JMU sets records for football season tickets!

[JMU Duke Dog]

http://www.jmusports.com/Team/Stories/2_3162.asp?TeamID=2&NewsID=3162

[RadMann]

Good news for JMU! UD appears to be headed to a record number of season tickets sold again this year as well..... Now if we could just get higher attendence at most other A-10 programs.....

[CrunchGriz]

High season ticket sales is usually an indicator of a quality program, but it has its downsides, too. For example, I'm very proud of the Grizzlies' 17K+ season ticket sales, but for someone like me (a far-flung alum) it makes getting a decent ticket a little tricky, even though the stadium holds 23K+.

Winning a championship helps in the sales department, too. Congrats to JMU on both counts.

[umassfan]

If you call 2,331 season tickets a good thing then ok but they just won the NC and that number is still low. UMass was over that before and after we won it all!

[mainejeff]

I have to agree with UMass fan.......I expected to hear that JMU had sold at least 7,000-8,000 season tickets.......of course I'd be excited as hell if Maine ever sold 2,000 football season tix.

[th0m]

If you call 2,331 season tickets a good thing then ok but they just won the NC and that number is still low. UMass was over that before and after we won it all!

Yeah, its not a huge amount, but a record nonetheless. There's also still 3 months remaining for season tickets sales ;) I'm sure many more will buy tickets when the season draws closer. Challenge now is that, when JMU will perform less than stellar, will it be able to maintain these numbers?

The new Athletic Performance Center probably helped in the ticket-sales as well.

[Tribe4SF]

I would have thought JMU had higher sales than that. Get that guy who pays for the streamers to buy more tickets.

A surprising stat on JMU attendance last year was that the VMI and UMass games drew more fans than the Delaware and W&M games.

[89Hen]

A surprising stat on JMU attendance last year was that the VMI and UMass games drew more fans than the Delaware and W&M games.
That is surprising given the crowd that UD brought and that they were excited enough to storm the field after the win.

[tribe_pride]

I think part of the problem might be the games that are at home this year: Lock Haven, Delaware St., and Towson are weak. Richmond was horrible last year as well. The other 2 games are Maine (Parent's weekend is always sold out I assume) and Villanova which is quality.

Their 5 away games suck though. Costal Carolina, Hofstra, UMass, Delaware and William and Mary. Guess JMU figured they are so good on the road that they should schedule most of their toughest games away.

[polsongrizz]

I think part of the problem might be the games that are at home this year: Lock Haven, Delaware St., and Towson are weak. Richmond was horrible last year as well. The other 2 games are Maine (Parent's weekend is always sold out I assume) and Villanova which is quality.

Their 5 away games suck though. Costal Carolina, Hofstra, UMass, Delaware and William and Mary. Guess JMU figured they are so good on the road that they should schedule most of their toughest games away.
No real fan looks at the schedule before buying season tickets. You are either a fan or not.

[SoCon48]

Would expect a defending national champ to top its own record in sales.

But an increase of 59 is nothing to write home about.
2,300 is good but not anywhere near earthshaking.

Sure wouldn't be throwing off on other I-AA programs' attendance. 17th in I-AA (12,790) is not that spectatcular.

[SoCon48]

By the way, I VERY MUCH envy JMU's performance, but not impressed with the attendance at all.

[Hansel]

JMU's avg attendance was 102% of capacity last year... not bad. Then of course they didn't have to play teams like Wofford and Elon- who would have dropped their attendance. ;)

[JMU Duke Dog]

Next year should certainly have the highest total and average home attendances at JMU. The attendance in the few seasons before the 2004 national championship season was extremely disappointing as many people would show up right before halftime just to watch the Marching Royal Dukes and leave right after the halftime show. Also, not many of the Harrisonburg residents are attendees of JMU football games. As long as success continues the attendance should stay constantly high enough to where expansion of Bridgeforth Stadium becomes necessary. JMU's student enrollment is approximately 17,000 with plans to increase to 25,000 students by around the year 2015. Currently Bridgeforth Stadium holds less than the total student enrollment with 13,559 seats.

http://www.jmusports.com/Facilities/Bridgeforth.asp

[th0m]

A surprising stat on JMU attendance last year was that the VMI and UMass games drew more fans than the Delaware and W&M games.

