Georgia State attendance ‘excellent' in first season
From his seat in the Georgia Dome, Preston Stancil has watched the seeds he helped plant bear fruit. As a student, Stancil founded Georgia State's club football team in 2002 and later helped the push for varsity football.
Stancil bought the first season ticket for the school's inaugural season and has tailgated with former club teammates before games at the dome. Saturday brings the final home game of the school's first season of varsity football. You might say he has enjoyed it.
"The football aspect has been great," said Stancil, 31, of Buford. "Even further than that, it's been the community aspect that's been more fun."
While the Panthers need one win to clinch a winning record, the athletic department already has won the contest at the turnstiles. Before the season, athletic director Cheryl Levick had hoped to average 10,000 per game -- 5,000 season-ticket holders and 5,000 students -- which would enable the department to break even on its operating costs of the Georgia Dome.
Georgia State has averaged 17,094 in six home dates. Even without the 30,237 that attended the Sept. 2 opener against Shorter, the average would be 14,465.
"The more I analyze the information that I have, numbers and budgets and other benchmarks, the happier I am with exceeding first-year expectations," Levick said.
Entering this weekend's games, only 10 FCS (formerly Division I-AA) teams have averaged better than 17,094. Levick expects to generate a little over $1 million in tickets and merchandise sales, safely ahead of the game-day operating costs of about $900,000.
Coach Bill Curry deemed the attendance "excellent, a nice start."
Overall attendance has dropped in the past three games. Student attendance, which was more than 11,000 for the first game, has been 5,000 or less for each game since, sometimes considerably so.
It does not dim Levick's enthusiasm. The Panthers have pulled in their numbers despite the fact that game times have often overlapped with Georgia and Georgia Tech's. Saturday's game against Lamar -- with Georgia Tech idle, Georgia playing Idaho State and the Panthers returning from two weeks on the road -- offers the opportunity for a strong finish.
Said Levick, "The only thing left is to have a winning record."
About the Author
Ken Sugiura is a sports columnist at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Formerly the Georgia Tech beat reporter, Sugiura started at the AJC in 1998 and has covered a variety of beats, mostly within sports.
