Now that the dust has settled on another magical Texas high school football season, let’s take a look at one of the hottest topics that comes out of the state championships every year: attendance.

When the event first kicked off at AT&T Stadium in 2011, attendance figures made national news with the large crowd sizes. In 2013, Allen and Pearland set a national record with a crowd of 54,347, while the 2014 event drew a combined crowd of over 250,00 for the 11-man games.

However, after the 2020 event, which had limited attendance due to health guidelines, the overall numbers have dropped each year. That includes 2024 where a combined crowd of just 159,560 was the lowest turnout since 2015 when the event was moved to NRG Stadium in Houston.

Let’s take a look at some potential factors that played into the unusually low attendance for 2024:

Event Timing: Games were closer to Christmas than in years past, with the games taking place December 18-21. Next year’s games will also likely be close to Christmas with the games being December 17-20.

College Football Playoff: This was the first year of the expanded College Football Playoff and the games directly competed against the last four games at UIL State. Adding to that competition was two Texas universities were involved in the games. There’s a good chance some fans elected to stay home and watch the college games instead of coming out to AT&T Stadium.

Imperfect Storm: Sometimes the attendance is also impacted by which teams advance to state and which teams tend to travel en masse. The 2A, 3A, 4A crowds, although slightly smaller, weren’t a significant drop-off from 2023. But the two 5A games had some of the lowest crowds in years. One reason for that is that Richmond Randle is a new program (Year 3) and have a relatively small fan base. Smithson Valley and Highland Park for whatever reasons did not draw well and Austin Vandegrift, who played in the 3 p.m. game, aren’t known as having a large fan base around the Austin area. Plus, that game was at the same time as Texas vs. Clemson.

Cost: The rising cost of attending the event has been cited by many fans as reasons for them to stay home and watch the game on television. An all-day ticket to the event costs $20 per person. Parking will be at minimum $15 and when you factor in the cost of concessions it can cost well over $100 for a family of four to attend the event for a single day.

Has the Novelty of AT&T Stadium Worn Off? When the state championships first went to a single site format, many fans used attending the games as a chance to get a look at the new stadium for a relatively affordable price. But now that we are approaching 15 years of the games being in the stadium, the newness has worn off and a vast majority of TXHSFB fans have seen the stadium at least once.

What Can the UIL Do to Boost Attendance?

• The UIL could look at possibly moving the start of the season up a week to ensure being fully clear of Christmas and any conflicts with the College Football Playoff.
• A reduction of prices, although the UIL doesn’t control the price of parking and concessions a reduction in ticket prices could help draw fans back into attending the games in person. The UIL could offer multi-day passes at a discounted rate or they could work with AT&T Stadium to utilize technology to allow in and out priviledges at the stadium. 
• Moving the games to a new location, many fans outside of DFW have clamored for a rotation to either NRG Stadium or the Alamodome or at least a move to those venues for a year or two. A move could generate a new audience to attend the games for a first time with the games being closer to a different population segment and could draw back fans closer to AT&T Stadium if the games returned to Arlington in a way to ensure the games remain in the DFW Metroplex.

ATTENDANCE NUMBERS AT AT&T STADIUM FOR THE UIL FOOTBALL STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS