CCWMichael wrote:Alrighty. I have searched like crazy for attendance records research according to game time. A big nothing burger but for basic attendance figures for the NCAA.
So, I did a quick unscientific review not accounting for variables such as opponent, home team record, weather, and so on.
Since 2014 we have had 15 home games 6 or later and 9 home games 3ish.
Difference in average attendance is in favor of the late start time by 595 fans.
Nothing to give me anything solid.
Assume a 4G fan increase.
Assume a 30-dollar ticket average is 120 thou per game. Six games would be a nice increase. 720 thousand for six home games.
What is best? Marketing and a slight return drop or change of game time.
Too many variables for me to research with any zeal. So, I proved nothing.
My presumption would be start time did not affect student attendance. So, from there a push to satisfy the consumer base is required. Not going six-sigma here but I would presume --- imagine --- dream that the liberty fan base is family oriented and would prefer earlier start times.
Time to e-mail game day questionnaires.
Even if we had the official reported attendance figures, those aren't always entirely accurate.
In addition, a more important variable (as it relates to home advantage an general atmosphere) would be the contribution of student attendance to game day atmosphere. How many non-students need to attend a game to make up for the energy of the students at a game? I'll take one loud student over two locals saying, "Down in front. Stop yelling."
It behooves the university to create the best game day atmosphere and home field advantage as possible. I'm going to guess that they have access to more metrics than you or I do and, based on those metrics, the timing decisions are made.