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Oklahoma Draws 23,000 For Red/White Game..

D

deliveryman35

Hall of Fame
Jul 26, 2003
13,006
1,199
287
57
Gadsden, AL
Visited the OU boards this evening and saw where they only drew a little over this amount to their game today, and just thought I would throw it out there for general discussion. There's no question who has the better program, but I'm really surprised they dont have the fan enthusiasm that we do. Frankly, I was shocked...I would have thought at least 40,000 would have come out to Norman just to see Bob Stoops.
 
:biggrin2:Using the old Coach Bryant phrase when he called Auburn one day and Shug was not there early..."Ya'll must not take your football seriously out there!"
 
Ah, I don't know, 23,000 is kind of low, just being honest.

I know we haven't always gotten as many as we have the past two years, but in recent times we almost always drew somewhere in the neighborhood of 30,000-40,000. That's a pretty good bit more than what the Sooners brought, and unfortunately we haven't been fielding anywhere near that good of a team as of late.

In 2003 with Price, I specifically remember us getting over well 40,000, and that was in the middle of freezing cold weather on a very dreary day. Even Auburn this year, I think, drew 30,000 or so.
 
I think there a couple of reasons for the low number. First, even though football is huge out there, the spring ball isn't as big as it is in Alabama. Well, I'm not sure it is as big ANYWHERE honestly. There are usually 4 scrimmages during the spring that are open to the public and those usually draw around 2,000 each time so people can see the Sooners a good bit during the spring.

Second, EVERYONE is just used to winning and while it's exciting, it's not like it was in 1999/2000 when Stoops first arrived (and things had been down for a while). I like to compare it to the Braves. It was nuts for the first few years in Atlanta (and the South) when things started in 1991. After winning for so long, fans became a bit passive because they got use to it. It's kind of the same in Norman now. The fans expect to win and know what to expect from Stoops so there's no real surprises to be seen at the Red/White game. The most we had while I was a student there was 45,000 which was my junior year I think. In T-town, it's a perfect storm for high attendance numbers for A-day no doubt right now.

I was actually there this morning before flying out and it was a bit chilly with a stiff wind (although that's not big for Oklahomans) so that might have turned a few away.
 
BamainBoston said:
Plenty of times when we didnt draw many more than that. Let's not get cocky. They draw plenty to their BCS games.
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Plenty of times we didn't draw more than that? :conf2: You would have to go back many years for a time when we only drew 23,000 for a spring game. :)

I attended A-Day games in the Dubose and Shula era when times weren't so good and we drew at least 30,000-35,000 and these were off years attendance wise even for a spring game. The last couple of years Shula was at Alabama we drew 40,000.

The last time we drew 23,000 for a spring game was so long ago that 23,000 was considered pretty darn good for a spring game and was nothing to be ashamed of. :)
 
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bamabryan said:
Plenty of times we didn't draw more than that? :conf2: You would have to go back many, many years for a time when we only drew 23,000 for a spring game. :)

I attended A-Day games in the Dubose and Shula era when times weren't so good and we drew at least 30,000-35,000 and these were off years attendance wise even for a spring game. The last couple of years Shula was at Alabama we drew 40,000.

The last time we drew 23,000 for a spring game was so long ago that 23,000 was considered pretty darn good for a spring game and was nothing to be ashamed of. :)
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Don't think 1998 is many, many years ago. Would you believe 8,968?

http://www.rolltide.com/sports/m-footbl/aday2008.html
 
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RT3413 said:
Wasn't that the year the publicly discouraged people from attending due to the stadium reconstruction that had the entire East side closed?
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That is how I remember it. That was when they were really rushing to get the East upper deck done -- remember it opened for the season opener against BYU in 1998 and barely got done on time -- and that was the cause of the low turnout. We had a low turnout because the university specifically wanted one, and not because no one cared enough to show up.

As someone mentioned earlier, both the 1997 and 1999 A-Day games drew 30,000+.
 
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We would have the A day game televised on the quad for the overfill fans if we we being pegged for a national championship in the coming year....

23K is pretty sad....

Nebraska fans have their priorities straight. they plan to pull in over 80K this year...
 
Cox036 said:
We would have the A day game televised on the quad for the overfill fans if we we being pegged for a national championship in the coming year....

23K is pretty sad....

Nebraska fans have their priorities straight. they plan to pull in over 80K this year...
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Ehhh, sad or not, OU's still got one of the best fanbases in the country and one of the best traditions. As an alum, I hardly base my view of the program based on a spring practice and it's attendance.
 
There was a plea on the BARNAU radio station begging people to show up for their barnyard follies A-day game. My sister who is a barner was lit like a fire cracker when she heard that. She has a hard time understanding how the BAMA Nation can and the barner village can't. I did the math for her. In two years the Crimson Fans had 170,000 plus fans show for a Spring A-Day Game. The barn in two seasons was 67,000 plus. That is 103,000 fans difference.

Sorry Sis the truth must be told.
 
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AlabamaSooner said:
Ehhh, sad or not, OU's still got one of the best fanbases in the country and one of the best traditions. As an alum, I hardly base my view of the program based on a spring practice and it's attendance.
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I agree completely, it's just that one would think as big as sooner football is in that state that the fans would show a little more support at that game than a meager 23000 on a day with nice weather.
 
THE BAMA IRISHMAN said:
There was a plea on the BARNAU radio station begging people to show up for their barnyard follies A-day game. My sister who is a barner was lit like a fire cracker when she heard that. She has a hard time understanding how the BAMA Nation can and the barner village can't. I did the math for her. In two years the Crimson Fans had 170,000 plus fans show for a Spring A-Day Game. The barn in two seasons was 67,000 plus. That is 103,000 fans difference.

Sorry Sis the truth must be told.
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so how many did the barners sucker into their spring game? you have a link or anything. i think its pretty funny, i kinda wanna make fun of some of the guys at work with it. i like these stats, now we just have to back it up with some wins. RTR!:BigA:
 
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