Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium Attendance History

Mark BlankenbakerAugust 1, 2017

2016 was the highest average attendance season EVER in Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium history for Louisville with an average of 54,065.2 people in attendance for each game. The Wake Forest game was the lowest attended contest of the year at 51,218 with a kickoff temperature of 48 degrees was a night game and temperatures dropped throughout the 3 hour and 25 minute game. PJCS capacity is 55,000 and the Cards are expanding their facility to 65,000 while closing the North End Zone.

Just 6 home games prohibited UofL from having the most fans in PJCS in a given season with 2013’s 7-game slate still holding that mark.

2016 rebounded as Louisville was in the hunt for the College Football Playoff with Lamar Jackson winning the Heisman Trophy. This was in stark contrast to the 2015 season when Louisville began 0-3 resulting in the lowest average attendance since 2011 (also concidentally Teddy Bridgewater’s freshman season, like 2015 was Lamar Jackson’s freshman season).

Louisville Football has grown its attendance on an average of 4.23% each year since opening Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium. The new expansion will allow UofL to continue its growth rate in attendance. This season UofL will host defending national champion Clemson as well as Kent State, Murray State, Boston College, Virginia and Syracuse.

	2016	2015	2014	2013	2012
	53127	50019	55428	55332	55386
	55632	55396	50179	53647	47553
	55121	50121	51463	51586	53334
	55218	41486	50227	55168	50167
	51218	46158	55414	55215	53271
	54075	51233	55118	53027	44609
				46421	45618
					–
Total	324391	294413	317829	370396	349938
Average	54065.2	49068.8	52971.5	52913.71	49991.14

	2011	2010	2009	2008	2007
	46157	55327	39344	42696	42185
	47228	51427	39948	38694	40882
	53267	48427	37268	42208	40922
	48435	55106	21497	42523	40894
	44817	48591	33223	38319	34792
	51321	43887	23422	40384	39612
	–	51772	–	37822	–
	–	–	–	34796	–
Total	291225	354537	194702	317442	239287
Average	48537.5	50648.14	32450.33	39680.25	39881.17


	2006	2005	2004	2003
	42597	42647	42681	40205
	42704	40219	40220	38489
	41549	41334	42032	40432
	43217	42692	40107	38119
	40348	41219	37617	30114
	38476	37896	–	33268
	–	–	–	–
	–	–	–	–
Total	248891	246007	202657	220627
Average	41481.83	41001.17	40531.4	36771.17


	2002	2001	2000	1999	1998
	42660	38129	42510	38147	42643
	38109	35214	41227	40332	38231
	34127	39256	38121	41214	35479
	32428	39389	39233	33879	39247
	36253	33627	38024	27261	32649
	35261	40479	30387	34786	40349
	–	–	40328	41826	–
	–	–	–	–	–
Total	218838	226094	269830	257445	228598
Average	36473	37682.33	38547.14	36777.86	38099.67