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Letters to the Editor

Attendance at football games has skyrocketed

Here are the facts as I know them. TCU is a school with an enrollment of between 7,000 and 8,000 undergraduate students: FACT. TCU’s football team is ranked in the top 15 football teams in the nation: FACT. The football team was also the highest-ranked football team in the state of Texas: FACT. The football team hasn’t been getting the fan support it deserves. There are people out there who would argue for the truth of the previous statement. I, however, am not one of those people.

I have seen many home football games in my three years at TCU, and this season makes me proud once again of Horned Frog football. Not since the days of LaDainian Tomlinson, Aaron Schobel and Casey Printers have I seen Amon G. Carter rock like it has this season. Wanna knock the student body for decreased attendance? Instead of tailgating through the whole game, more students are coming to games now more than ever. Just one look at our student section from the alumni section and the only holes you can see on the student side are the opponent’s section, and when the band leaves to play at halftime.

Think what you just read is pure junk? I’m not great at math, but let’s review the facts. At the Army game, the attendance was registered at more than 39,000 fans. In a stadium that has a capacity of 46,000, which means that over 80 percent of the stadium was full at any given moment during the game. Is it anything compared to UT, Texas A&M or Nebraska, all strong fan-supported schools? Certainly not, but there is a key fact that most people overlook when judging our “poor attendance.” Unlike Texas or Texas A&M, TCU obviously doesn’t have an enrollment of more than 40,000 students to pull from. Therefore, it is unfair to compare TCU to much larger schools that have large turnouts for football games. At the Army game, the student body accounted for 3,500 to 4,000 students at the game. While this doesn’t seem like much to some, even larger universities have a hard time getting at least half of their student body to come to their football games. It’s a matter of perspective.

I don’t pretend to be an expert on fan support, just an avid sports fan. TCU has a nationally televised home game against ranked Conference USA foe Louisville Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. I challenge the student body that if you haven’t come to a game all season, come out to the next one and support your 8-0 Horned Frogs. Let’s show the world how good our fan support can be. Let’s show those critics out there that there’s nothing like Horned Frog football.

— Alex Johnson, senior history major