It's less suprising when you find out that VMI was the Homecoming game, and UMass was the Parent's Weekend game. Both games draw over capacity, no matter what the opponents are. (Kinda makes me think JMU should have scheduled Lock Haven and Del St. for those two games ;))

[bluehenbillk]

Congrats on your new sales record, but in all honesty that # of season tickets is kinda sad.

[Tribe4SF]

Sure wouldn't be throwing off on other I-AA programs' attendance. 17th in I-AA (12,790) is not that spectatcular.

That's 95% of their capacity. In I-AA that's pretty damn good.

Lots of new fans with last years excitement. JMU students (like W&M's), have historically been ambivalent towards the team. I heard one new student fan just before halftime of the W&M game at Bridgeforth. She was arriving with a group and scanning the scene as they emerged from the center tunnel. Wide eyed, she declared: "Whoa! Like, look at our school! We've got, like, spirit!"

[blur2005]

That's 95% of their capacity. In I-AA that's pretty damn good.

Lots of new fans with last years excitement. JMU students (like W&M's), have historically been ambivalent towards the team. I heard one new student fan just before halftime of the W&M game at Bridgeforth. She was arriving with a group and scanning the scene as they emerged from the center tunnel. Wide eyed, she declared: "Whoa! Like, look at our school! We've got, like, spirit!"
Typical JMU chicks...sweet but slow. But hey, they are HOT.

Also, you know JMU is going to make Bridgeforth a horseshoe by bowling in the scoreboard side here in a year or two, especially if success continues this year.

[UAalum72]

If the JMU chicks are slow, don't tell them about bowling in the end zone; they'll be worried about the football players slipping on the lanes and tripping over the pins.

[SoCon48]

95% of capacity?

Hmmm. If they had a 6,000 seat stadium, they would have 200% capacity and still not be impressive (except to the fire marshall maybe)

[JMU Duke Dog]

95% of capacity?

Hmmm. If they had a 6,000 seat stadium, they would have 200% capacity and still not be impressive (except to the fire marshall maybe)

I will attest to the fact that JMU football attendance has been disappointing and at times pathetic in the past. Currently, JMU is in the process of becoming more of a football school. People did not expect us to do well last year at the start, so home attendance did not start off strong as it was low in the first home game against Division II cupcake Lock Haven. We should have increased attendance figures next year if we are once again in the playoff race. JMU just needs to continue to work to gain more support from alumni and residents in the Shenandoah Valley.

Do you have a personal problem with JMU, Mr. I-AA 2005? You seem to be too adamant in trying to insult JMU attendance figures. Will you not rest until we have an average attendance of 30,000 people? If we sell out at every game this season and even include some standing room only tickets as we did at a few games last year, then the average attendance could be no greater than 14,000-15,000 people per game as Bridgeforth Stadium does not have the capacity to hold the amount of people you expect to have.

[th0m]

Typical JMU chicks...sweet but slow. But hey, they are HOT.

Also, you know JMU is going to make Bridgeforth a horseshoe by bowling in the scoreboard side here in a year or two, especially if success continues this year.

I don't want to be sound negative here, because being a JMU fan, I would like nothing more than Bridgeforth expanding, but do you have any concrete info that, one, Bridgeforth is expanding in a year or two, and two, the next expansion will be a bowled in end-zone?

All that I really know about is that there is a vision of having a 40k stadium, but I have not seen any official statements on how and when additions will happen.

Again, I hope I'm just not informed enough, but it sounds a bit like bowling in the end zone is "the next logical step", but that doesn't mean its gonna happen any time soon.

[Tribe4SF]

95% of capacity?

Hmmm. If they had a 6,000 seat stadium, they would have 200% capacity and still not be impressive (except to the fire marshall maybe)

Impressive to who? You? I doubt you're on their list of those that matter. Not on mine either, with that attitude. :asswhip: :spank: :mad:

[JMU2004]

lets put some of this crap to rest


the UD and W&M games had well over 14,500, and were more crowded than the 15,300 VMI and UMass games.

