UTEP winning games, but fans still dwindling
Did you go to the UTEP game last weekend? If you didn’t, you’re not alone!
UTEP announced a crowd of 24,673 in the 51,500-seat Sun Bowl, the second smallest crowd in the Sean Kugler era.
ABC-7 set out to find out why attendance has been so low this season. After all, the Miners are 5-3 with a great shot at only their sixth winning season since 1970! But still the Sun Bowl remains more than half empty on game days.
“You would think El Paso would support a winner, which is why this is so baffling,” said ESPN El Paso’s Steve Kaplowitz.
Despite the winning record, UTEP football attendance has fallen every game this season, going from 35,422 for the home opener against Texas Tech to less than 25,000 for this past weekend’s win over Southern Miss.
“I saw the crowd six minutes before the game and I took a picture of the Sun Bowl and there was so many empty seats that honestly, I was embarrassed,” Kaplowitz said.
UTEP second-year coach Sean Kugler is hoping for bigger crowds in the future.
“I think these kids deserve to see a few more people in the stands and I’ll just leave it at that,” Kugler said.
Historically, attendance swells when UTEP wins. Through the past five losing seasons, UTEP has averaged fewer than 30,000 a game (28,521). The Miners last averaged better than 30,000 in 2008 (37,296), better than 40,000 in 2006 (42,444) and the most they ever averaged was 47,899 during the 2005 bowl year.
“Last weekend was a weekend with a lot of competition with the Air Show number one, with Halloween, number two,” UTEP AD Bob Stull said, before being asked if he thinks fans will jump on the Miner bandwagon. “I think if we continue to play the way we have and continue to win, I think we’ll continue to grow the crowd.”
Perhaps the biggest disappointment of late has been the student section. UTEP reserved four sections for students this season, sections 18, 19, 20 and 21. However, more than 5,000 students requested tickets to the first home game. But that number has dwindled every game since.
“At the beginning of the year, we had a lot of people go to the Texas Tech and NMSU games,” UTEP junior business major Carlos Garcia said.
Last weekend, however, fewer than 2,000 UTEP students requested tickets.
“Honestly, I have no idea what’s going on with the students,” UTEP freshman Marie Hernandez said.
“Fans in El Paso always say, ‘Give us a winner and we’ll come out.'” Kaplowitz said. “Well, guess what, UTEP’s giving you a winner! So now it’s on you El Paso to see if you’re going to show up the final two weeks and give this team what they deserve.”
Kugler said students are the key because they tend to be loud. Stull said the athletic department is meeting with students this week to see why interest has fallen despite the winning record.
Miner fans have two more chances to cheer on the Miners at the Sun Bowl, this season, Nov. 15 against North Texas and Nov. 29 against Middle Tennessee.
