Turner Field Seating Chart

LSU Baseball Claims 16th Straight National Attendance Title, But The Numbers ...

Various media outlets are reporting on today's release by the Wichita St. Athletics Dept. (who keeps track of this for some reason) of  the final attendance figures for D-1 baseball  in 2011. While the numbers again prove the outstanding popularity of the sport at both LSU and the SEC at-large, a closer inspection reveals that there has been a bit of a dip at LSU.

Before we get to the bad news, lets celebrate the powerhouse this conference has become. All 12 members of the SEC rank in the Top 40 in national attendance,  combining for just over 2,000,000 in paid attendance  league wide (or not, more on that in a minute.) The SEC West alone had 4 of the top 10 teams. The highest attended single game in the conference was an UGA vs GT matchup at Turner Field in Atlanta that drew just over 18,000.

LSU's reported paid attendance in both the national chart and the SEC article linked above is 400,295 over 38 home games for an average home crowd of 10,534. Both figures are head and shoulders above 2nd place Ole Miss, who came in at 261,006 over 32 home games for an average of 8,156. This marks the 3rd straight year LSU surpassed the 400K mark, the only program in D-1 baseball to ever get any where close to that number.

Or at least it would have. Any season ticket holder will tell you that LSU only played 37 home games this year. A closer look at the numbers reveals that the reported paid attendance is incorrect due to a small counting mistake that has a small, but very important symbolic effect on both LSU and the SEC's numbers. 

LSU's own statistics  list a final paid attendance figure of 390,595  and a quick recount of  the paid attendance reported for each game  verifies that this is the correct number. The extra 9700 people come from LSU's lone neutral site game of the year, The Wally Pontiff Jr. Classic at Zephyr Field in Metairie against Southern Miss. The extra people are hardly a difference maker in the standings (in fact, when correctly calculated, LSU's average home paid attendance actually rises slightly to 10,556) but it does break the streak of years over 400K and marks the lowest total in the very brief history of New Alex Box Stadium (though still far surpassing the attendance in the Old Box).

The other and far more important effect is on the league attendance figure. The SEC was proud to tout passing the 2 Mil mark for the 1st time ever with a total of 2,002,459 paid, but again this is using incorrect figures. League attendance with the correct LSU figures comes to 1,992,759, just shy of the hallowed mark. Assuming, of course, that there are no other miscounts.

Turner Field Seating Chart | My Blog

Turner Field is a stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, home to Major League Baseball’s Atlanta Braves since 1997. Turner Field was originally built as Centennial Olympic Stadium, it was completed in 1996 to serve as the centerpiece of the 1996 Summer Olympics. After the games, the stadium was converted into a baseball park to serve as the new home of the Braves. The most popular name choice among Atlanta residents for the new stadium at the time of its construction (according to a poll in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution) was Hank Aaron Stadium. After the ballpark was instead named after Ted Turner, the city of Atlanta renamed the section of Capitol Avenue on which the stadium sits Hank Aaron Drive, giving Turner Field the street number 755, after Aaron’s home run total. The stadium is sometimes referred to as “The Ted,” after Turner’s first name. Some fans also refer to the stadium as “The Fortress”.

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