With the surprising Gophers (7-1) in an all-out blitz to qualify for a New Year’s Day bowl game for the first time since 1962, there will be monitoring not only of the team’s progress on the field but also at the box office. As of Monday morning an athletic department official reported sales of about 45,000 for Saturday’s Homecoming game against Northwestern in the 64,172 seat Metrodome. Advance sales for the two other remaining home games are 45,000 for Michigan and 54,000 for Iowa (and we know many of those attendees will be wearing gold and black, not maroon and gold).
These numbers may frustrate and mystify some but they shouldn’t. The Gophers annual average attendances for 40 years have mostly been in the 40,000 to 50,000 range. The only major breakthrough was the Lou Holtz era. In his second and last season here, 1985, the Gophers averaged 60,985, the best home average since 1957. He left behind a season ticket holder base of more than 50,000 and the 1986 Gophers averaged 55,848, the third best mark in more than 40 years.
Hats off to coach Tim Brewster, the staff and Gopher players for an astounding turnaround from last season’s 1-11 performance. The Gophers are playing winning football, featuring an exceptional turnover-causing defense, and surprising the college football world from Baudette to Bourbon Street. It’s just that two months of the superb will not undo more than 40 years of problems. Here’s a primer on why Gopher football attendance has been both mediocre and lousy all these years:
Ineptitude. The Gophers haven’t won a Big Ten Conference championship since 1967. During the last 20 years they have never finished second or third in the standings and only six times won half or more of their league games. Glen Mason, who took the Gophers to seven bowl games between 1997 and 2006, was 32-48 in the Big Ten. Jim (Geezo-Beezo) Wacker was 8 and 32 in conference games from 1992-1996.
Heartbroken. In the last 10 years the Gophers frequently had fast starts to their seasons and then showdowns with quality conference opponents only to lose those games. No defeat was worse than the 2003 loss to Michigan at home when the Gophers blew a 28-7 second half lead and lost 35-28 before a Friday night crowd of 62,374. A lot of those fans weren’t Gopher regulars and many were boiling mad after seeing the U crumble at the end. The next week the Gophers drew 38,788 at home against Michigan State. Being a fan has a lot to do with hope and until this season the Gophers were often consistent in raising expectations, then not being able to deliver.
Purple factor. No one at the U or over at Winter Park ever acknowledges it publicly, but pro football put a dent in Gopher interest in the 1960s and except for the Holtz years this has been a Vikings town for about 40 years. There are more NFL fans than college fans here and across the country. You can make a good argument that with all its tradition, color and variety, college football is a better product but the facts are that in towns where the pros and colleges collide for fan following, the NFL almost always comes out ahead. Just ask the folks at Miami University where the Hurricanes have for more than 20 years been among the elite of college football but frequently play to non-sellout crowds while the fans turn out in bigger numbers to watch the so-so Dolphins.