The CardBoard
We're #52 (in football attendance) - Printable Version

+- The CardBoard (https://thecardboard.org/board)
+-- Forum: C-House! (https://thecardboard.org/board/forum-4.html)
+--- Forum: The CardBoard (https://thecardboard.org/board/forum-5.html)
+--- Thread: We're #52 (in football attendance) (/thread-13227.html)

Pages: 1 2 3

Re: We're #52 (in football attendance) - CompSci87 - 12-19-2016

(12-19-2016, 08:34 PM)fullmetal link Wrote:[quote author=Farm93 link=topic=16297.msg183128#msg183128 date=1482204009]Certainly some will follow Stanford sports, but fewer will be passionate while on campus.  Very few will be loyal after they leave school, and many will turn on Stanford in an instant if their undergrad ever squares off against a team from Stanford.

That might be true, but there are a number of grad-only Stanford alumni in the local club who show up to events and follow sports.  There are also many who do not...
[/quote]

I barely knew that sports existed when I was a grad student at Stanford. But everyone's experience is different. Maybe football and other sports are publicized more to grad students these days.

Re: We're #52 (in football attendance) - CompSci87 - 12-19-2016

(12-19-2016, 08:34 PM)fullmetal link Wrote:[quote author=Farm93 link=topic=16297.msg183128#msg183128 date=1482204009]Certainly some will follow Stanford sports, but fewer will be passionate while on campus.  Very few will be loyal after they leave school, and many will turn on Stanford in an instant if their undergrad ever squares off against a team from Stanford.

That might be true, but there are a number of grad-only Stanford alumni in the local club who show up to events and follow sports.  There are also many who do not...
[/quote]

I barely knew that sports existed when I was a grad student at Stanford. But everyone's experience is different. Maybe football and other sports are publicized more to grad students these days.

Re: We're #52 (in football attendance) - 82 Card - 12-20-2016

In my day, attendance at sporting events by grad students varied. Law and business students had a pretty good participation rate. Other specialties seemed to have lower participation rates. I suspect that grad students who went to games as undergraduates, wherever they went, tended to continue to do so at Stanford. Those that did not go as undergraduates were not likely to start as grad students. Running into Med students in the stands was pretty rare. Don't remember premeds going to football games when I was at Penn either.

Re: We're #52 (in football attendance) - 82 Card - 12-20-2016

In my day, attendance at sporting events by grad students varied. Law and business students had a pretty good participation rate. Other specialties seemed to have lower participation rates. I suspect that grad students who went to games as undergraduates, wherever they went, tended to continue to do so at Stanford. Those that did not go as undergraduates were not likely to start as grad students. Running into Med students in the stands was pretty rare. Don't remember premeds going to football games when I was at Penn either.

Re: We're #52 (in football attendance) - CompSci87 - 12-20-2016

I went to basketball games when I was an undergrad at Marquette, just after the end of the Al McGuire era, when the team was still excellent. But somehow I never figured out what was up with any Stanford sports until years after I finished my degree. I don't think anyone I knew in the CS department went to games in any sport, except one master's student I knew who played women's rugby. I remember reading about The Play in the Daily.

A Stanford law student friend who had gone to USC as an undergrad organized a trip to a football game at one point, when USC was the visiting team. She took care of buying the tickets. I can't remember if that was before or after I graduated. Pretty sure it was the only Stanford sporting event I went to until years later.

Re: We're #52 (in football attendance) - CompSci87 - 12-20-2016

I went to basketball games when I was an undergrad at Marquette, just after the end of the Al McGuire era, when the team was still excellent. But somehow I never figured out what was up with any Stanford sports until years after I finished my degree. I don't think anyone I knew in the CS department went to games in any sport, except one master's student I knew who played women's rugby. I remember reading about The Play in the Daily.

A Stanford law student friend who had gone to USC as an undergrad organized a trip to a football game at one point, when USC was the visiting team. She took care of buying the tickets. I can't remember if that was before or after I graduated. Pretty sure it was the only Stanford sporting event I went to until years later.

Re: We're #52 (in football attendance) - Farm93 - 12-20-2016

(12-19-2016, 08:29 PM)jacketree link Wrote:Not that hard to root for 2 or 3 teams. When Tech played at Maples I was in my usual seat. Wearing gold ;)

Stanford shouldn't discount any potential fan whether or not they once went to school there.

That wasn't quite the "discount" I was going for.  Obviously any actual fan is a treasured part of the Stanford Athletics community, but overall one probably can count on 60-80% of Stanford Undergrads to attend at least one football game in their time at Stanford.  And for a much smaller percentage of grad students to attend.  Therefore, when tallying up Stanford enrollment, or the enrollment of any USA university, one should assume the grad students will attend at lower rates than the undergrads.  Essentially, discounting their collective enrollment count when predicting university-wide support.  That's true for any USA university BTW.

