Michigan football keeps home attendance record alive in 2022

For the 2022 football season, Michigan Stadium has once again finished at the top of the national average home attendance rankings. To any Wolverine fan, this stat shouldn’t be surprising. Michigan Stadium, rightfully nicknamed “The Big House”, boasts multiple U.S. attendance records from over the years.

Here’s a quick look at the “Big House” past, present, and future.

Past

Before Michigan Stadium was created, the Wolverines played their home games at Ferry Field. As Michigan’s success grew more attention, head coach Fielding Yost determined that small renovations would not be enough to satisfy the growing attendance demand. Ticket demand was so high that once student tickets were allotted, the athletic department was forced to create a lottery system to determine which fans could buy tickets.

Michigan Stadium was originally constructed in 1927, making it 96 years old this year. Despite its age, Michigan Stadium is only the 23rd oldest football stadium in the FBS.

Michigan Stadium was rightfully designed with attendance in mind and was modeled after the Yale bowl (back when Ivy League football was a golden standard). While the original capacity was 72,000, the simple “bowl” design was chosen so renovations could be made to accommodate 100,000+ fans in the future.

The first game at Michigan Stadium was a 33-0 victory over Ohio Wesleyan (always fun to beat a team from Ohio). Over the next 50 years, renovations were made to the stadium until it finally held its first crowd of over 100,000 fans in 1975. Since then, every home game has had more than 100,000 fans in attendance.

Present

This past season, Michigan football led the country in home attendance per game with an average of 110,246 people in attendance. The Wolverines’ highest attended game this season was against Michigan State under the lights. The final attendance for the Michigan State game was 111,083 people.

The “Big House” has only been doing night games since 2011, making this rivalry matchup only the 13th game in Michigan Stadium history to be played in prime time.

The lowest attended home game for the Wolverines was the season opener against Colorado State, which “only” drew a crowd of 109,575 people. Needless to say, Michigan’s 100,000+ crowd attendance streak, which dates back to 1975, was in no danger this past season.

Future

Michigan Stadium is set to receive brand new scoreboards for the 2023 football season. The project is currently budgeted at $41 million. Aside from the scoreboard project, Michigan Stadium has no currently planned projects.

While 110,000+ fans may seem like more than enough for a football game, Michigan Stadium is always evolving. Fielding Yost envisioned a day where 125,000-150,000 fans would one day watch Michigan football in Ann Arbor. While these renovations may be years away, there’s certainly plenty to look forward to in the upcoming season.

Michigan football will return in September to take on the East Carolina Pirates in the 2023 season opener.

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