Just a quick and important update in case you missed it on Monday evening.
The official game book following Saturday’s 54-16 loss to Texas Tech at Memorial Stadium, listed the game’s attendance as 25,648. Monday, that number officially was changed to 35,648 and a KU spokesperson said a clerical error was the reason for the wrong number being used.
The attendance number provided on Saturday was hand-written and the first digit was misread before the total was entered into the game management system.
Obviously, fixing this hiccup did not change the outcome of the game nor the tough spot the Jayhawks find themselves in currently, but it’s important to point out because of the negative connotation that comes with such a poor attendance number. There’s a big difference between the idea of playing in a stadium of nearly 40,000 and one that’s barely half full.
In many ways, the damage already has been done, as the attendance figures were reported by dozens of media outlets following the game and the low number made its way around message boards, Twitter and into the jokes of rival fans.
If the Jayhawks don’t show improvement on the field soon, it’s entirely possible that the attendance of future games could be closer to that 25,000 number (if not less) than anyone in the KU athletic department would like. But they’re not there yet.
Memorial Stadium has a listed capacity of 50,071 and, in its three home games this season, KU has averaged a crowd of 39,130. The official attendance has dipped by a couple thousand each game, however.
Through the first three home games of the season, the student section has been pretty strong, with last Saturday’s loss representing the worst of the three games for student support. For the most part, though, the students have showed up and have stayed to the end.
Last Saturday, hardly anyone stayed to the end and KU coach Charlie Weis said those who did deserved combat pay for suffering through it.
We’ll see where things go from here.
