Syracuse Football had a resurgent year in 2018-2019 after almost a decade’s worth of mediocrity or worse. Inside The Loud House will look at how on-field success last year will impact attendance going forward.
Syracuse football had a heck of a year in 2018. Anyone who pays attention to college football will know Syracuse, a team whom for the last decade who has played downright ugly (as the records will show), had a bounce-back year that finally put them back on the map.
Their ability to win games at home (6-0), and finish with a 10-3 record overall slowly but surely, prompted Syracuse football fans to come back and support their home team.
The attendance number reflected that as well. With each home game Syracuse football won in 2018, attendance grew. By seasons end, the Orange had drawn a crowd (for its final home game) of 42,797 against Louisville, according to Syracuse.com. That is the highest mark for Carrier Dome football attendance since LSU visited in 2015.
Let’s take that a step further though.
For the LSU game in 2015, there were a lot of visiting fans. However, the Louisville game this last year, that was clearly not the case at all as that mark was set by the fan base here in Syracuse, not visiting Louisville fans. That makes reaching that mark even more impressive doesn’t it?
For the 2018 season, Syracuse football had an average attendance of 37,043, the highest mark since 2014, according to Syracuse.com. Compared to 2017, which drew 33,931, that’s an increase of over 2,000 fans per game! So what should we expect for Syracuse football attendance going forward?
Well, if the Orange is just as good as they were last year, which they very well could be, it’s reasonable to expect similar numbers for attendance or for the attendance average to increase by another couple thousand fans or so if the team is ranked all year-long.
Heck, I would love to see the Loud House live up to its name averaging over 40,000+ fans each game next year. That may be a long shot, but by seasons end, if the Orange play well, it could be a possibility going forward.
If the Orange regress though back to 4-8, 5-7, or worse, then we could see a huge drop in attendance. To be honest Syracuse football really cannot afford that. With all the changes the program is making like hiring Dino Babers, changing the football uniform back to a style representing past greatness, and promoting the football team in ways they haven’t in years, it would be a huge step back. They have the foot in the door finally, now its time to make sure they stay.
Based on what we know on paper for next season, the Orange should be great again. There’s a reason they’re ranked by multiple media outlets in football previews/rankings for next year. They replaced veteran star quarterback Eric Dungey with a heck of a recruit in Tommy Devito who played well in his short stints at the helm last year. If you don’t remember, let me remind you below:
In addition, Syracuse football has pretty much every returning starting wideout from last year save for Jamal Custis. The secondary hardly took any hits, and the front line on defense led by Alton Robinson may be one of the best the Orange have had in years. Yeah, the linebacker corps is a work in progress, but they can develop and get better throughout the year. Barring injury, this team is more than capable with this upcoming schedule of pulling off another nine or ten win season.
https://twitter.com/syrfootball/status/1085614263786446849
Just looking at the home games in this 2019 schedule, Syracuse football will host Clemson, Western Michigan, Holy Cross, Pitt, Boston College, and Wake Forest in the Carrier Dome, next year. All those games are winnable. Clemson might be a stretch, but as this Syracuse football team has proven in recent years, they are one of the few teams in the country who can hang around with these big boys and even beat them.
The rest of the games though are either toss-ups the Orange should be favored in or games the Orange should definitely win. It’s not inconceivable to see another 6-0 or 5-1 finish next season.
As Field of Dreams once told us, “if you build it, they will come”. That motto fittingly fits this Syracuse football team. The program has finally built a winner, now let’s see if it stands. If it does, you better believe the fans will come once again.