Snapdragon Stadium continues to battle attendance crisis
By: Connor Larson
College football draws hundreds of thousands of fans around the country every Saturday. Packing college campuses, tailgates, and stadiums, these fans wait hours upon hours to watch their school play.
As the ball gets kicked off and the action begins, the stadium of rowdy, enthusiastic fans begins to shake and rumble from the yells and cheers of the fans. Shirtless guys who have painted themselves in their school’s colors scream until their voices give out or the marching band blasts the fight song the atmosphere at a college football game is unlike any other in American sports.
But for San Diego State this hasn’t been much of a reality.
35,000 seat stadium that sits empty before kickoff and struggles to stay filled for four quarters.
At the new 35,000-seat Snapdragon Stadium, which opened in 2022, the stands sit empty 30 minutes before kickoff. The empty red and black seats sit and tell the story not of a fanbase excited to watch the Aztecs, but instead of a fan base that seems disinterested in SDSU football.
So why is it that a University with over 40,000 students in America’s eighth-largest city struggling to fill a stadium to watch the local football team?
Lack of success in recent seasons, ticket prices, stadium complaints and other things to do on a Saturday night in San Diego seem to all be reasons as to why the stands remain empty at Snapdragon Stadium.
Yet that same stadium is sold out when San Diego FC hosts a home match.
What are the factors and reasons that San Diego isn’t showing up to and staying at Aztec football games?