Chip Kelly could see it on their faces, a look equal parts excited and surprised.
The Oregon football team was running down the tunnel at Autzen Stadium last year, toward the April afternoon sunlight and a boisterous crowd. For weeks they’d barely seen any faces looking on as they went through spring practice rituals — a handful, maybe, of assorted media and fans gathered on the sidelines. Nothing like this. Nothing like 43,468 @@http://espn.go.com/blog/bigeast/post/_/id/9177/a-look-at-spring-game-attendance@@ green and yellow clad fans screaming in anticipation of their arrival.
Wow, their faces said. There’s that many people that are here for a spring game?
Even Kelly was a bit taken back. After all, just a year earlier the crowd capped out at 25,211 @@http://espn.go.com/blog/bigeast/post/_/id/9177/a-look-at-spring-game-attendance@@ — and that itself set a new school record. Now, on the heels of a BCS National Championship berth, over 70 percent of historic Autzen Stadium was filled for what amounted to a glorified scrimmage. ESPN had tagged along too, with former Florida head coach Urban Meyer trying his hand at color commentating alongside legendary play-by-play man Brent Musberger @@http://www.espnmediazone3.com/us/2011/03/31/espn-kicks-off-spring-football-with-games-return-of-daily-college-football-live/@@. All told, it had the look, feel and smell of a marquee college football game — with four full months left before the 2011 regular season kicked off.
How times had changed.
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Braden Wolf still remembers the first spring game he attended. It was back in 1998 at Keizer’s Volcano Stadium, which was brand new and seated just over 4,000 people @@http://www.milb.com/team2/page.jsp?ymd=20101104&content_id=16003566&vkey=team2_t578&fext=.jsp&sid=t578@@. Wolf was just 11 at the time, a burgeoning Duck fanatic hungry for any taste of Oregon football he could get.
The rest of the crowd, which he estimated to number around 2,000, was decidedly more laissez-faire about the whole affair. “There wasn’t a whole lot of atmosphere,” Wolf says. “A couple thousand people showed up. It really just had a scrimmage feel at the time.”
By the middle of the third quarter, most of the fans had already begun to head out. There was a vibe to the game, certainly, but nothing near a “game day” atmosphere. People wouldn’t leave early at a real game.
Time passed, and eventually Wolf himself was a student at the University of Oregon, studying journalism and political science. He attended his final spring game as a senior last year, and instead of 2,000 people lounging at a minor-league baseball stadium, it was a full-blown 43,000 person party that shocked even Chip Kelly. The team came storming out of the tunnel behind a Harley-Davidson motorcycle — just like in a real game. The band, cheerleaders, television cameras — they were all there, too. Amid it all, Wolf stood next to his friends — the same group he always attended regular season games with — and had to marvel.
How times had changed.
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Last year’s showing didn’t just set a new Oregon record for spring games — it was also a Pac-12 record, and near double what was seen at powerhouses like LSU (22,710), South Carolina (22,000) and Clemson (27,000). Oklahoma? 16,481. Miami? 10,000. @@http://espn.go.com/blog/bigeast/post/_/id/9177/a-look-at-spring-game-attendance@@
On the heels of a Rose Bowl victory back in January, it’s reasonable to expect Oregon to match or exceed its own record on Saturday. As for where this exponential increase in interest has come from, well, winning more than 40 games in four program-defining years certainly doesn’t hurt. “For the program specifically,” Wolf says, “I don’t think there’s any way they would get the kind of interest they would if the team in general wasn’t playing well.”
But there’s plenty more that goes into this recent surge in spring game fever. For Whitney Wagoner, a senior instructor of Sports Business and Industry Analyst at Oregon’s Lundquist College of Business, the answer lies within a perfect storm of fan interest and the resourcefulness of the athletic department.
“It’s about providing the fans another opportunity to engage with the product that they love,” Wagoner said. “And I think it’s more about that than that we had a good season. Those things of course are related, but people have love for the Ducks, and they would still love the Ducks if we didn’t win the Rose Bowl.
“And so you give people an opportunity to connect, you give people an opportunity to have that awesome experience that they love, they’re going to take advantage of it.”
There’s psychology involved, too, especially when it comes to ESPN broadcasts. Because with the cameras and star broadcasters comes an air of importance and prestige that might otherwise be lost on, say, Comcast SportsNet.
“When something is on ESPN,” Wagoner says, “We — in the States in particular — sort of have this response like, ‘Oh, that’s something I should care about. I need to care about that, that’s a big deal. Because ESPN is broadcasting it.’ I’m not sure, intellectually, if that’s true. It probably isn’t. But that’s what we think.”
And so it works as something of a symbiotic relationship — the fan interest dictates more coverage, and that coverage in turn serves to rile up the die-hards and casual observers alike.
“ESPN is putting it on because people will watch it,” Wagoner says, “but people will watch it because ESPN put it on.”
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Since Chip Kelly arrived as head coach, the spring game has taken on a bit of added significance in the form of community outreach efforts. Kelly made it a point to invite military participation, with the players meeting with and presenting their jerseys to members of the armed forces after the game. Additionally, last year admission to the stadium came in the form of three nonperishable food items, which were then donated to Food for Lane County and amounted to a total of 68,000 pounds of food.
“That’s another way for us to give back in a positive manner,” Kelly says. “And that’s what I think I like the most about it, is the interactions that we have with the fans and the way we can contribute to the community and to the military.”
These efforts may also provide an extra incentive for fans to come out, as the cost is exceedingly cheap and the reward is both an afternoon of football and the satisfaction of community service. By contrast, other schools like Auburn, Missouri, Florida and Arkansas State still charge for admission to their spring games @@http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2012/04/exhibition_spring_football_gam.html@@.
“The fact that there’s a great tie-in with the food bank and with the support the troops initiative, to me I think, that also helps in getting people to come out,” Senior Associate Athletic Director Craig Pintens says.
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Wolf can’t go to this year’s spring game. He’s studying law at Lewis & Clark College right now, and the festivities fall right in the middle of exams. When asked if he’ll continue to attend later on down the line, though, he is quick to respond.
“Oh, absolutely,” he says. “I don’t think there’s any way I would miss it if I had the opportunity to go.”
Some things, after all, never change.