Football attendance review: Johnson Hagood Stadium, the SoCon, and FCS in general

Posted on July 15, 2025 by Sandlapper Spike

This post is primarily about home attendance at The Citadel, which is a subject I’ve written about many, many times over the years. My first post on the subject was in 2009. What can I say, I’m old.

I used to write about attendance every single year, but then 2020 happened and, well…

The first part of this post is a bit of a cut-and-paste job from previous writeups on this topic, along with new and updated information. I’ve updated the original spreadsheet, and also included some new spreadsheets for the SoCon, along with a brief review of FCS as a whole.

—

Here is a spreadsheet that includes attendance information for The Citadel at Johnson Hagood Stadium:

Annual attendance at Johnson Hagood Stadium, 1964-2024

The spreadsheet tracks attendance for The Citadel’s home football games and has now been updated to include games through the 2024 season. It lists year-by-year totals and average game attendance, and the win/loss record for the Bulldogs in each season. There is also a category ranking the years by average attendance.

I have also included home win/loss records for each season.

The 2020 season includes the four games played in the fall of 2020 (one of which was at home) and the eight contests played in the spring of 2021 (four of which took place at JHS). The games referenced on the spreadsheet for the 2021 campaign are only those that were played in the fall (technically some of them took place in late summer, but you know what I mean).

Other columns refer to the program’s winning percentage over a two-year, three-year, five-year, and ten-year period, with the “current” season being the final year in each category. For example, the three-year winning percentage for 1970 (54.84%) is made up of the 1968, 1969, and 1970 seasons.

I include those categories mainly to see what impact, if any, constant winning (or losing) has had on long-term attendance trends.

I have also compared average attendance for the first two games of a season to the last two contests of the same campaign, going back to the 2009 season. There are inherent sample-size issues when making such a comparison (weather, stadium construction [or deconstruction], opponent fan base, etc.), but it doesn’t hurt to see how things have shaken out. The fall 2020/spring 2021 sort-of-season is not included below, for obvious reasons.

  • 2009 [4-7 overall record]; First two home games, average attendance of 13,636; final two home games, average attendance of 11,736 (including Homecoming)
  • 2010 [3-8 overall record]; First two home games, average attendance of 10,904; final two home games, average attendance of 11,805 (including Homecoming)
  • 2011 [4-7 overall record]: First two home games, average attendance of 12,756; final two home games, average attendance of 12,387 (including Homecoming)
  • 2012 [7-4 overall record]: First two home games, average attendance of 13,281; final two home games, average attendance of 13,715 (including Homecoming)
  • 2013 [5-7 overall record]: First two home games, average attendance of 13,370; final two home games, average attendance of 12,948 (including Homecoming)
  • 2014 [5-7 overall record]: First two home games, average attendance of 9,700; final two home games, average attendance of 9,563 (including Homecoming)
  • 2015 [9-4 overall record]: First two home games, average attendance of 8,356; final two home games, average attendance of 12,465 (including Homecoming)
  • 2016 [10-2 overall record]: First two home games, average attendance of 13,299; final two regular-season home games, average attendance of 13,996 (including Homecoming); playoff game attendance of 10,336
  • 2017 [5-6 overall record]: First two home games, average attendance of 8,718; final two home games, average attendance of 9,496 (including Homecoming)
  • 2018 [5-6 overall record]: First two home games, average attendance of 9,559; final two home games, average attendance of 9,511 (including Homecoming and a rescheduled game)
  • 2019 [6-6 overall record]: First two home games, average attendance of 8,517; final two home games, average attendance of 9,141 (including Homecoming)
  • 2021 [4-7 overall record]: First two home games, average attendance of 9,503; final two home games, average attendance of 10,189 (including Homecoming)
  • 2022 [4-7 overall record]: First two home games, average attendance of 10,339 (including Parents’ Day); final two home games, average attendance of 10,022 (including Homecoming and a game against a non-NCAA/NAIA opponent)
  • 2023 [0-11 overall record]: First two home games, average attendance of 10,882 (including Parents’ Day); final two home games, average attendance of 11,016 (including Homecoming)
  • 2024: [5-7 overall record]: First two home games, average attendance of 9,723; final two home games, average attendance of 10,745 (including Homecoming)

Since 1964, the Bulldogs’ record at Johnson Hagood Stadium is 200-139 (59.0%). The average home attendance over that time period is 13,492. However, there has not been a season in which home attendance averaged more than 13,492 since 2012.

