Tn is centered where the vast majority of their fans live less than 2 hours from the stadium. Knoxville, Chattanooga, & many other decent sized towns are not far away. The center of our fanbase is 200 miles away. Fans in Conway, LR, & points east & south aren’t driving 3-4 hours or more for an 11:00 a.m. kickoff to attend a game where the weather forecast is bad, the team record is bad, and deer season has started. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this. Our stadium is one of the smallest in the SEC for a reason, most of our fans have to work much harder to get to a game. And there are not as many of us as there are fans of most other SEC teams.
I wish the crowd were better, but I’m not terribly surprised by in light of the circumstances. However, it appeared there were more than the 25,000 someone claimed. I wouldn’t bet there were more than 35,000 (might have been), but I’m pretty sure it was more than 1/3 full.
Today’s game was at the crack of dawn, it was cold and blustery, and Arkansas has had an awful season. Why would anyone be surprised at the turnout? BTW, I was in my seat until the bitter (and I do mean bitter) end.
I don’t agree with you on this. UT-K has a lot of fans in Memphis. 6 hours away. Many fans in Nashville - 3 hours away. Many fans all over. I’ve called on a doctor in Memphis that is a big (naming rights) booster. They face the same geographical challenges as many other teams. Let’s face it - the drive to Fayetteville really isn;t that bad these days.
I didn’t say TN is without fans throughout the state of TN. I said they have a whole lot more fans much closer to their stadium than we have. The population of greater Knoxville is 1.1M people—as many as LR & NWA combined. Chattanooga is over 500k & is just over 100 miles from Knoxville. That doesn’t even count towns with 50k type populations within 100 miles of Knoxville in other directions.
There are lots of UT fans in Memphis & west TN, but they’re not the ones buying many tickets at Neyland Stadium. A bad record & a bad kickoff time will discourage attendance from fans who have to drive 3 hours a whole lot more than it will discourage fans who have to drive an hour or less or who live in the city itself.
Tenn simply has more fans to start with than we do. That’s true of most SEC schools. I bet not many fans from Memphis or Jackson were in Knoxville last night. Just like not many from West Memphis, Forrest City or Little Rock were in Fayetteville.