It's looking like I may be unexpectedly free to make the trip this weekend ... am I correct to assume I can just grab some tickets at the stadium on gameday? Should I bring a can of corn or anything else for admission?! lol
Kent State Tickets
- Thread starter MUHerd
- Start date
You guys crack me up poking fun at Kents attendance. Your superior attitude would seem to suggest Marshall is having to beat back the crowds that pack your stadium every week! I noticed a ton of empty seats last week at the Joan. The student side was not even half full. In Kent and Akron's defense, try sitting within a stones throw of the Cavs, Browns and Indians and getting attention. Marshall is the only game in town in the Huntington-Charleston market and your football attendance is ok (not great but ok) and basketball support is down right lacking. Huntington-Charleston have more than 500,000 people that should provide a captive audience.
You guys are obsessed with this topic because I guess it makes you feel superior. If I were you I would worry more about the scoreboard and not the other teams fan support.
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let's take a look:
akron: 23,000 undergrads, 700,000+ msa population, 9,170 average attendance in 2014
kent: 23,000 undergrads, 700,000+ msa population, 13,544 average attendance in 2014
marshall: 9,000 undergrads, 300,000+ msa population, 27,461 average attendance in 2014.
so our school, which has 37,000 less undergrads than the two combined, 400,000 less in our metro area, averaged almost 5,000 more people per game last year. yeah, defend them all you want, just make sure you donate a can of corn next time the bobkittens play up there.
you have Zero clue what it's like to compete in a professional sports market. The Miami Hurricanes are a perfect example. They have major struggles attracting fans despite playing in the ACC. Houston, Cincinnati, Rutgers, Rice, Tulane, San Diego State, etc all have struggles. Marshall has a great situation in that it's the only game in town and doesn't have to compete with anyone except WVU which is a couple hundred miles away.
marshall, like ohio u, has to compete with ohio state. seriously a couple hundred yards from our stadium is the river and just on the other side it's full of buckeye fans. just a couple miles west is kentucky and we have to compete with uk for fans, those people from eastern kentucky are more rabid uk fans that people in lexington. vt is just 2ish hours away, 45 minutes up I64 starts a huge wvu following.
marshall/huntington has a msa of about 300,000, in that is a significant portion of southeastern ohio (buckeye country), eastern kentucky (uk country), and putnam/lincoln counties in wv (a good portion of wvu country). we're competing directly with 3 power 5 schools in a much smaller population area, with a much smaller student body and significantly getting more butts in the seats than akron or kent state.
akron and kent have a huge student body to pull from, a huge msa to pull from with ohio state and pitt being really the only major schools remotely close, and yet they're lucky to get five figures at their games. that's why jokes are made.
kent and akron finished in the bottom 6 last year in fbs attendance. hell, if you take akron, ball state, and kent's average attendance last year and you have slightly more than we averaged per game with our worst home schedule in years.
I lived in South Florida. The fact that the Hurricanes have to compete against the Dolphins is ludicrous. NONE of the professional teams in Florida draw fly's. It is NOT a sports watching state.
The difference is Akron - Kent actually share a large TV market and sit 35-40 miles from ground zero of the Browns, Cavs and Indians. If you put Marshall that close to 3 major league teams, plus AHL Hockey and Double A minor league baseball you would get it. Also fans in that market are pro sports fans first. Cincinnati area universities have the same problem. Look at UC and you see the same issues. The pro teams suck all the oxygen out of those markets and teams struggle to get any attention. Toledo has a nice situation in that it has a decent market and some distance between itself and the Ohio pro teams. Even OU has a better situation than Akron-Kent and it sits in the most sparsely populated part of Ohio. Heck Athens county is bordered by 3 of Ohio's least populated counties (Vinton, Meigs, Morgan). But OU benefits from a very large full time traditional student population that reside within a 1 miles radius of the campus. It's no coincidence that OU and Toledo lead the MAC in attendance in both football and basketball almost every year for this very reason.
Ouch that hurt. And OU gets some basketball crowds in excess of 12,000. Who cares. I'm just worried about the W-L. OU's crowd this past Saturday for SE Louisana was 22,800 and some change. October 10 for Miami will be standing room at 25,000-26,000 and at the end of the year will have an average in the 22,000-23,000 range so we are doing just fine thank you. The weeknight games don't help however.
Relax Cat, my jab was one I have used before in reference to other college teams. I'm the only MU guy here that had your back with regard to Athens/OU in another thread.
GalliaCat I wished you well after Ohio beat us and hope your team does well. Now here you are trying to convince us how good the MAC is. Good for Ohio but not us. Go troll on some other board.
Apparently you care, as you felt the need to jump into a thread that has nothing to do with OU.
It was Norfolk friggin State dude. We did well to have as many show up as we did.
So your saying people show up to see the other team? According to Marshall fans the opponent shouldn't matter. That's what a lot of fans from this board preach in other boards.
I get that Norfolk was not a great opponent and 23,000 isn't a bad crowd. My point has been that all markets are unique and you can't simply say because Kent and Akron sit in a very large market that it should be easy to pack the stadiums. I realize Marshall does compete in terms of some bordering college fan bases but competing with the pro teams is a whole different animal.
I checked the OU records and Marshall's crowd this past Saturday would not place in OU's top 10. Including the game this year 3 of OU's top 10 home crowds have come vs. Marshall. However the top 3 are against New Mexico State, Akron and Idaho during three previous season. Apparently OU fans consider these teams to be OUr Super Bowls as well.
Absolutely that's what I'm saying. Mind you, I have no control over what anyone else says, and don't go to other boards.
Now, to the die hard fans that go whenever MU plays, maybe the opponent doesn't matter. But that's not true to casual fans. To the casual fans, the opponent is a consideration. The fact that we had 38,000 for Purdue and 24,000 for Norfolk is a perfect illustration of that point.
Still, a pretty fair turnout, IMO, for what was a glorified scrimmage.
I'm a Kent alum in Lexington and was coming to the game. You are saying I can walk up and get tickets for 15 dollars? I was going to get them online. Thanks.
You can probably get a pair of tickets for 15 dollars. Bring some bourbon to the game, and share, and you'll probably get a pair for free.
The post you cited was from 2 years ago. I imagine you can get from scalpers for $15-20 bucks. You can get at the ticket office when you get to the stadium. Kent fans sit on the east side of the stadium.
Go to Herdzone.com between 4-7 pm and use code - HERDHAPPYHOUR to get $5 off any seat. A general admission ticket is $20. Less the $5 = $15 for this game.
I'm serious about the 4-7pm.
Talk about a thread bump...
I have finally completed my bucket list- I found an argument about who has worse attendance between us and Kent state.. good Lord
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