The current stadium capacity is less than 12,000, due to the demolition of the East stands in the spring of 2017. Thus, The Citadel will not see an increase in attendance to the levels of the early part of this century anytime in the near future (and if Charleston’s Board of Architectural Review, heavily influenced by NIMBY-ism, continues to hold up the process, the school might not get to replace the East stands until the sun turns red).

The higher attendance figures for the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s are even further out of sight.

Last year’s average home attendance of 10,225 ranked 52nd out of the 61 seasons included in this survey. The five lowest season averages in attendance have all occurred since 2014.

As always, I need to point out that the cutoff for accuracy in attendance numbers means years like 1959 (eight wins), 1960 (Tangerine Bowl victory), and 1961 (SoCon title) cannot be included for comparison in this review, not to mention any of the other years from 1948, when the most recent iteration of Johnson Hagood Stadium opened, through the 1963 season. I do not have a high degree of confidence in any “public” season attendance figures prior to 1964. ( A few skeptics might suggest I shouldn’t have a large amount of confidence in some of the numbers post-1964, either.)

It is generally accepted that the largest home attendance for The Citadel at any pre-1964 contest was for the Homecoming game against Clemson in 1948, when an estimated 16,000 fans were present for the dedication of the “new” Johnson Hagood Stadium. It is likely that more than twenty years passed before the stadium had a game attendance higher than that (when 19,276 fans attended the home opener in 1969, a 14-10 victory for Red Parker’s Bulldogs over Arkansas State).

Here are the top average attendance marks over two-year, three-year, five-year, and ten-year periods:

  • Two years: 1975-76 (18,250). Rest of the top five: 1991-92, 1979-80, 1990-91, 1989-90
  • Three years: 1990-92 (17,457). Rest of the top five: 1989-91, 1978-80, 1991-93, 1975-77
  • Five years: 1988-92 (17,126). Rest of the top five: 1989-93, 1975-79, 1976-80, 1990-94
  • Ten years: 1975-84 (16,250). Rest of the top five: 1983-92, 1974-83, 1976-85, 1984-93

Average attendance by decade:

  • 1964-69: 11,998
  • 1970-79: 15,053
  • 1980-89: 15,398
  • 1990-99: 14,955
  • 2000-09: 13,850
  • 2010-19: 11,179
  • 2020-24: 8,910

The 2020-24 period includes the 2020-21 home games. If those are discounted (as they probably should be for this exercise), the average attendance so far this decade is 10,254.

—

I’ll throw in this spreadsheet as well, which charts Homecoming games at The Citadel since the first such contest in 1924. It includes attendance for all but three of those games (and every game since 1960), so it is somewhat applicable for this post.

Since 1960, The Citadel has had at least 10,000 fans in attendance for Homecoming for every game except one (8,500 for a matchup against Furman in 1965). The record for Homecoming attendance is 21,811, set in 1992 when the Bulldogs played VMI.

Homecoming at The Citadel, 1924-2024

—

Now let’s take a look at the SoCon.

Here is a spreadsheet that lists the attendance numbers for all SoCon games (conference matchups only) in 2024:

2024 SoCon attendance (league games only)

(The formatting might not be ideal, but it gets the job done; at least, I hope it does.)

Last season, Chattanooga was the top overall road draw in league play. In four road games, the Mocs played before crowds averaging 10,293. Those numbers were buoyed by the location of those four contests, with the host schools being The Citadel, Furman, ETSU, and Western Carolina. Those four ranked 1-2-4-5 in home attendance for conference games.

Conversely, Mercer ranked last as a road draw, with an average of 4,171.5 fans, thanks almost entirely to playing away from home against Chattanooga, VMI, Samford, and Wofford, the four schools that made up the bottom half of the league in conference home attendance (with the Terriers bringing up the rear with an average of 3,589 fans per league matchup).

In 2022, Chattanooga played the same four teams on the road, and was the league’s road draw leader. That same year, Mercer was last as a road draw, playing the same four opponents as it did last season. In other words, the numbers probably say more about the teams they played than the Mocs and Bears.

There are a couple of things to note for 2024. Two games are not part of the home league attendance totals, due to the impact of Hurricane Helene. Furman’s home game against Samford was postponed and ultimately canceled, while Western Carolina’s home matchup versus Wofford was played before no fans (due to ongoing rescue and recovery efforts in that region).

The highest-attended league game in 2024 was Western Carolina’s home finale against VMI, with 13,022 spectators.

The lowest-attended league game (not counting the Wofford-WCU matchup referenced earlier) was, by far, Wofford’s home game versus Mercer on September 28, with an announced attendance of 1,219. Both teams were ranked at the time, and the box score listed the weather as “sunny”.

