What might be a little disappointing about this game — which has major Playoff implications, especially if Washington wins — is that the crowd turnout is again unimpressive. From the scheduled start time (more on that in a second, and yes, it filled in a good bit afterward):
As you can probably guess, attendance has been an issue before. Here’s a look from the 2014 game between Oregon and Arizona.
2015’s game between Stanford and USC had an attendance of 58,476, but a lot of that was probably due to both teams being in-state, with Stanford’s campus just 13 miles from Santa Clara. And there were still plenty of seats available.
/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/7576405/usa_today_8977414.jpg)
But there are a few reasons for this.
Levi’s Stadium isn’t exactly the best venue
The $1.3 billion-dollar project has underwhelmed. As described in February, the host stadium of Super Bowl 50 has a ton of glaring issues.
Kevin Jones of KNBR in San Fransisco described the stadium to SB Nation as such:
“It's a stadium in the middle of Silicon Valley meant more for champagne schmoozing and caviar corporate crowd than the actual beer and nachos football fans.”
Oh, and Levi’s is pretty far from both Colorado and Washington — 1,280 miles from Boulder and 838 from Seattle.
The game kicks off at a ridiculous time
Kickoff for this game is set for 9 p.m. ET, which means it’ll be 6 p.m. local time. I don’t know about you, but I’m willing to bet there aren’t many average American workers who can easily make a 6 p.m. football game on a Friday, so even local casual fans will have a hard time getting in.
The Pac-12 has put this game on Friday night in the past as well, probably to avoid the bigger Big Ten and SEC games on the Saturday TV schedule.
Tickets to 2016’s game are literally being given away ...
On Thursday, The News Tribune reported that Alaska Airlines gave passengers on a flight from Seattle to San Jose, Calif. two free tickets to the game.
This plane is packed with Husky fans. Aboard flight #326 to @FlySJC. Everyone receives a special surprise. #WiththeDawgs #PurpleReign
Alaska Airlines is one of UW football’s biggest sponsors, given the 10-year, $41 million deal struck for the the naming rights to Alaska Airlines Field at Husky Stadium. But you have to assume that if there’s enough for 144 passengers to each get two tickets (Flight 362 from Seattle to Santa Clara was on a Boeing 737-400, which has 144 seats) there must be plenty available.
... so what’s the solution?
Just move it back to campus sites. Award a home game to the division champ with the best conference record or Playoff ranking.
That’s what the American, Conference USA, and the Mountain West — all mid-majors with tougher tickets this weekend than the Power 5 Pac-12 — do.
And it’s what the Pac-12 itself used to do, before it tried to go the Big Ten and SEC route and fill up an NFL stadium.