A school with 7,000 undergrads and 12,000 grads will have a very different level of student and alumni engagement with athletics than a very similar school with 15,000 undergrads and 4,000 grads.  Yes, obviously, some grad students can become very passionate, but overall grad students as a group are going to be less engaged in undergraduate sports than undergraduates.

Re: We're #52 (in football attendance) - Farm93 - 12-20-2016

(12-19-2016, 08:29 PM)jacketree link Wrote:Not that hard to root for 2 or 3 teams. When Tech played at Maples I was in my usual seat. Wearing gold ;)

Stanford shouldn't discount any potential fan whether or not they once went to school there.

That wasn't quite the "discount" I was going for.  Obviously any actual fan is a treasured part of the Stanford Athletics community, but overall one probably can count on 60-80% of Stanford Undergrads to attend at least one football game in their time at Stanford.  And for a much smaller percentage of grad students to attend.  Therefore, when tallying up Stanford enrollment, or the enrollment of any USA university, one should assume the grad students will attend at lower rates than the undergrads.  Essentially, discounting their collective enrollment count when predicting university-wide support.  That's true for any USA university BTW.

A school with 7,000 undergrads and 12,000 grads will have a very different level of student and alumni engagement with athletics than a very similar school with 15,000 undergrads and 4,000 grads.  Yes, obviously, some grad students can become very passionate, but overall grad students as a group are going to be less engaged in undergraduate sports than undergraduates.

Re: We're #52 (in football attendance) - 82 Card - 12-20-2016

Most of the crowd is not current students. If you assume that a third of the crowd is there for the visiting team, that still leaves a Stanford crowd that is 1.75 times the entire student population. I doubt even half of the student population at any level goes to the games regularly. That means most of the crowd is alumni, employees, family, friends or unaffiliated.

With a current undergraduate student population of 7,000, the total number of undergraduate alumni are going to be less than 70,000. Even if the alumni that come bring the whole family, 10% of all undergraduate alumni would have to be at each game to fill out the rest of the crowd. Seems unlikely given the dispersal of alumni.

Although graduate alumni probably have a much lower attendance rate than undergraduate alumni, there's more of them. There are more current graduate students and a lot of the programs turn over in less than 4 year. 

I'm guessing that  a big part of the ticket sales involves corporate accounts at silicon valley companies. Those are probably arranged by executives who are alumni. Are those more likely to be undergrad or grad alumni?


Re: We're #52 (in football attendance) - 82 Card - 12-20-2016

Most of the crowd is not current students. If you assume that a third of the crowd is there for the visiting team, that still leaves a Stanford crowd that is 1.75 times the entire student population. I doubt even half of the student population at any level goes to the games regularly. That means most of the crowd is alumni, employees, family, friends or unaffiliated.

With a current undergraduate student population of 7,000, the total number of undergraduate alumni are going to be less than 70,000. Even if the alumni that come bring the whole family, 10% of all undergraduate alumni would have to be at each game to fill out the rest of the crowd. Seems unlikely given the dispersal of alumni.

Although graduate alumni probably have a much lower attendance rate than undergraduate alumni, there's more of them. There are more current graduate students and a lot of the programs turn over in less than 4 year. 

I'm guessing that  a big part of the ticket sales involves corporate accounts at silicon valley companies. Those are probably arranged by executives who are alumni. Are those more likely to be undergrad or grad alumni?


Re: We're #52 (in football attendance) - Farm93 - 12-20-2016

(12-20-2016, 09:32 AM)82 Card link Wrote:Most of the crowd is not current students. If you assume that a third of the crowd is there for the visiting team, that still leaves a Stanford crowd that is 1.75 times the entire student population. I doubt even half of the student population at any level goes to the games regularly. That means most of the crowd is alumni, family, friends or unaffiliated.

With a current student population, the total number of undergraduate alumni are going to be less than 70,000. Even if the alumni that come bring the whole family, 10% of all undergraduate alumni would have to be at each game to fill out the rest of the crowd. Seems unlikely given the dispersal of alumni.

I'm guessing that  a big part of the ticket sales involves corporate accounts at silicon valley companies. Those are probably arranged by executives who are alumni. Are those more likely to be undergrad or grad alumni?

Stanford outperforms what would be predicted based on the size of the undergrad and/or grad alumni base because Stanford has quite a number of "friends".  I know many of the people that sit around me at Stanford events live in the area and just like attending Stanford games.

