K-State football attendance hasn’t fully bounced back in year without COVID restrictions
Chris Klieman acted as if he didn’t have a care in the world after Kansas State defeated West Virginia 34-17 last week at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
There was understandably plenty for the K-State football coach to be happy about. Everything seemed to be turning up Wildcats as they clinched a winning season, moved up the conference standings and improved their bowl stock by recording their fourth consecutive victory against a respected opponent.
Klieman called it “a great team win” and later proclaimed “we’ve got a really fun group to be around right now.”
Only one thing was missing from the celebration: A sellout crowd to share it with. There were only 43,932 fans on hand. It was the smallest announced crowd K-State has hosted for a football game since 2009, excluding last season when attendance was limited to 20% of capacity because of COVID-19.
Why? That is a question K-State administrators will try to answer as they work to attract bigger crowds in the future.
Large crowds returned to K-State football games this season. They just haven’t been quite as large as the Wildcats have grown accustomed to over the years.
The Wildcats sold out 39 straight home games between the 2012 and 2017 seasons. More recently, in 2019, they had three sellouts and averaged 48,818 fans at their seven home games. That number is higher than their biggest home crowd this season.
Here is a rundown of attendance for all six of K-State’s home games this season, which average 46,786 (also the program’s lowest number since 2009) in a 50,000-seat stadium.
- Southern Illinois: 47,628.
- Nevada: 48,768.
- Oklahoma: 47,690.
- Iowa State: 48,363.
- TCU: 44,339.
- West Virginia: 43,932.
Few have complained about the crowd sizes, as it’s only about a 5% drop from two seasons ago. Coaches and players are also appreciative to play in front of loud stadiums again, even if there are a few empty seats.
“It’s the greatest feeling,” K-State linebacker Cody Fletcher said. “Playing in front of fans again brought back memories of the first time I stepped on that field. It gave me chills and goosebumps. When you have a crowd behind you it changes the game completely. It’s way more exciting and way more enjoyable out there.”
The Wildcats (7-3, 4-3 Big 12) credit their fan support for helping them win seven of their first 10 games.
“I love the fact that we’re getting big crowds and you have to practice noise,” Klieman said. “We’ll practice (all week) for our defense because it’s so loud you’re not going to be able to talk to the guy next to you. It’s all hand signals. I watch some games on TV when I get home and see the crowds, and that’s what college football is all about.”
“I hope there’s great appreciation for what was missed last year with not having fans, and I’m hopeful we’re going to have a nice day on Saturday that a bunch of K-State nation comes out and celebrates the seniors one more time.”
K-State has an opportunity to finish its home schedule with a bigger home crowd when it hosts No. 11 Baylor on Saturday. But there is no guarantee more fans will show up.
The sections in the upper deck of the stadium’s northeast side have been empty the past two weeks and a high number of tickets remained available in those sections as of Thursday afternoon. K-State has been advertising single-game tickets as low as $25 all week.
Packing stadiums at pre-pandemic levels has been a challenge for both college and pro teams in many different sports. Convincing fans to spend their time and money at games when they can watch comfortably at home on massive TVs has never been more difficult.
K-State has come up with some creative ways to attract more fans this season, including beer gardens, new concession items and the return of fan re-entry before the fourth quarter.
But the Wildcats are still searching for their first home sellout since they hosted Oklahoma in 2019.
This story was originally published November 19, 2021 at 5:00 AM.