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Purdue football’s home season is now complete and at least it was entertaining. Purdue hosted three ranked teams and beat all of them. Ironically, it went 0-4 against unranked teams at home. Of the seven home games, five came down to the final minute and three were decided on the game’s final snap. It was a strange, strange season to say the least.
The good news is that we saw a significant boost in attendance for the second straight year.
Purdue Football Attendance
| 2016 | Attendance | 2017 | Attendance | 2018 | Attendance | 2013 (Hazell year 1) | Attendance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Attendance | 2017 | Attendance | 2018 | Attendance | 2013 (Hazell year 1) | Attendance |
| Eastern Kentucky | 32,074 | Ohio | 45,633 | Northwestern | 47,410 | Indiana State | 50,165 |
| Cincinnati | 33,068 | Michigan | 60,042 | E. Michigan | 47,661 | Notre Dame | 61,127 |
| Nevada | 41,607 | Minnesota | 42,085 | Missouri | 48,103 | Northern Illinois | 54,258 |
| Iowa | 40,239 | Nebraska | 41,411 | Boston College | 47,119 | Nebraska | 47,203 |
| Penn State | 33,157 | Illinois | 46,027 | Ohio State | 60,716 | Ohio State | 51,243 |
| Northwestern | 30,548 | Indiana | 52,105 | Iowa | 60,716 | Iowa | 41,038 |
| Wisconsin | 30,465 | Wisconsin | 46,114 | Illinois | 37,459 | ||
| TOTAL | 241,158 | TOTAL | 287,303 | TOTAL | 357839 | TOTAL | 342493 |
| AVERAGE | 34451.14286 | AVERAGE | 47883.83333 | AVERAGE | 51119.85714 | AVERAGE | 48927.57143 |
This year’s numbers are buoyed by a pair of sellouts against Ohio State and Iowa. The Wisconsin was technically the worst attended game of the year, but weather may have been a factor there. We gained an average of almost 3,400 fans per game, and having a 7th home game this year as opposed to just six last year was a huge factor. That’s an overall attendance bump of 70,000 fans.
The biggest jump is, of course, from Hazell’s final season in 2016 and this year. In just two years we’re up almost 17,000 fans per game. Each game this year had more than 46,000 fans per game while that season’s largest crowd was 41,607. If you have a conservative estimate that each additional fan paid $35 per ticket that’s a revenue increase of $4,165,000 in ticket sales alone from 2016 to 2018.
We’ll be tracking this next year again, but it is very nice to see Purdue’s revenues overall are on the upswing too.