Not that there was any doubt about how serious University of Alabama fans are about their football program, but a stat released today by Lost Letterman should only further establish Tuscaloosa as the football capital of the world.
Alabama’s “A-Day” game is the 15th and final practice of the spring and is made open to the public.
Since Nick Saban took over at the helm of the UA program in 2007, A-Day has not only attracted the most fans to a spring game of any college in the country, it would even lead the NFL in regular season attendance, with A-Day averaging over 2,000 more fans than home games for the Washington Redskins, who led the NFL in attendance over that same time period.
594,851 fans have attended the A-Day game over the last seven years, an average of 84,978 fans per year. In 2011, attendance ballooned to an eye-popping 92,310.
Admittedly, the stat doesn’t tell the whose story. Lost Letterman explains:
This chart (below) does not show that Alabama fans care more about the spring game than NFL fans do about regular season games. After all, only two (Dallas, Washington) NFL stadiums have a capacity over 85,000 and the cost of attending NFL regular season games is astronomical while A-Day is free to the public. However, it is doubtful many NFL teams could average over 85,000 fans during the regular season, as only 11 of the league’s 32 teams were at 100% capacity for each regular season game last fall.
What this graph does show is just how insanely serious Alabama fans take A-Day (Auburn fans also take it pretty seriously, with a school-record 83,401 fans in attendance last spring). Remember, the spring game is just a glorified practice. And can you imagine 85,000 NFL fans showing up to an intra-squad training camp scrimmage?
A-Day is set for this coming Saturday, April 19 at 2pm est.
Follow Cliff on Twitter @Cliff_Sims