[Edit: a comment for this post alerted me to the fact that Mercer-Wofford was yet another game affected by Hurricane Helene. The surrounding area was mostly without power, traffic lights were down, and there were long lines for gasoline as well. We’ll give the Wofford community a mulligan for that one.]

—

The attendance for some of these games, particular those at Wofford, inspired me to compile another chart, this one listing attendance for The Citadel’s road matchups against current SoCon schools. I decided to start with the 1997 season, which was Wofford’s first as a league member (and was also the first year Chattanooga played in Finley Stadium).

Road attendance in The Citadel’s games against current SoCon schools, 1997-2024

The above spreadsheet doesn’t feature all of the Bulldogs’ league road games over that time period, of course, as it doesn’t include former SoCon members Appalachian State, Elon, Georgia Southern, and Marshall. It also lists games at VMI when that school was not in the conference.

Some of these totals have been fairly consistent over time (the games at VMI, for example), but there has been variance over the years, and there has also been a decline in attendance in some places. The last two games the Bulldogs have played against Wofford have been noteworthy in that regard.

I’m not sure what to make of that, particularly when The Citadel has been the best “traveling” fan base in the SoCon over the last decade and a half (a subject I wrote about a few years ago). How much of that has to do with The Citadel? What about the home support?

Perhaps it just comes down to philosophical changes in how to count attendance by certain school administrations. The long-term effect of COVID-19 probably needs to be considered, as well, at least when it comes to how people now allocate leisure time. I have to wonder if there is a difference between FBS and FCS in that respect — but to be honest, I don’t really have any idea.

In 2016, the SoCon average attendance (all home games, league and out-of-conference) was 8,386. Last season, it was 8,169. That isn’t a big difference, so alarm bells shouldn’t be going off around the league. It is something worth monitoring, though.

—

Finally, a brief look at FCS attendance. I wrote a lot on this subject two years ago. I’m not going over all that ground again, but I would like to make a few observations about the 2024 campaign from an attendance perspective.

Here is a spreadsheet that includes FCS home attendance for 2024:

FCS home attendance 2024

There are various columns on that spreadsheet besides the breakdown of 2024 attendance. I also included a column for 2023 average attendance, the average attendance for the 2012-2022 period (excluding fall 2020/spring 2021, and only listing the schools that were continuously in the subdivision during that time frame), and columns comparing the differential between attendance for 2012-2022 and the last two seasons.

Jackson State and Montana were 1-2 in attendance in 2024. Those two schools have occupied the top two places for most of the last decade.

The list includes two schools no longer in FCS as of 2025 (Delaware and Missouri State) and several schools that are recent entrants in the subdivision.

There were 25 FCS schools that averaged over 10,000 in home attendance last season. Of those, according to the participation release from the College Sports Commission, all opted in to the House settlement except for Holy Cross, Harvard, The Citadel, Idaho, and UC Davis.

On the other hand, 15 FCS schools averaged fewer than 2,500 fans per home game, with subdivision debutant Mercyhurst bringing up the rear (1,183 per game in four home contests).

—

Okay, I think that is enough about attendance for now. Soon, there will be 2025 attendance figures to discuss…

Filed under: Football, The Citadel | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

A brief review of FCS attendance trends: 2012-2022

Posted on July 25, 2023 by Sandlapper Spike

Last week, I published a review of home attendance at The Citadel (along with a brief look at last season’s attendance for Southern Conference games). For this post, I’m taking a look at FCS attendance as a whole for a ten-year period, 2012-22.

Of course, normally that would be an 11-year period, but I am not including games from fall 2020 and spring 2021. The COVID-era games were an obvious anomaly. A few schools played in the fall but not the spring, many played in the spring but not the fall, several played in both the fall and spring, and there were some that did not play at all.

In addition, attendance was restricted in most (if not all) areas for many of those games, and the actual accounting of attendance in some circumstances was — well, I won’t say dubious, but perhaps laissez-faire at best.

Ultimately, those games don’t reflect any trends from the past decade when it comes to attendance. I will acknowledge that the last two seasons could be considered to have been affected by the post-COVID world as well, and the statistics do bear that out to a certain extent, but I think including them in this grouping is reasonable.

—

I put together an unruly spreadsheet to track FCS attendance over the past decade. Here it is:

Historical FCS attendance: 2012-19, 2021-22

The compiled statistics are from the NCAA. I had to make some corrections and adjustments, both for formatting reasons and because there were a few inaccuracies.

One thing the NCAA does in some of its reports is include stadium size and the percent capacity filled. This leads to some issues, as not all of the listed capacities are correct. There is also the occasional school that plays home games at multiple facilities (Tennessee State, for example).