Most JMU fans laugh at the 12,790 avg attendance number.....Most posters on our board think actual attendance was about 1000 more.

We have THREE months left to sell the Season tickets......We broke the record in just under 1/2 the sale time. We'll finish around 3500-4000, which aint bad.

The endzone WILL be bowled in, but not within 2 years.......put it around 2010. Bridgeforth will continue to be a work in progress for the next 15-20 years, and it is already one of the top 1-AA stadiums.

Finally, some posters need to stop being jealous

[SoCon48]

Problem with JMU? I just don't think that 13K is enough to be chastizing the "rest of I-AA to up their attendance."

And who the hell is jealous? Certainly not the 16 schools above JMU's attendance ranking.

[JMU2004]

In reality, there are probably a few of those 16 schools above JMU in the attendance rankings that had "questionable" reporting procedures.

JMU ALWAYS under estimates attendance.....Many schools over estimate, or use nuetral, classics, or other methods to boost thier numbers.

Being conservative, JMU averaged over 13,300 for games held in 13,559 seat Bridgeforth. Four games were SRO with well over 15,000.......Two of those games would have drawn over 18,000 if students had been allowed in w/o tickets like normal (parents weekend and Homecoming).

Fan support is fine in Harrisonburg......relax.....things will only get better

[JMU Duke Dog]

Problem with JMU? I just don't think that 13K is enough to be chastizing the "rest of I-AA to up their attendance."

And who the hell is jealous? Certainly not the 16 schools above JMU's attendance ranking.

What JMU person was chastising the rest of I-AA to up their attendance? This whole thread was started by me just to state a simple fact about JMU. We are very proud of what is going on here at JMU and just wanted to share information. No JMU person ever insulted another I-AA school in regards to their football game attendance. I was surprised that there were only 16 teams with higher attendance than JMU. You just need to take a chill pill Mr. I-AA 2005. I hope the anger and hate you are displaying in your messages Mr. I-AA 2005 does not ruin your enjoyment of college football.

[mainejeff]

"Bridgeforth will continue to be a work in progress for the next 15-20 years"

Isn't everyone's stadium a work in progress for the next 15-20 years??? :confused:

[Tribe4SF]

Problem with JMU? I just don't think that 13K is enough to be chastizing the "rest of I-AA to up their attendance."

And who the hell is jealous? Certainly not the 16 schools above JMU's attendance ranking.

You must be mixing your threads somewhere. No one from JMU has been "chastizing the 'rest of I-AA to up their attendance'."

I'm sure the 16 teams ahead of JMU aren't jealous. Only the 103 who are below them. :rolleyes:

[eaglesrthe1]

I bet that I-AA 2005 would trade that extra 750 or so in attendance that App St had last year for that title that JMU won.

Yep, there is some jealousy being demonstrated here. It just doesn't have anything to do with butts in the seats.

[SoCon48]

Good lord, yeah, I wouldn't care if we drew 5,000 if we had that NC.

Tribe, Go back and read the second post!!! It's from Raddmann, whoever he is affiliated with.

[foghorn]

JMU DD, congrats on your fans' upward interest in your football team. JMU has come a long way in a short time, considering that some schools have had programs for over 100 years (UD for one). It's great that your season ticket base has increased and once the practice of getting season tickets becomes habit, or in vogue, it'll really take off. What's more significant is the large # of fans that turn up on game day.
No doubt, there are those who try to denigrate a successful program, it's definitely jealousy and just goes with the territory. Even though the Hens didn't repeat as NC's, it was still fun rooting for our fellow conference team in the championship.
Hope to see you and all the Dukes faithful at the Tub, October 22! This should be a game to remember. Go Hens!

[tribe_pride]

I-AA - Raddman was referring to the rest of the A-10 and not all of I-AA in that post. I don't remember where attendance info for individual teams is but the A-10 is only averaging 7,966/game and that includes Delaware's 20,000+. Without JMU and Delaware, the rest of the conference averages about 6,000/game as a guess. That definitely needs to improve.

