The official attendance for the UVA-West Virginia game in Charlotte on Saturday night was 39,377, which looks high, based on what the TV cameras seemed to reveal.
It looked closer to 30,000, just judging from the sea of empties that you could see in the upper decks on punts and kickoffs.
Bank of America Stadium has a listed capacity at 75,307, so, the crowd, at what was reported, was at 52.3 percent capacity.
Woo, boy.
ICYMI: West Virginia 38, UVA 27
- UVA Football: Mid WVU team beats down our wannabe CFP contender, 38-27
- UVA Football: Anatomy of the meltdown that we just witnessed in Charlotte
- UVA Football: Trying to figure out what happened with the offense in loss to WVU
- Podcast: UVA Football was exposed in ugly loss to West Virginia
The estimates that I’m seeing online was that the split between the fan bases was 2:1 WVU:UVA, though one UVA fan who attended with his twin brother put his estimate of ‘Hoos in attendance at closer to 3,000 total.
He also pegged the WVU crowd in the 25,000 range, for what that’s worth.
“The UVA sections were basically empty,” the fan told me by email, in which he noted being “embarrassed” at the poor turnout from the Virginia faithful. “Thank goodness the band was there. If it had not been for them, there would have been complete silence from the orange and blue.”
That, and West Virginia grounded and pounded the good guys into submission.
Ugh, right?
But hey, at least we made some money.
I wrote a piece back in 2024 based on a Freedom of Information Act request that led me to getting the contract between the schools and the games’ sponsor, Charlotte Sports Events LLC, which does business as the Charlotte Sports Foundation.
For background there, the Charlotte Sports Foundation is the nonprofit that puts on the postseason Duke’s Mayo Bowl and a run of early-season college basketball neutral-site games, like the one that UVA Basketball played in the Spectrum Center last December, against Dayton.
Here’s why you play these games: the contract for the UVA-WVU game, and a second one, scheduled in the 2032 season, guarantees each school $2 million as a floor, which for the UVA side is already better than you’re going to bring in for a home football Saturday; the average for the 2021-2024 seasons, from numbers from Sportico, is in the $1.3 million-per-game range.
We’re still awaiting the numbers from the 2025 season, which might be a slight uptick from the previous four, but only that, a slight uptick.
The Sportico database doesn’t spell out what UVA Athletics makes from concessions, merchandise sales and sponsorships, so we’re not going entirely apples-for-apples comparing the $2 million guarantee from the Charlotte Sports Foundation and the $1.3 million from gameday ticket sales.
Just want to note that.
I will point out that, per Sportico, WVU averaged $2.1 million just in ticket sales for its home games over the 2021-2024 seasons, and another $400,000-plus per game in concessions and merchandise sales per game, so, the value of a WVU home game to the athletics department there is roughly $2.5 million.
If we figure that UVA Athletics gets in the range of $300,000 in concessions and merchandise sales per home game, we’re still at $1.6 million in total gate receipts for a home Saturday.
Based on the $2 million guarantee, then, UVA came out in the positive, in terms of the bottom line, from the trip over the weekend to Charlotte, compared to what we would have made by playing a home game.
West Virginia, conversely, lost about half a million.
Except when you factor in the second game in the series, out into 2032.
Assuming that game gets played, both get another guaranteed $2 million; in a traditional home-and-home, the host school keeps the money generated from its home game.
The contract term sheet spells out that if the games in Charlotte were to be sellouts, the schools would bring home $3.31 million per game.
That wasn’t close to being the case the other night.
All told, if both games end up being played, the two schools bring home the rough equivalent of two home paydays, instead of just the one.
It’s a long game that both are playing, with the money.
If I’m the Charlotte Sports Foundation, I’m hoping there’s a reason we don’t have to do the second one, since the first one probably lost them money.
Empty seats don’t book hotel rooms, after all.
Share
Chris Graham
