Pilots break attendance record

From the JMU game report-

The sellout was the third this season for Portland, which played its final home game of the fall. The Saturday night crowd of 4,879 ensures that Portland will lead the nation in both average and overall attendance this year. UP’s total attendance for the season of 47,082 obliterates the previous women’s soccer record total attendance for one season, which was set by Portland in 2005 (40,841). Portland remains the only school in women’s soccer history to crack the 40,000 mark.

The average attendance of 3,623 at Merlo Field this fall is slightly below last year’s (3,771) average and is the third highest in NCAA women’s history.

Actually, I'm not sure they have this quite right. The NCAA website shows that Texas A&M had an attendance total of 47,035 in 2006 (14 games), which would be the second biggest year in history, and is certainly well over the 40,000 mark.

Still, it's a great accomplishment for the program, it is a new record (barely) and it keeps us on top the leaders in attendance.

Here's the top 10 from 2006-(http://www.ncaa.org/stats/w_soccer/1/attendance.html)

Code:

 
Rank School Home Attend. Dates Avg. Att.
1. Portland 30,676 9 3,408
2. Texas A&M 47,035 14 3,360
3. Brigham Young 20,696 10 2,070
4. Notre Dame 24,719 13 1,901
5. North Carolina 20,771 11 1,888
6. Florida 15,896 10 1,590
7. Santa Clara 15,090 10 1,509
8. Connecticut 10,952 8 1,369
9. Texas 13,394 10 1,339
10. Florida St. 17,399 13 1,338


what i cant figure out is where was the student section during the playoffs?? i was at every game an while i couldnt see the student section at that time, when i got home an watched the game on my dvr, i was extremely disappionted to see the student section virtually empty for the games. i dont understand?!! the student section is the life an soul of this team, its just not the villa drum corp!!

Wow I'm up late tonight... But as soon as you start actually charging for tickets students tend to understandably shy away... I mean they are college students...

especially when the game is on TV...

Also... usually the student government (ASUP) will step in and subsidize tickets. Often they will have, say, 100 free tickets available and another 100 or so for $3 or something like that.

But this year, they aren't doing that because the ASUP Treasurer last year forot to carry a one or something and somehow spent way too more money than they had. So while normally there is a pretty sizable carry-over fund that they can use at their own discretion for things like this, that isn't available this year.

So... just a bummer of circumstance for the students.

I noticed that the UP attendance story line changed to reflect what I wrote earlier about attendance record.

The sellout was the third this season for Portland, which played its final home game of the fall. The Saturday night crowd of 4,879 ensures that Portland will lead the nation in both average and overall attendance this year. UP’s total attendance for the season of 47,082 breaks the previous women’s soccer record total attendance for one season, which was set by Texas A&M in 2006 (47,035). Portland remains the only school in women’s soccer history to crack the 40,000 mark in two seasons (40,841 in 2005).

The average attendance of 3,623 at Merlo Field this fall is slightly below last year’s (3,771) average and is the third highest in NCAA women’s history.

Well, that's not quite right either. I checked the NCAA stats, and the A&M stats, and the numbers are a bit different still. It's not entirely The writer's fault, because the A&M site only has stats on line for the first four games this year, one of which was an alumnae game which doesn't count towards official attendance records. In addition, the NCAA records contain at least 2 errors so it's safe to assume it might have more. It has UP's attendance for 2007 at 39,607 averaged over 11 home games, and UP claims 37710 over 10 games. The schedule only shows 10 games, so I assume the UP numbers are correct. The box scores are gone for last year, so I can't check.

For this year's A&M attendance figures, I went to the websites of A&M's opponents to gather the information from the box scores. Here's the best stats I can come up with. including corrections where I found errors.

Below is a chart of UP attendance records going back to 2004, and a comparison with Texas A&M, the only other program that competes with UP in attendance. Before that, average attendance at UP games hovered for several years at under 20,000 for the season and under 1,500 per game, and UP's place in attendance was around #4. You will recall it was about that time that UP decided to emphasize Women's soccer and Men's Basketball as the two marquee sports.

