Syracuse Football: Home Attendance Increases by 6 percent for 2014 Season

Well color me surprised. According to a new report from CBS Sports (and written up by Syracuse.com), Syracuse's home attendance increased six percent in 2014, up to 40,447 fans per game. This mark includes the six Carrier Dome games, and does not count the Orange's contest with Notre Dame at MetLife Stadium. The report says the six-percent increase is the second-highest jump in the ACC, with only Florida State (nine percent) improving more. Syracuse.com points out that this number also bucks national trends, since attendance across the country was down four percent from the previous season.

Obviously this number comes with a grain of salt for Syracuse. We all saw what the Carrier Dome looked like either in-person or live throughout this miserable season, and the number is based on what schools report to the NCAA anyway, not actual attendance. However, every other school can do the same bit of number fabricating, so perhaps all things are really equal here?

Syracuse's 40,447 "fans per game" was ranked 57th in the country, but only managed to finish ahead of about 10 fellow power schools. Virginia, Northwestern, Colorado, Purdue, Boston College, Vanderbilt, Kansas, Washington State, Duke and Wake Forest had worse reported figures, respectively. No school in that group should REALLY surprise you, it just bums to see Syracuse bringing up the rear with those programs (as we have for quite a few years now). You can also look to a few other universities who may have taken additional liberties with their numbers -- even more so than SU did. I doubt I need to name names.

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So what can we take from all of this? The country's attendance is down overall as SO many games are being televised now (and nearly all in HD), it becomes difficult to legitimize paying the exorbitant fees and costs associated with attending your favorite school's stadium. In addition, there's the increasing population shifts from traditional areas in the Northeast and Midwest, more mobile graduates overall, and an SEC-centric product that could result in much worse products for fans of non-affiliated programs. Not finger-pointing. Just taking a look at some contributing factors, of course.

I guess, "nice job" to Syracuse for the attendance increase. And let's hope it continues -- in reality or otherwise.