I don’t really know how to evaluate stadium capacity for schools that have permanent seating but also occasionally employ temporary bleachers, or including standing room only, or have “berm” areas. For instance, Merrimack has a football facility (Duane Stadium) with a listed capacity of 3,500, but last season reported attendance of 8,147 for its home opener and 12,622 for its homecoming game.

There are other schools like this as well (East Tennessee State, Montana State, and Sacred Heart, just to name three). In general, I don’t really think comparing and contrasting capacity is worthwhile, especially when the numbers are often questionable, and so I only included those categories for the 2022 attendance tab on the spreadsheet. Incidentally, I corrected some capacity figures in that column. (I also “weighted” Tennessee State’s stadium capacity to account for its home games at both Hale Stadium and Nissan Stadium.)

—

The first tab in the spreadsheet is titled ‘2012-22 FCS throughout’. That is my somewhat inelegant way of stating that the tab includes those institutions which were in FCS for the entirety of that time frame. There were 113 schools which competed in FCS for all 10 of those seasons (remember, fall 2020/spring 2021 is not included in these totals).

The average attendance for that collective ranged from a low of 7,294 (2021) to a high of 7,922 (2012). That is roughly an 8% drop-off, but last season’s attendance for the group actually rebounded to an average of 7,609.

I think a few people would be surprised at the relative consistency of attendance over that period. FCS attendance as a whole can be viewed as having declined to a greater degree, because the average attendance for the subdivision in 2012 was 8,575 (which can be seen in the spreadsheet’s tab for that season).

However, that 2012 average includes a slightly different set of schools. Appalachian State averaged 26,358 fans that year, and obviously the Mountaineers are no longer in FCS. Neither are Georgia Southern (which averaged 18,487 spectators per home game in 2012) or James Madison (22,783), among others.

The schools remaining in FCS have not collectively seen an abrupt decline in attendance. There are exceptions, to be sure, but they are on both sides of the equation, with increases (Holy Cross, Jackson State, Sacramento State) and decreases (Central Connecticut State, Lamar, Wofford).

That said, there might still be a “recovery” aspect to attendance post-COVID. Of the 113 schools in the group, 25 suffered their lowest average home attendance of this period last year. Conversely, 11 of the schools enjoyed their highest average attendance of that time frame last season (Alcorn State, Gardner-Webb, Holy Cross, Howard, Jackson State, Montana State, Murray State, Robert Morris, Sacramento State, Sacred Heart, and Texas Southern).

Of note, when taking into account all schools that competed in FCS in both seasons, 55.1% saw an attendance decline from 2019 to (fall) 2021. That is a collective of 127 institutions. For that same group, 52.0% had increased attendance from 2021 to 2022.

—
Of the 113 schools that competed in FCS from 2012-22, excluding the F20/S21 “season”, Montana was the attendance leader (24,153). Jackson State was second, and the only other school to average more than 20,000 fans per home game.
21 of the 113 averaged 10K+ over that period. The ‘median’ school in the group in the time frame was Towson (6,621). Obviously, the median was a bit lower than the mean.
That median-to-mean attendance relationship is present throughout the 2012-22 era, as this chart demonstrates:
Season Average Att. Median Differential
2022 7314 5986 1328
2021 7235 5677 1558
2019 7275 6467 808
2018 7326 6189 1137
2017 7798 6762 1036
2016 7777 6537 1240
2015 7765 6594 1171
2014 7630 6636 994
2013 7870 6894 976
2012 8575 7618 957

For the 2022 season, exactly half of the 130 FCS schools averaged 6,000+ in home attendance. While the average overall was 7,314, only 37.7% of the institutions actually had attendance in excess of that number.

In 2019, 70 of 127 FCS schools (55.1%) averaged 6000+ fans per home game. The 6,000+ mark was reached by 71 of 124 (57.1%) FCS schools in 2016, and 77 of 122 (63.1%) in 2012.

—

The spreadsheet also includes a tab listing the yearly attendance throughout the time period for the current (as of 2022) FCS schools. A few of them will not be in the subdivision going forward, of course (Sam Houston State, Jacksonville State, etc.). There is also a column indicating conference affiliation. While some schools changed leagues between 2012 and 2022, the listed conference is the one for the 2022 campaign.

The remaining tabs are for individual seasons. The default sort by year is for average home attendance, although the columns can be sorted in any manner.

—

I’ll be posting occasionally this fall about The Citadel’s football program, and FCS in general. There won’t be a set day or time. I’m just going to wing it this year…

Filed under: Football | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »