UNM football: Will record attendance slump as in past years?

The first half of the UNM Lobo football season has been inarguably a success through the first six games.

The bullet point highlights include blowing out a Big Ten UCLA team in the Rose Bowl, being halfway to bowl eligibility, selling out University Stadium with an announced crowd of 37,440 in a rivalry win over NMSU and leading the nation in year-over-year home attendance increase (72% increase) at the FBS level.

“We’ve been really encouraged by the support our fans have shown through our first two home games this season,” UNM Athletic Director Fernando Lovo said. “Attendance is up 72 percent year-over-year, and we’re undefeated at home.”

Now for the hard part.

Starting with Saturday night’s Homecoming game against a Nevada team that, like the Lobos, is winless in Mountain West play and was picked 12th in the preseason league poll (UNM was 11th), UNM must try to figure out how to sell a product — Lobo football — that simply hasn’t sold for the past decade.

In Albuquerque, as the calendar turns from September to October and the echoes of basketballs bouncing in that huge hole in the ground across the street start to get louder, attendance in University Stadium has traditionally wanned.

In the past decade, UNM has had only one post-September home game reach 20,000 fans, and even that took the league’s best program — Boise State — coming to town and the Lobos in their second-consecutive Bowl season.

And while some of the more optimistic fans have had wildly unrealistic expectations on social media for Saturday’s game against Nevada to be another sell out — or maybe even hit 30,000 fans — UNM would be happy if, for the first time in a decade, there could at least be a crowd of 20,000 this late in the year.

“I’m realistic enough. No, we’re not going to have as good of a crowd as we had against New Mexico State after losing two in a row,” first year head coach Jason Eck said. “But I still think it’s just a better feeling when you’re at home. You have more people here supporting you. ... We’re all excited to be back at home, and we got to take advantage of that.”

UNM football’s average home attendance in 2024 was 16,001 — 114th out of 135 FBS programs. Entering the season, if anyone had suggested UNM would see that average jump to 20,000 per game in Eck’s and Lovo’s first season on the job, it likely would have been viewed as a win.

To reach that 20,000 average — 120,000 in total attendance over six games — UNM needs 64,921 fans to walk through the gates over the next four games, or an average of 16,230. Those home games include Nevada (Saturday), Utah State (Oct. 25), Colorado State (Nov. 15) and San Diego State (Nov. 28).

“As we head into a critical stretch of our conference schedule, we’re fortunate to have four of our final six games at University Stadium,” Lovo said. “I want to encourage all of Lobo Nation to come out. Our fans have a real, tangible impact on winning and losing. ... Our fans showing up and creating that energy are a huge part of our success.”

Whatever Saturday’s attendance, however many fans are left in the stands when the clock hits 0:00 and the game ends will surely be more than the past two “home” games the Lobos have had vs. the Wolf Pack.

In 2020, COVID forced UNM’s season to be moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, where games were played in an empty Sam Boyd Stadium, UNLV’s old home venue.

With an announced home attendance of 0, the Lobos lost their Nov. 14, 2020, “home” game to Nevada, 27-20.

And in the previous home game vs. Nevada, one actually played in University Stadium, a late-starting game — that then had a nearly 2-hour rain and lightning delay — led to an estimated 200 or so fans left in the stadium as the clock hit zeroes at 1:10 a.m. in 35-26 win over the Wolf Pack. That game started on Nov. 5 and ended on Nov. 6, 2016.

The Lobos not only clinched bowl eligibility in that game, but former coach Bob Davie gave out his email address and asked any fan who was actually in the game until the end to email him and he sent them a specially made t-shirt that read, “11/5/16 I was there” and had an image of the final scoreboard beneath it with the time — 1:10 a.m. — at the bottom.Largest post-September crowdsUNM’s largest attended home games generally come in the first month of the season with announced attendances typically waning in October and November.

Here is a look at the largest post-September announced attendance at University Stadium in each season over the past decade.

2025: TBD

2024: 15,561 — W, 52-37 vs. Air Force (Oct. 12)

2023: 13,723 — W, 42-21 vs. Hawaii (Oct. 21)

2022: 14,667 — L, 41-9 vs. Fresno State (Oct. 22)

2021: 15,403 — L, 36-7 vs. Colorado State (Oct. 16)

2020: 0 (COVID season with all designated home games played without fans in Las Vegas, Nevada)

2019: 15,393 — L, 35-21 vs. Colorado State (Oct. 11)

2018: 16,883 — L, 45-14 vs. Boise State (Nov. 16)

2017: 19,293 — L, 24-10 vs. Utah State (Nov. 4)

2016: 20,090 — L, 49-21 vs. Boise State (Oct. 7)