Stanford does not get the easy citizen of "fill in the blank" therefore fan of "fill in the blank" University category of fans, but outside of that easy affiliation group Stanford does a very good job at finding/building/keeping friends for many years.  And that's just the fans in the stands.  Goes without saying that few universities are as good at getting those friends to give money to the athletic department.

All of that was the point really.  Stanford is #52 in attendance, but given the size Stanford's undergraduate population (and undergrad alumni base) ~45,000 fans in the stands is really a decent showing.  That decent showing is driven by getting a decent number of grad students into the mix and a whole lot of local residents to care despite lacking any obvious affiliation to the school.

Re: We're #52 (in football attendance) - Farm93 - 12-20-2016

(12-20-2016, 09:32 AM)82 Card link Wrote:Most of the crowd is not current students. If you assume that a third of the crowd is there for the visiting team, that still leaves a Stanford crowd that is 1.75 times the entire student population. I doubt even half of the student population at any level goes to the games regularly. That means most of the crowd is alumni, family, friends or unaffiliated.

With a current student population, the total number of undergraduate alumni are going to be less than 70,000. Even if the alumni that come bring the whole family, 10% of all undergraduate alumni would have to be at each game to fill out the rest of the crowd. Seems unlikely given the dispersal of alumni.

I'm guessing that  a big part of the ticket sales involves corporate accounts at silicon valley companies. Those are probably arranged by executives who are alumni. Are those more likely to be undergrad or grad alumni?

Stanford outperforms what would be predicted based on the size of the undergrad and/or grad alumni base because Stanford has quite a number of "friends".  I know many of the people that sit around me at Stanford events live in the area and just like attending Stanford games.

Stanford does not get the easy citizen of "fill in the blank" therefore fan of "fill in the blank" University category of fans, but outside of that easy affiliation group Stanford does a very good job at finding/building/keeping friends for many years.  And that's just the fans in the stands.  Goes without saying that few universities are as good at getting those friends to give money to the athletic department.

All of that was the point really.  Stanford is #52 in attendance, but given the size Stanford's undergraduate population (and undergrad alumni base) ~45,000 fans in the stands is really a decent showing.  That decent showing is driven by getting a decent number of grad students into the mix and a whole lot of local residents to care despite lacking any obvious affiliation to the school.

Re: We're #52 (in football attendance) - DC 86 - 12-20-2016

(12-20-2016, 10:39 AM)Farm93 link Wrote:All of that was the point really.  Stanford is #52 in attendance, but given the size Stanford's undergraduate population (and undergrad alumni base) ~45,000 fans in the stands is really a decent showing.
Disappointment in Stanford attendance seems to be an ongoing theme, but for the reasons that you cite and others our attendance numbers should be deemed a success.
The schools that draw 90,000 to their spring games and sell out every home game tend to be located in relatively isolated college towns, often in places that have no pro teams in the entire state. USC only fills the Coliseum against marquee opponents, Miami has always drawn poorly even as they won 5 national championships. Considering that Stanford is located in the center of a major metro area with numerous entertainment options, not to mention two NFL teams, #52 seems pretty good to me.

Re: We're #52 (in football attendance) - DC 86 - 12-20-2016

(12-20-2016, 10:39 AM)Farm93 link Wrote:All of that was the point really.  Stanford is #52 in attendance, but given the size Stanford's undergraduate population (and undergrad alumni base) ~45,000 fans in the stands is really a decent showing.
Disappointment in Stanford attendance seems to be an ongoing theme, but for the reasons that you cite and others our attendance numbers should be deemed a success.
The schools that draw 90,000 to their spring games and sell out every home game tend to be located in relatively isolated college towns, often in places that have no pro teams in the entire state. USC only fills the Coliseum against marquee opponents, Miami has always drawn poorly even as they won 5 national championships. Considering that Stanford is located in the center of a major metro area with numerous entertainment options, not to mention two NFL teams, #52 seems pretty good to me.

Re: We're #52 (in football attendance) - TRD - 12-21-2016

(12-19-2016, 08:20 PM)Farm93 link Wrote:  Very few will be loyal after they leave school, and many will turn on Stanford in an instant if their undergrad ever squares off against a team from Stanford.

Well that is very unlikely to ever happen since I did my ugrad in Canada  :)  From my experience, a lot of post docs in engineering and the school of medicine did their ugrad outside of the US.

Re: We're #52 (in football attendance) - TRD - 12-21-2016

(12-19-2016, 08:20 PM)Farm93 link Wrote:  Very few will be loyal after they leave school, and many will turn on Stanford in an instant if their undergrad ever squares off against a team from Stanford.

Well that is very unlikely to ever happen since I did my ugrad in Canada  :)  From my experience, a lot of post docs in engineering and the school of medicine did their ugrad outside of the US.