2024’s Memphis Tigers Football Attendance Worst Since 2012

Despite winning ten games in a season for just the sixth time in program history, Memphis Tigers football attendance dropped to its lowest point in twelve years. With an average of 24,552 per game over the course of seven home games, the Tigers average is now the lowest it’s been since Justin Fuente’s first year in charge (excluding, of course, the 2020 season when all games were played with Draconian capacity restrictions).

Just how bad was it in 2024 for the Tigers? Here’s a list of all seven home games played at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium this season.

The best of a bad bunch was the season opener against FCS side North Alabama with 25,849. The highest attendance of the season coming against an FCS team should set alarm bells ringing at the University of Memphis. Another disturbing trend to emerge this season was that 2024 was the first season (excluding the COVID year in 2020) since 2001 that not a single home game for the Tigers cracked the 30,000 mark. That’s a trend made all the more disturbing when considering that between November 22, 2014 and November 25, 2016 every single one of the Tigers 15 home games hit 30,000.

Here’s a look at the year by year attendance for the Tigers.

So what led to Tiger football attendance tanking this year? Right off the bat, part of it can be attributed to the renovations at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium which have led to the stadium being nicknamed (perhaps affectionately or perhaps derisively) the “Liberty Hole.”

But surely a missing press box and a few thousand seats removed from a 59,000-seat venue wouldn’t cause such a massive drop in attendance, would it?

Another possible explanation is the schedule. For the second time in three years, the Tigers did not play host to a power conference team at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium. Additionally, the American Athletic Conference does not have as many teams that draw interest as they used to with Cincinnati, UCF, and Houston all now struggling for bowl-eligibility in the Big XII. To fill the void, the AAC added teams like Charlotte, UAB, and FAU.

Judging by the table below, those additions did not improve football attendance for many, if any, of the teams in the American as none of the 14 teams in the league were able to average 40,000 fans per game this year (though it is worth noting that, like Memphis, Army is currently renovating their football stadium).

So between stadium renovations and a less than impressive schedule, Tiger fans could be forgiven for not packing the place out for every single game. But does a team as successful as the Tigers have been not deserve more support from the city? After all, one of the oldest sayings in Memphis is, “Memphis will always support a winner.” (Though that statement may be belied by the recent departure of Memphis 901 FC)

Memphis has one of the longest active bowl streaks in all of college football, up there with powerhouse programs like Alabama, Clemson, Oklahoma and Ohio State. By earning a bid to this year’s Frisco Bowl (where they will face West Virginia of the Big XII on December 17th) the Tigers have now earned a bid to eleven straight bowl games, the longest stretch by far in school history (though they were unable to actually play in the 2021 Hawaii Bowl against the Rainbow Warriors due to a last-minute cancellation by the hosts). Prior to the beginning of this bowl streak, Memphis had only ever been to a total of seven bowl games.

Additionally, Memphis has now put together consecutive seasons of double digit wins for the first time in program history. Ryan Silverfield has done something that Mike Norvell, Justin Fuente, and Tommy West did not do. Silverfield has also continued to beat power conference opponents the way Mike Norvell used to. In fact, he has beaten a power conference team in three of the last four seasons: Mississippi State in 2021, Iowa State in 2023, and Florida State in 2024. And he hasn’t been too shabby in acquiring talent either, with Memphis at or near the top of all Group of 5 teams in the yearly recruiting rankings. So why does it feel like there is such a vociferous portion of the fan base that, despite all the winning, does not want to go all-in on the football program? The answer to that could be that, for some, it’s not just about the destination but it’s about the journey as well.

What does that mean? Well it means that not only do a number of the fans want the Tigers to win a lot of games, they want to look good doing it too. An argument can be made that, under Ryan Silverfield, that has not been the case. Those fans would point to a number of factors. First, Ryan Silverfield has never finished better than 3rd in the AAC and even with consecutive 10+ win seasons in 2023 and 2024, finished fourth in the conference both years. Those fans would also point to the fact that no Memphis players have been taken in either of the last two editions of the NFL Draft, despite a Memphis player having been taken every year from 2014 to 2022. But ultimately, it is a pair of trends that have emerged under Ryan Silverfield have shaken the faith of the Tiger faithful: too many close wins against bad teams and too many blown leads.

In his five-plus seasons as the Memphis head coach, Ryan Silverfield has won 41 games. Of those 41 wins, 17 of them have come by single digits. And of those 17 single digit wins, 11 of them came against teams that finished with losing records.

In his five-plus seasons at the Memphis head coach, Ryan Silverfield has lost 21 games. Of those 21 losses, 6 of them were games where the Tigers had a double-digit lead at some point. In 2021, the Tigers were up 21-0 in the first quarter against UTSA and then the following week were up 17-0 in the first quarter against Temple. They lost both games. In 2022, the Tigers were up 26-7 in the fourth quarter against Houston and lost and followed that up the next week with a loss to East Carolina despite having been up 17-0 in the first quarter. In 2023, the Tigers were ahead 21-10 in the third quarter against Tulane and somehow lost the game by ten points. And this year, despite having a 24-14 second quarter lead against UTSA, the Tigers fell by a margin of eight points.

It’s a frustrating dichotomy for Tiger fans. On the one hand, the football program is currently more successful than they ever have been with eleven straight bowl games and consecutive double-digit win seasons for the first time in program history. On the other hand, it feels like there has been a lot left on the table, especially now that Group of 5 teams have official access to make the College Football Playoff and perhaps compete for a National Championship.

What happens next year remains to be seen. A lot could depend on how the Tigers do in their bowl game against a West Virginia team that has already fired their coach. Should they prevail against the Mountaineers, they would finish the season 11-2 and possibly have something resembling momentum heading into next season. The renovations to Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium figure to be closer to completion next year as well. But perhaps, the biggest reason to expect an attendance jump next year is that Memphis is slated to host Arkansas. Not only in Arkansas an SEC team not too terribly far from here, there are a ton of Hogs fans already in the Memphis area. However, there have been rumblings that Arkansas may try to pull the same dastardly trick that Missouri pulled last year by moving the game out of Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium and to a “neutral” site like Little Rock (which of course, would be nothing resembling “neutral”). If Memphis wants to get their attendance back on track next year, they must win their bowl game convincingly, and they must find a way to keep Arkansas on the home schedule next year.

Photo Credit: Tigers Athletics