FB: Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[wildcat11]

Voice,

Sure....

1.   Size of School (scandihoovian you beat me to the punch).  I would hope that a school of 8,500+ undergrads could outdraw a school with about 1,600 undergrads on campus.  So just imagine the vast pool of parents and grads that a DIII school of Whitewater's size has to draw from on a family weekend, homecoming, etc.

Actually, I'm a little surprised that Whitewater doesn't draw more to their games with that many students on campus.

2.   Approximate location of other schools.  Not only do you have to consider your college's own fan base but the crowds that come out of town.  In 2004, Whitewater had 5 home games.  Lakeland is 2 hours away, St. Norbert is 3 hours away, SP is 2 ½ hours away, LAX is 3 hours way, and Stout is 4 hours away. (I'm not from Wisconsin so excuse me if my drive times are off some).
   
Linfield did have two of it's home game with teams that are only ½ hour away, WOU (4,000 att) and Willamette(4,500 att) but I'll get into why some of these numbers are under estimated.  The other 3 regular season games at Linfield had Whitworth (7 ½ hour drive, (3,000 att)), Menlo (12 hour drive(1,800 att)), and SOU (5 ½ hour drive(4,000 att)).   


3.   No true count at Linfield.  Linfield doesn't have counters at the front gate so there's no way to get a true count.  However for example, if you attended Linfield's 2004 home opener vs. Western Oregon you would know there was easily 5,000-5,500 people at that game and not the 4,000 that was reported. 

This one is much harder to argue because someone could easily counter and say that the attendance number might be over inflated since there is no true count. 

The best example of the "estimated attendance" was the last two playoff games in 2004 at Linfield.  They listed the Oxy/Linfield attendance at 5,000, which was probably very close.  Then, for the semifinals vs. Rowan, they had the attendance number at 4,000.  That's funny because the crowd for the Rowan game was bigger than the Oxy game.  It's no fault of Linfield's SID because he is only one man and has enough to season.

It's hard to say what Linfield really brings in for a game but they list total capacity at the 'Catdome at 4,000 people and they seem to have that 4,000 plus more for every 2004 home game (sans Menlo) that I attended.

[runningdevils]

My picks for the week

Augustana
Pac Lu
St. Francis
UWSP

What can I say, The WIAC is down this year.  This week doesn't help with the weaker teams playing better opposition, except a guarantee rout by UWSP.

[Pat Coleman]

That's odd about playoff attendance. Schools have to report the exact number of tickets to the NCAA as part of the reporting form, so there's an exact attendance available.

[wildcat11]

Pat,

I too find it odd that there was such a difference in the number between the Oxy game and Roway game.  If the number has to be exact then it must be a freak occurance that all three playoff games had round numbers:  Lax/Linfied: 4,500, Oxy/Linfield: 5,000, Rowan/Linfield: 4,000.

Maybe there is something I'm really missing but the Rowan game did seem more robust than the Oxy game.

[warhawkguy]

One of the problems WW has is that the UW is located less than 45 minutes by interstate, they play 6 or 7 home games a season and draw roughly 80,000 for each of them.  That costs us in attendance.   

Lakeland and St Norbert probably didn't bring 50 fans apiece last year.  Stout not more than 75.  LaCrosse and Point travel well but even then it's probably not more than a couple of hundred fans.   

[wildcat11]

Warhawk,

Those are good points.

The question I would have is this:  Would you rather have 4,500 a game in attendance with an 11,000 seat stadium or would you rather have 4,500 a game in a 4,500 seat stadium?

_{I know we would all rather have 11,000 in attendance in a 11,000 seat stadium but that's a rare bird that only SJU sees every now and again.}

[notfredfalcon]

My picks for the Week:

Stevens Point over Waldorf
Pacific Lutheran over River Falls
St. Francis over Eau Claire
Augustana over Platteville

[1_For_27]

Not to give SNC any credit cause I despise them with all my being but in 04 at the WW vs. SNC game at Perkins there were more than 50 fans, more like 550.  The SNC roster is made up of alot of Chicagoland preps and was closer for alot of football alums as well as parents.  As far as Lakeland goes they brought there fair share.  Also both of those games last year occured at night, which is always a good draw.  Good point about UW, the draws to these games is like nothing this FIB has ever seen, a great atmosphere for college football.  Go Badgers beat Michigan!!!!

[cawcdad]

Re the UW drawing away fans, U of O and OSU are both about an hour from Linfield and draw some large crowds. I think I agree with WC11. I used to attend quite a few University of the Pacific (IAA) games in Stockton, CA, before they dropped football. They have a 22,000 seat stadium but often would only have 11,000 to 12,000 people. It seemed empty. I would rather go to a game with the 4500 people in a 4500 seat stadium. As a side note, I was impressed by the number of people who traveled out to Oregon from Stevens Point last weekend and even from New Jersey for last years playoff game.

[warhawkguy]

I understand what you're saying about seating capacity, attendance and atmosphere Wildcat and in hoops I'd agree with you.  But football is played out of doors and 5000 people can make more noise than 4000 whether they are crammed on top of each other or not.  It isn't like our 5000 are spread out over a huge area.  The overwhelming bulk of them tend to fill the middle of the stadium with the outside sections having much smaller numbers.  I can tell you from experience that the place gets plenty loud.   

One of the big pluses of our stadium, imo, is the view the fan has.   It's excellent.  You're high enough to see what's going on regardless of where the ball is located but not so high that it's hard to see.   Smaller stadiums, though intimate, don't offer that sort of viewing angle for the fan.

We've had crowds approaching 8000 and our stadium has the capacity to seat them without any problems.  Does yours? 


There's no way there were 500 fans from SNC last year, no possible way and Lakeland's fair share doesn't amount to 100.  Even Point and LaCrosse don't bring 500 and they're head and shoulders the best traveling teams we see.   

[ticker]

snc had a pretty good following down there last year...we filled your visitor bleachers and then some...too many beers ago to make an accurate assesment, but I remember some of your fans being surprised that we traveled that well...

[Pat Coleman]

What I'm saying is that there is an exact number somewhere -- don't know why it wasn't included in the box score but there is a number.

[padmofu]

LC65- I've got you recorded for this week and last, but if you're picking for the WIAC season then tell me who you had for Stout-Pville two weeks ago. Other than that... do pastprime and WIACManiac go by any other names? No picks since week 1 from either of you.

[wildcat11]

We've had crowds approaching 8000 and our stadium has the capacity to seat them without any problems.  Does yours? 

No, we don't have crowds that have approched 8,000 people but we do have crowds that triple our student body of 1600 undergrads.  Does yours?

[oldpa]

Ok, enough. Linfield is the greatest team ever, and it's fans are the coolest, and their facility is the best in the world, and every one else sucks in comparison. Now, go peddle your papers somewhere else.