Surge in Attendance at Men’s College Games

Attendance figures for college soccer in the men's game is sky-rocketing this year, and continues to highlight the growth of soccer in the United States.

Andrew Keh of the New York Times writes of the eye-catching figures that are popping up across the country for men’s games.

Cal Poly has drawn crowds of more than 8,000 twice this season. Last month Duke visited Maryland and played in front of 7,260 spectators. And Ohio State set a university record when it drew 7,255 fans for its game against Akron in September.

The magazine Soccer America reported last week that 35 men’s teams in Division I were drawing more than 1,000 fans a game this year, eight more teams than in 2009. Last season only two teams had average attendances above 2,500; eight teams are drawing at least that many this season. And this year each of the top 20 colleges in average attendance is attracting more fans per game than last season.

“On one hand, there is something big going on here, this slow growth of soccer in the United States,” said John Francis, a professor in San Diego State’s sports business master’s degree program who has researched the growth of soccer in the United States. “At the same time, there are interesting things and smaller stories emerging within this larger trend.”

Leading the swell is the University of California, Santa Barbara. Its athletic department has marketed the college’s campus and hometown as a so-called soccer heaven. The team will most likely shatter its record for average attendance in a single regular season, which it set last year with 4,335 fans a game. This year it is averaging 6,619.

On Sept. 24, Santa Barbara drew a crowd of 15,896 to Harder Stadium, its home field, for a game against U.C.L.A. It was the largest regular-season college soccer crowd since 1980 and the largest soccer crowd over all for an on-campus stadium. Mark Massari, the Santa Barbara athletic director, called the atmosphere electric and compared it to an English Premier League game, with thousands of fans raising scarves high above their heads.

Massari said Santa Barbara and other colleges were beginning to reap the benefits this season of a number of factors, including aggressive marketing, outreach to local youth programs and the entrenchment of teams into their communities.

Attendance at Santa Barbara games in particular is helped because the conference the university plays in does not sponsor football in the fall.

“On top of that, you throw in a passionate student body, a community that loves soccer and a team that plays an exciting brand of soccer,” Massari said. “It’s sort of a perfect storm happening.”