘bump’ in attendance numbers overall as UofL averaged just 46,159.5 fans in 2017 (with Heisman Trophy winner Lamar Jackson playing his final season at UofL). The Cards fell just 8,840.5 fans short per game in 2017 so while the overall attendance number did actually expand in 2018 thanks to expansion so did too the % of available capacity.

The Western Kentucky Football match-up was the highest attended game in 2018 at 54,923 and is the 15th highest attended game in school history (again expansion will shift some facts as we move forward). But Louisville also played its first game of the season at a neutral site as is the trend in college football and the Cards lost to Alabama.

–	2018	2017	2016	2015	2014
–	44520	55588	53127	50019	55428
–	54923	47812	55632	55396	50179
–	52798	47826	55121	50121	51463
–	51658	44679	55218	41486	50227
–	49603	46787	51218	46158	55414
–	48265	34265	54075	51233	55118
–	49988	–	–	–	–
Total	351755	276957	324391	294413	317829
Average	50250.7	46159.5	54065.2	49068.8	52971.5
–	–	–	–	–	–
–	–	2013	2012	2011	2010
–	–	55332	55386	46157	55327
–	–	53647	47553	47228	51427
–	–	51586	53334	53267	48427
–	–	55168	50167	48435	55106
–	–	55215	53271	44817	48591
–	–	53027	44609	51321	43887
–	–	46421	45618	–	51772
Total	–	370396	349938	291225	354537
Average	–	52913.71	49991.14	48537.5	50648.14
–	–	–	–	–	–
–	–	2009	2008	2007	2006
–	–	39344	42696	42185	42597
–	–	39948	38694	40882	42704
–	–	37268	42208	40922	41549
–	–	21497	42523	40894	43217
–	–	33223	38319	34792	40348
–	–	23422	40384	39612	38476
–	–	–	37822	–	–
–	–	–	34796	–	–
Total	–	194702	317442	239287	248891
Average	–	32450.33	39680.25	39881.17	41481.83
–	–	–	–	–	–
–	–	2005	2004	2003	2002
–	–	42647	42681	40205	42660
–	–	40219	40220	38489	38109
–	–	41334	42032	40432	34127
–	–	42692	40107	38119	32428
–	–	41219	37617	30114	36253
–	–	37896	–	33268	35261
Total	–	246007	202657	220627	218838
Average	–	41001.17	40531.4	36771.17	36473
–	–	–	–	–	–
–	–	2001	2000	1999	1998
–	–	38129	42510	38147	42643
–	–	35214	41227	40332	38231
–	–	39256	38121	41214	35479
–	–	39389	39233	33879	39247
–	–	33627	38024	27261	32649
–	–	40479	30387	34786	40349
–	–	–	40328	41826	–
Total	–	226094	269830	257445	228598
Average	–	37682.33	38547.14	36777.86	38099.67

Attendance Slipping Nationally

Attendance around college football dipped sharply beginning with the 2017 season. A sport built around television might have finally found its in-person saturation point. FBS attendance remained at 37,000,000+ for a period of 10 years from 2007-2016 but then fell back to levels not seen since the 2006 season. Many programs expanded their stadiums during this era to accommodate for the growing crowds, but now many schools are looking at retractions of capacity and focusing on more premium areas (Alabama, Kentucky, etc.).

	CFB Total	FBS
2010	49,670,895	37,678,722
2011	49,699,419	37,411,795
2012	48,958,547	37,170,235
2013	50,291,275	38,135,118
2014	49,604,382	37,913,238
2015	49,057,966	37,957,921
2016	49,315,857	38,073,667
2017	47,622,196	36,632,625
2018	46,984,720	36,707,511