My guess is that W&M about averaged 8,000 last year. From what I understand, that should improve because season tickets there is also higher. Like at JMU, I think W&M has been known to underreport.

[Tribe4SF]

Good lord, yeah, I wouldn't care if we drew 5,000 if we had that NC.

Tribe, Go back and read the second post!!! It's from Raddmann, whoever he is affiliated with.

He said, "Now if we could just get better attendance at some other A-10 programs".

So you didn't mix threads, you just can't read. Pretty obvious he's from Delaware, between the wording of his post and the picture of The Tub in his avatar.

[umassfan]

I-AA - Raddman was referring to the rest of the A-10 and not all of I-AA in that post. I don't remember where attendance info for individual teams is but the A-10 is only averaging 7,966/game and that includes Delaware's 20,000+. Without JMU and Delaware, the rest of the conference averages about 6,000/game as a guess. That definitely needs to improve.

My guess is that W&M about averaged 8,000 last year. From what I understand, that should improve because season tickets there is also higher. Like at JMU, I think W&M has been known to underreport.


Your wrong because UMass averages 8000 - 10000. Rright during our NC run we averaged 12000. Our football attendance goes along with our BBall teams success. So our football attendance will be back up again. Exp with our night games this year on top of homecoming vs JMU and band day vs prob Northeastern and the last home game being UNH. Our typical bad draw weekends are away this year finishing the year on a three game road trip.

[TheBisonator]

I'm sure that JMU and its fans are proud of its success in the sale of season tickets and everything, but just to keep it in perspective, NDSU is only one year removed from Division II and is still a transitional I-AA team, and we have a season ticket base of about 5,000.

[UAalum72]

Your wrong because UMass averages 8000 - 10000. Rright during our NC run we averaged 12000. Our football attendance goes along with our BBall teams success. So our football attendance will be back up again. Exp with our night games this year on top of homecoming vs JMU and band day vs prob Northeastern and the last home game being UNH. Our typical bad draw weekends are away this year finishing the year on a three game road trip.
http://web1.ncaa.org/d1mfb/Internet/attendance/IAA_AVGATTENDANCE.pdf

In 2004 UMass averaged 8,800 and W&M 8,300, but the total A-10 average, outside JMU and UD, was probably around 5700 - Towson, URI and NU all under 4K (somebody else can add up total # home games and total attendance for all those teams )

You really think a home game vs. Albany will help your average?

[SoCon48]

I apologize, the dude was right, the A-10's attendance does pretty much suck, so 12.8K isn't tht bad afterall. Big diff in Delaware and the rest of the league's attendance.

And UMassfan, Mass drew 8,838 pg last season.

[umassfan]

http://web1.ncaa.org/d1mfb/Internet/attendance/IAA_AVGATTENDANCE.pdf

In 2004 UMass averaged 8,800 and W&M 8,300, but the total A-10 average, outside JMU and UD, was probably around 5700 - Towson, URI and NU all under 4K (somebody else can add up total # home games and total attendance for all those teams )

You really think a home game vs. Albany will help your average?

Its a night game therefore the attendance will be good. Students will come because its at night and we will get our normal fans as well. We will have 12000+ for the Albany game!

[umassfan]

I apologize, the dude was right, the A-10's attendance does pretty much suck, so 12.8K isn't tht bad afterall. Big diff in Delaware and the rest of the league's attendance.

And UMassfan, Mass drew 8,838 pg last season.
Didnt I say 8000-10000?

[tribe_pride]

Umassfan - I never meant to imply that Umass had only 6,000/game. As UAalum said, I meant that if you take out Delaware and JMU, the total conference average attendance is around 6,000. Umass and W&M bring up the average and schools like Towson and URI bring it down. Sorry if I didn't write it clear enough.

As for W&M, we should have a big increase in attendance next year. Delaware and JMU are both coming to Zable. We host Liberty and Towson on Family Weekend and Homecoming (both of which should be sellouts) and only have one other home game against UNH (hopefully more in playoff time). Between that and the excitement from last year's playoff run, that 8,300 should be a lot higher. Not bad for a school of 5,700 undergrads.

