WOUNDED WARRIOR PROJECT UNIFORM AUCTIONS
If there was one good thing to come out of Saturday, and there was probably no more than one, it was the uniforms that are being auctioned off with 100% of the proceeds going to the Wounded Warrior Project. The auctions are now over, so we can look at the total numbers. Keep in mind that I calculated these manually and should be considered unofficial.
Total number of jerseys auctioned: 110
Total money raised: $102,234
Highest final bid: $2,510 (tie for both a #1 and a #5 jersey)
Average final bid: $929.40
Number of jerseys over $2,000: 3
Number of jerseys over $1,000: 38
It’s worth noting that if a bid was placed in the final three minutes of the auction, the auction was extended for an additional three minutes from the time of the latest bid. This encouraged bidding competition and prevented anyone from swooping in at the last second. Some auctions went over 40 minutes long.
Well done, everyone.
ATTENDANCE
Despite the unsold seats through purple pricing, including much of sections 114 and 115 and the upper deck, Northwestern counted the Michigan game as an official sellout of 47,330. The Michigan State game currently has a surprising number of unsold tickets as of Wednesday morning and given the cold weather forecasted for Saturday, I am not expecting many walkup sales. The official attendance will probably be in the neighborhood of the Minnesota game, potentially lower, but there will be a significant number of no-shows, as well.
Here are the attendance numbers of the other home games this season.
Syracuse: 38,033
Western Michigan: 33,128
Maine: 32,726
Ohio State: 47,330
Minnesota: 36,587
Michigan: 47,330
The season average currently sits at 39,189. If Northwestern draws the same number as the Minnesota game this Saturday, the average would finish at 38,817. This would be the highest average since 1998, when Northwestern drew 40,907 per game, and exceed the number of people that came to Dyche in 1998, when 38,230 per game watched the Wildcats on their path to the Rose Bowl. You can find more historical attendance data here.