The Hoodie Heads to Ireland: Week 0 Open Thread

[medinabuckeye1]

Our most recent renovations decreased overall capacity but significantly increased club level and luxury suite capacity.  That's a pretty common trend lately.

A number of years ago Ohio State had a proposal to do this and there was so much wailing and gnashing of teeth that they backed out.  So what they eventually did instead was to do exactly what they wanted to do but then also add enough extra space to make up for the loss.  Then a few years later Michigan did almost the exact same song and dance.  They had a proposal that would have dropped them out of the #1 spot and there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth so they found a way to squeeze in a few more cheap seats to make up for what they lost by adding luxury seats to make it palatable to the masses.  Same thing Ohio State did.  

[FearlessF]

Huskers will be downsizing a few seats during the coming renovation

it's OK with me, the seat numbers were too close together for this generation's buttocks size

[CatsbyAZ]

USC and UCLA are embarrassments to the B1G. I have no idea what the idiots in Rosemont were thinking.

^^^

This story continues to get a lot of coverage. In USC's defense, an unseasonably hot noon kickoff Vs a crappy San Jose St for an August week zero matchup was never going to be a big sell. The story is now how much coverage this continues to get, which was bolstered by USC bothering to release a statement about their own poor attendance:

“We understand the factors that impacted Saturday’s attendance. We have high expectations and a premier home schedule this season, and we know the competitive advantage an electric Coliseum atmosphere can provide our program. We thank our fans who showed up Saturday and look forward to seeing increased attendance the rest of the season.”


https://twitter.com/awfulannouncing/status/2094443876392083653

[LetsGoPeay]

USC and UCLA are embarrassments to the B1G. I have no idea what the idiots in Rosemont were thinking.

To be fair, I used to sit in very comparable "crowds" on cool fall afternoons in Bloomington not so long ago. 

[847badgerfan]

Well yeah, but this is a helmet school (supposedly).

[GopherRock]

Huskers will be downsizing a few seats during the coming renovation

it's OK with me, the seat numbers were too close together for this generation's buttocks size

The biggest need in Lincoln is to improve egress into/out of North and South Stadium.

^^^

This story continues to get a lot of coverage. In USC's defense, an unseasonably hot noon kickoff Vs a crappy San Jose St for an August week zero matchup was never going to be a big sell. The story is now how much coverage this continues to get, which was bolstered by USC bothering to release a statement about their own poor attendance:

“We understand the factors that impacted Saturday’s attendance. We have high expectations and a premier home schedule this season, and we know the competitive advantage an electric Coliseum atmosphere can provide our program. We thank our fans who showed up Saturday and look forward to seeing increased attendance the rest of the season.”


https://twitter.com/awfulannouncing/status/2094443876392083653

Better get used to it. The Rams are the pre-season Super Bowl favorites, and the SC schedule is garbage. The only time there'll be a big crowd at the Coliseum is when Ohio State comes to town on Halloween.

[medinabuckeye1]

The only time there'll be a big crowd at the Coliseum is when Ohio State comes to town on Halloween.

USC's home schedule:

• SJSU already played in front of what looked to be about two dozen fans.  
• Fresno State on Friday, 9/4.  
• Louisiana on 9/12.  
• #2 Oregon on 9/26.  
• #17 Washington on 10/3.  
• #1 Ohio State on 10/31.  
• Maryland on 11/21.  

I'm no expert on SoCal and USC attendance but I would think that even if USC's own fans don't show up in large numbers the Ducks and Huskies would fill the place, no?  

I'll be very curious what the crowd balance looks like for that Halloween game.  

Ohio State's last game in SoCal was the 2025 Rose Bowl / 2024 CFP Quarter-Final against #1 Oregon.  Official attendance for that was 90,732, Ohio State won 41-21.  

Prior to that it was the 2022 Rose Bowl against #11 Utah.  This was a consolation after tOSU lost to Harbaugh's cheating machine.  Official attendance for that was 87,842, Ohio State won a thriller 48-45 and broke about all the passing/receiving records in the process.  

Prior to that it was the 2019 Rose Bowl against #9 Washington.  Official attendance for that was 91,853, Ohio State won 28-23.  

Prior to that it was the 2010 Rose Bowl against #7 Oregon.  Official attendance for that was 93,963, Ohio State won 26-17.  

Prior to that it was a regular season game at USC on September 13, 2008.  Official attendance for that was 93,607, Ohio State got drilled 35-3.  

Ohio State didn't play any games in SoCal in 2006 or 2007 so the above is it in the last 20 years (2006-2025).  

[betarhoalphadelta]

Lots of Ducks fans down here. I don't recall what site it was from years ago that showed top 3 CFB fandom based on zip code, but it was pretty consistently USC/UCLA (in one or the other order) as 1/2 and then the Ducks consistent #3. 

I don't know if Washington has quite the same pull. The problem with Oregon in general is that Portland (2.5M metro population) may not be big enough to keep everyone home, and they likely are moving to LA or Seattle for jobs. Whereas University of Washington is in Seattle (4.1M metro population), which with Boeing / Microsoft / Amazon / Kirkland and then all the satellite companies that have sprung up around all of them, can probably absorb every UW grad. 

Plus, Oregon picked up a TON of bandwagon fans over the last two decades that isn't the case with UW. 

So I'm not sure Washington fans will fill the Coliseum. 

[betarhoalphadelta]

As for me, I'm currently NOT planning on going to the Purdue @ UCLA game next month. Even though tickets can be had as low as $51 per. 

[GopherRock]

I forgot about Oregon's frontrunning fan base. I don't think there are THAT many of them in SoCal that are willing to drag themselves down to Expo Park.