..............Portland.........Texas A&M...

year	att.	G	av.	att.	G	av.
2008	47,084	13	3,623	41,284	13	3,176
2007	37,710	10	3,771	37,781	12	3,148
2006	30,676	9	3,408	47,035	14	3,360
2005	40,841	12	3,403	33,634	10	3,363
2004	23,116	11	2,101	39,069	14	2,790

So, it appears A&M also has two 40,000-fan seasons to its credit. If we are looking for uniqueness to this season, it's the first year in history that two schools have surpassed the 40,000 mark. This is the first year since 2005 when UP has led in both total and average attendance. The last time A&M did that was 2004. UP has led in average attendance each of the last four years.

So congrats to us. Congrats also to A&M for the support it gets. A&M now charges for tickets, where it didn't previously.

Women's college soccer is definately growing. Now if there was just a little more emphasis on the Men's soccer program. . . I'd like to see attendance and attention grow there.

-SciFi

Since the men's and women's programs are admistered and coached together I have wondered why the men's program doesn't gain as much attention as the women. Is it all about winng or is there some other intangible?

I'd say winning has a lot to do with it. When I started watching UP soccer, they were going deep in the tournament every year and getting better attendance than the women. In fact, there were many double headers to get the attendance at the women's games up.

I would love it if the men and women were winning at the same time again. We had a weekend when I was in school with a men's playoff game Saturday and a women's playoff game Sunday. Soccer overload, baby.

Winning is a part of it, for sure. But so is the whole positive vibe of the women's team, which is compelling and attractive in so many ways that all of us who watch the team can relate to. Aside from winning, the oportunity to watch really talented players excel in a famly-friendly environment is unmatched by UP women in the Portland area. The men's team simply doesn't register with the female soccer fans in my family. Nor do the Timbers except as a once-a-season trip to PGE Park. (Villa Drum Corps= good; Timbers Army=rude). We started attending Pilots games when the odds of UP winning were maybe 50-50 -- just before Christine Sinclair hit town. Ever since, we've been on board full time.

purple haze wrote:. We started attending Pilots games when the odds of UP winning were maybe 50-50 -- just before Christine Sinclair hit town. Ever since, we've been on board full time.

Mmmm..... The pilots were never a 50-50 team from the time Clive took over the program. His winning percentage was in the high 700's and Garret's is now in the low to mid 800's. They have been in every NCAA tournament but one since 1992.

They were in the final four or finals in 1995,1996,1997, and 1998

Their absolute worst year in that stretch, (1999) they were 12-7-1 starting 8 freshmen sometimes. That team won UP's first national championship as seniors.

And if you are talking about home games, UP only lost about 8 games at home in the first ten years of Merlo Field's history. I think the tenth loss was about when Sinc arrived.

Maybe it just seems like we didn't win as much.

1999 was my first year at UP and they were pretty good even back then. They didn't get as much attention in those days so maybe it didn't seem like they were as good as they are now. Even in those days, though, they were making deep playoff runs and getting to the Final Four. Maybe it took winning a championship for people to realize what kind of program the Pilots had.

So is it only going to take winning championships for the men to get recognized? Or can the school do something else to help?

-SciFi

from the oldest article in the archives (08-23-2000)

SKY IS FALLING - LOSSES ON MERLO FIELD
REACHES DOUBLE DIGITS
Portland’s three losses in 1999 (6-3-1 at home), put Portland’s record on Merlo Field at 85-11-2 (.878). With its’ win, Virginia joined an elite group of three teams to register more than one win over Portland on the hallowed pitch. Virginia is 2-0 at Portland, joining Notre Dame (three wins), and North Carolina (two wins). Only seven teams have ever beaten Portland at home -San Diego, San Jose State, Virginia, Santa Clara, UCLA, Notre Dame and North Carolina.