Season analysis: For second straight year, Boise State just misses attendance record
Note: This is the fifth and final installment of the Idaho Statesman’s series wrapping up Boise State’s 2022 football season.
The Boise State football team sold an average of 35,121 tickets for six home games last season and came close to setting a new program record.
The record is 35,404, set in 2012. This marked the second year in a row that the Broncos’ home attendance numbers ranked No. 2 in program history. They averaged 34,681 in 2021.
Boise State also set a new single-game attendance record for the second year in a row. The Broncos’ regular-season win over Fresno State attracted 37,663, eclipsing the 37,426 tickets that were sold for the Broncos’ loss to Nevada in 2021.
Convincing fans to show up for the Mountain West championship game continued to be a struggle, however. Boise State’s loss to Fresno State had an announced attendance of 24,037, but that’s more than the 23,561 tickets that were sold for the Broncos’ win over Hawaii in the 2019 title game.
The Broncos’ home attendance numbers trailed only Fresno State in the Mountain West in 2022. The Bulldogs averaged 39,066 fans in six games at Valley Children’s Stadium, and announced that more than 40,000 attended home games against Oregon State, San Jose State and Wyoming.
San Diego State finished No. 3 in the conference, averaging 29,315 fans at newly open Snapdragon Stadium. Air Force averaged 26,926, Colorado State 26,890 and UNLV 22,112. The Rebels play at Allegiant Stadium, home to the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders.
The lowest attendance in the Mountain West belonged to Hawaii (9,209). The Rainbow Warriors are temporarily playing in the on-campus Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex, which was retrofitted to seat about 9,000 fans while their new stadium is built. Aloha Stadium hosted Hawaii football games and a bowl game starting in 1975, but it was condemned by the state in 2021.
Boise State’s regular-season attendance numbers weren’t far off from many of the other top Group of Five programs.
Cincinnati averaged 38,450 fans at homes games last season, while UCF averaged 41,541 at The Bounce House in Orlando, Florida. Both programs are expected to join the Big 12 this year. They’ll be joined by Houston, which averaged 24,792 fans this season at TDECU Stadium, which seats about 40,000.
The Broncos led most of the remaining contenders in the G5 leagues. That list ranged from East Carolina, which averaged 41,372 fans in Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, to Mid-American Conference champion Toledo, which averaged just 19,556.
More 2022 attendance numbers from G5 contenders: Appalachian State (33,566), UTSA (26,834), Troy (26,345), Memphis (26,201), SMU (24,971), Tulane (20,361) and Coastal Carolina (17,168).
Mountain West
Average home attendance at football games in 2022
Fresno State: 39,066
Boise State: 35,121
San Diego State: 29,315
Air Force: 26,926
Colorado State: 26,890
UNLV: 22,112
Wyoming: 19,707
Utah State: 16,954
San Jose State: 16,421
New Mexico: 14,965
Nevada: 19,405
Hawaii: 9,209
This story was originally published January 6, 2023 at 2:46 PM.
