Wednesday, January 18, 2023

UH wins and attendance, 2022

The 2022 college football season ended on a rather anticlimactic note last week, as Georgia completely embarrassed TCU to win its second-consecutive national title. Now that the season is over, its time to update my wins-versus-attendance graph:











The Cougars averaged 24,793 fans per game during the 2022 season, which is a slight decrease - 280 fans/game - from their 2021 average. I had originally expected the program's 10-win season in 2021 to result in an attendance bump for 2022, and indeed, over 30 thousand tickets were sold for Houston's home opener against Kansas. However, the Cougars performed very poorly in that game - it was their second loss in a row  - and interest in the program dwindled. By the time the Coogs hosted Tulsa to close the regular season, an attendance of only 21,785 was announced, with the actual number of people in the seats being much, much smaller. 

Ticket sales are likely to increase this fall because the Cougars are joining the Big 12 and local fans and ticket brokers alike will likely be interested to see Houston host schools such as Texas Tech, the aforementioned TCU, and (if rumors are correct) the Texas Longhorns. Non-conference opponents Texas-San Antonio and Sam Houston State will also bring a good continent of fans. 

Whether the Cougars can win any of those games, however, is a different story. Given last season's disappointment and head coach Dana Holgorsen's apparent refusal to make any adjustments to his coaching staff over the offseason, I'm not optimistic.

The 2023 schedule should be released by the end of the month.


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