Stolen from a tweet:
Austin: 7,062
Chapel Hill: 3,937
Corvallis: 4,025
Fullerton: 3,508
Gainesville: 4,610
Lubbock: 4,818
Nashville: 3,626
Fayetteville: 11,722
There were almost more people in Baum than in the next two highest combined.
That’s not surprising because Baum is so much bigger than most college parks. I know the Texas Tech number on Saturday was a record for a game there. Most of those others are either above or near capacity for those parks.
I’m sure we are already, but we need to flash those numbers on kids considering Vandy, Tech or Texas in the recruiting wars. Means more than regular season attendance, IMO, because it shows that even in the biggest of games the other schools can’t and don’t draw like we do. The one that surprises me just a little is Texas. I believe they updated Disch-Falk a few years back, and I though their capacity was close to 9 or 10K now, but it is listed at just 6,649. With the size of the school, and their success over the years, I’d have expected a larger park.
Of course, as Matt has pointed out, most of them are limited by the size of their park. If MSU had hosted, or if LSU or Ole Miss were still playing, we’d see similar numbers. And the Gators will have a new park soon with a larger capacity.
Still - those are some impressive numbers.
And if it hasn’t been noted already somewhere, we had 11,481 on Sunday.
I’d guess perhaps a small dip today, even though it’s game 3, because of it being a work day. Still, probably upper 10K region, I’d think.
I’ve seen somewhere that Baum’s capacity is listed as something north of 7,000 or so. I’m sure that’s just seats because it’s obvious we can put close to 12,000 into the place. It’s possible I saw that before the most recent expansion, too. Regardless, it’s not so much the size of our park that allows big crowds, it’s simply the enthusiasm. (I admit some of those schools might not have standing room spots like we do so they may be more limited by actual seats than we are.)
Edit:
Well should’ve googled before I posted. Baum is listed as 10,737 capacity. I’m ready to expand it again, though.
Disch-Falk’s renovation added more seating options and a new concourse but not more seats. Their record home crowd was for a 1982 NCAA regional win over the Paperclips, but only 8,000. (They got in 10K for an exhibition against the Rangers but roped off the warning track with people occupying that area. I remember a similar event at old Ray Winder Field when Fernando Valenzuela was on a rehab assignment with the Dodgers’ San Antonio farm team; Bill Valentine put people on the warning track then and any ball hit to the warning track was a ground rule double.)
Jeff Long wanted to add more suites, and I suspect the demand is there, but I’d also like to see some general seating in right field as well, something like a larger version of the current seats behind our bullpen in left. We’ll see what HY wants to do in that area, since it appears a new clubhouse is in the offing on the first-base side of Baum.
I don’t see much capacity increase coming, NEA, in the next round of improvements. Couple of reasons.
One is that they things they really need are recruiting related - things the fans don’t see, like the weight room and where the players work out and hang out.
Secondarily, we have PLENTY of capacity for all but a handful of games each season. Especially when you factor in that weather patterns that time of year always keeps crowds down on some days/games where we might otherwise have near a full house.
I think we’ll see more luxury suites and maybe come grandstand seats in right field, but not much else in terms of increasing capacity. And then, maybe an entrance in Center field.
We have five SEC weekends a year, total of 15 games, plus regionals and supers with increasing frequency. Today will be our 40th and last game in Baum. Of those, 27 were games when you could expect high attendance (15 SEC, 6 postseason, and the series with USC, Texas and Texas Tech; would have been 28 if we hadn’t been rained out once against TTech). Pack the park every night? No, but Baum with 7,000 in it is still a lot better than most other places packed. And as we saw with RRS 17 years ago, if you build it they will come; a bad crowd now is still 15,000+ more than a sellout when I was in school.
Yeah, I’m not really expecting a big increase in capacity, Wiz. Something along the lines you suggested. Maybe another 500 seats or so including luxury suites.
I like what they have in mind for upgrading the players’ areas.