Never a Crowd : SDSU Is Winning in Football, but Fans Stay Away Anyway
The temperature was 65 degrees at kickoff time last Saturday night, not a trace of rain or a wisp of wind was in the air. San Diego State, coming off a victory clinched in the last two seconds of its previous game, was playing Wyoming in a critical Western Athletic Conference game.
This an up-and-coming team playing a big game under perfect conditions.
A packed house? Not exactly. Attendance was a season-low 20,168, about one-third capacity in 60,409-seat San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.
It’s puzzling to all concerned.
“Penn State beats up Cincinnati and Rutgers and people come out and fill the place up because they want to watch Penn State,” said Fred Miller, SDSU athletic director. “We need that mode out here. People say this is a pro town, but the pros don’t play on Saturday night. People aren’t at the beaches when the sun goes down and not everybody plays tennis at night.”
Miller was attempting to counter the perception that San Diegans have numerous alternatives to attending a college football game. Frequently, he has said it may take three to five years before SDSU’s football program becomes attractive to the community.
In the meantime, the Aztecs may have to settle for crowds of 20,000 for important conference games.
“I don’t want to see this town embarrassed again,” Miller said. “This town has a complex. People seem to think that San Diego is not as good as Los Angeles . . . That infuriates me.”
Poor crowds also infuriate Miller, whose emphasis in 11 months on the job has been to improve the football program.
Miller said the Aztecs have done “exactly what we said” by having a winning season. Now, he’s wondering whether anybody cares.
Some theories why SDSU football may not draw well:
--San Diegans don’t identify with the WAC.
--People have been turned off the last several years by a losing team, uniform-design changes and shifting seats of season ticket-holders.
--Apathy among students.
Since SDSU entered the WAC in 1978, there has been an identity problem. SDSU and Hawaii have been isolated geographically from the other WAC teams--three of which are in the Colorado/Wyoming region, two in Utah and two in the Southwest.
“I talked to an out-of-town friend recently who said we don’t belong in the WAC,” said booster Tom Ables, who has attended all but two Aztec games during the last 40 years. “He mentioned how all the other teams are in one region, and we and Hawaii sit out here alone. Some people say we should be back in the PCAA (Pacific Coast Athletic Assn.). I can’t believe that in itself would be a better draw than playing Brigham Young or Air Force. Yet I can’t argue with the fact that it doesn’t intrigue people to see other WAC teams.”
SDSU attendance figures support Ables’ theory. The Aztecs draw better against Pacific 10 and PCAA teams than they do against the WAC.
“I think it was Wyoming,” said Vickie Larsen, SDSU ticket manager, about Saturday’s low attendance. “I don’t think it had to do with anything else. If we wouldn’t have been where we were in the standings, it would have been 15,000 for Wyoming.”
In 1978, SDSU’s first WAC season, the Aztecs had 22,030 season ticket-holders. This year, despite a ticket-selling campaign that began in March, SDSU sold 11,980 season tickets.
Winning certainly is a factor. The Aztecs had 17 consecutive winning seasons before 1978. They have had four winning seasons since, including this year.
Two uproars occurred in 1980. Claude Gilbert, then head coach, changed from the traditional all-black home uniforms to white pants and red jerseys, and season ticket-holders were required to move from the south to north side of San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium because the Aztecs switched benches to the north side so they would be facing the cameras on televised games.
“When you look at it pragmatically, a lot of groups have been alienated,” Ables said. “When you move seats or change uniforms, you alienate 1% for this and 5% for that. When you tick a guy off, he says, ‘I’m not coming back.’ The other thing is we haven’t been winning like we used to.”
The Aztecs steadily lost fans in the two years after switching season ticker-holder seats. From 1980-82, the season-ticket base went from 18,071 to 15,724 to 12,984.
“People were classified by priority and not all of them moved next to the people they had been next to,” Larsen said of the 1980 seat shifting. “The following year, a lot were not as happy in their seats because it was not as fun not having the same people around.”
In the student section, there are often numerous empty seats among the 12,500 available. There were 7,700 students for Long Beach; 12,000 for UCLA; 6,000 for Air Force, and 3,100 for Wyoming.
The student crowds may have decreased since the UCLA game because of restrictions after numerous fights in the stands. Students must now have a student identification card, game ticket and validated student fee card to enter in the stadium. Students have free admission, but they are counted in the announced attendance.
SDSU averaged 4,200 students per game last year and 7,200 this year.
“It’s true we had fewer students than hoped for the Wyoming game,” said Jim Herrick, associate athletic director in charge of marketing and promotions. “Still, we have practically doubled our attendance with students over last year. . . . There’s a time lag between winning and attendance, just like there was with the Padres. We’re in last decade’s mind set. We hope the fact we’re winning will pay off this week, next week, next year and five years from now.”
Aztec Notes A crowd of 30,000 is expected for SDSU’s home game Saturday night against Hawaii. . . . Free safety Steve Lauter has been selected to play in the Senior Bowl. Tight end Robert Awalt, who also will play in the East-West Shrine Game, was earlier selected for the Senior Bowl. . . . Defensive tackle Chris Kilby has been named to the District All-Academic team by the College Sports Information Directors of America. Kilby, who has a 3.57 grade-point average and is a criminal justice major, is on the ballot for the Academic All-American team.
Opponent Games Avg. Pac-10 4 36,728 PCAA 4 20,780 WAC 10 19,145