[UMgrizzlies]

I would have thought JMU had higher sales than that. Get that guy who pays for the streamers to buy more tickets.

A surprising stat on JMU attendance last year was that the VMI and UMass games drew more fans than the Delaware and W&M games.

That is very suprising. I can witness to the fact that games between JMU, UD and W&M have quite the flare for the dramatic. You would expect those games would sell more.

[GannonFan]

Your wrong because UMass averages 8000 - 10000. Rright during our NC run we averaged 12000. Our football attendance goes along with our BBall teams success. So our football attendance will be back up again. Exp with our night games this year on top of homecoming vs JMU and band day vs prob Northeastern and the last home game being UNH. Our typical bad draw weekends are away this year finishing the year on a three game road trip.

What's the b-ball attendance reference about? The Mullins Center has been empty ever since the days of Marcus Camby and Lou "The Warrior" Roe. UMass b-ball since then has been awful and attendance has been awful right along with it (although getting rid of Lapas is a step in the right direction).

[grizbeer]

I think averaging 10,000 walk up fans for every game is very impressive. Places like Idaho have more season ticket holders than butts in the seats, and while it helps the finances it hurts the atmosphere.

Montana had this problem a bit with basketball, where there are a lot of season ticket holders that don't show up for games, so the best seats sit empty, and it really had an effect on game atmosphere. At least you know the 12,000+ people at the JMU games want to be there to support the program.

[UD1993]

i may late in all of this, but, who cares if the dukes season tix are less than 3k. you have to start somewhere.

at least there is a growing interest at jmu and like i read before, there is plenty of time for the number to grow. people have to remember that jmu is located a little off the beaten path. i'm not sure how many jmu alums stay in the area after graduation (i'm guessing not many) but i'm sure they are the ones who buy many of the season tix. also uva and tech are somewhat in the area so a casual football fan would be more apt to follow them.

17th in attendance seems ok to me considering the number of teams in I-AA. i don't think they will go any lower this year but it seems that all of the big games are on the road this year.

[EagleCrusade]

Was it 3000 season ticket holders or 3000 season tickets sold?

GS doesnt have 3,000 season ticket holders. If JMU does thats great stuff!

[Tribe4SF]

Was it 3000 season ticket holders or 3000 season tickets sold?

GS doesnt have 3,000 season ticket holders. If JMU does thats great stuff!

Clarify for me. Do you mean that each season ticket holder likely holds more than one ticket? Subsequently, if there were 3000 holders there would be many more than 3000 tickets? :confused:

[EagleCrusade]

Many times season ticket holders purchase more than one seat in their name(s). Like if Jim Bob buys season tickets, he probably buys 3-4 so he can take friends or clients.

If 3,000 people bought season tickets...that could easily be around 9,000 seats SOLD which is a very respecatble number. Most often an individual season ticket holders own more than one seat.

Does that make sense? Thats why if JMU has a record 3,000 season ticket holders why that number is great news. And if its just 3,000 tickets sold, that's still an automatic 25% of their stadium capacity sold for every game and its just now June.

[mainejeff]

I think that the JMU athletic dept. was just trying to drum up business (smart business move). I have no doubt that JMU has broken their season ticket sales record, it just seemed kind of stupid to have this big press release for such a fairly unimpressive number......but I understand the reason that they did it. It would sound much better if they had another release in mid-August stating that they had sold 5,000 season tickets to set a new sales record. Either way, it's good to see nother community supporting I-AA football.

[JMU2004]

Once again.....you are all missing the point!

Its not THAT we broke the record, it was the SPEED in which it was done.
To break the record is good..........to break the record with over 3 months left is fantastic for us

[Tribe4SF]

Once again.....you are all missing the point!

Its not THAT we broke the record, it was the SPEED in which it was done.
To break the record is good..........to break the record with over 3 months left is fantastic for us

I got that. Tribe also started early this year. We usually don't get season ticket package until late May, and we are within 100 or so of last years total already.