Utah Football Attendance Increasing

Despite two recent losing seasons in the Pac-12, Utah is bucking the national trend for declining attendance for college football games. Attendance for Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football games has decreased to it's lowest average since the turn of the millennium. The national average attendance for FBS schools in 2014 was 43,483 fans per game. This is the lowest national average attendance since 2000 when the average was 42,631.

The Pac-12 has not escaped the downward trend in attendance numbers. Though the league's 2014 average attendance is higher than the national average at 52,758, attendance numbers are down two percent overall from 2013. In fact, of the twelve schools in the conference, only four of the twelve experienced an increase in attendance in 2014.

Attendance in Pac-12

Utah has bucked the trend of declining attendance, having drawn above capacity crowds since entering the Pac-12. Attendance at Rice-Eccles Stadium has shown a gradual upward trend since 2011.

The University of Utah is one of only two schools in the conference averaging over capacity crowds, the other being Oregon. Obviously Oregon's attendance can be tied to their recent run of success, while the move to a Power 5 conference certainly aided Utah's attendance numbers. As with Oregon, the winning of the past season spiked attendance. While the novelty of playing in the Pac-12 will wear off, four straight seasons of averaging over capacity crowds makes stadium expansion a worthy topic to be discussed.

The popular plan is to close the south end zone, increasing seating capacity to 55,000. This would put Rice-Eccles on par with stadiums such as Autzen Field and Stanford Stadium. This plan would add approximately 10,000 seats, while closing the end zone could increase the noise factor for opposing teams. Despite recent attendance figures, Utah athletic director Chris Hill says expansion plans are not imminent.

"If you look around the country, the data is not giving you information that crowds are expanding," Hill said.

Hill says he likes having a full stadium with the current capacity and despite the recent attendance numbers, isn't willing to overlook the general cultural shift in viewing college athletics.

"The fear is the proliferation of TV games, the changes of time for people," Hill said.

Hill doesn't rule out expansion altogether. In fact, the University of Utah has drawn up plans for expanding the south end zone. Still, Hill and the athletic department have given no timeline for expansion. So while Utah continues to have great attendance numbers, it appears any hopes of expansion will need to wait... for now.