School officials could have hung a banner Saturday night from 'A' Mountain proclaiming "Welcome to Sun Devil Stadium, plenty of seats available" during ASU's 38-2 victory over Eastern Washington.
A crowd of 39,581 was announced as having bought tickets to the game, but the actual turnout was weaker than Sparky's celebratory "pushups" after ASU scores. The crowd was an eye-opener for freshmen taking in their first game at Sun Devil Stadium.
"I was thinking there'd be more people here," urban planning freshman Leigh Dukatt said. "It's disappointing. Now that all the students are back, you'd think they'd go to the game."
That was the true shame of Saturday's turnout.
ASU will never be able to sell Sun Devil football to the masses in the Phoenix market, not with as many professional teams in the Valley as there are now. Considering how bad the team was last year, it's even getting difficult to draw the crotchety alumni to games played in triple-digit temperatures.
But the student section should always be packed with loud, obnoxious kids, drunk on college football and whatever they manage to sneak past stadium security in their back pockets.
Tickets are just $10 for students. Season tickets are only $50, just over $7 per game.
The student section was far from full Saturday, even before the blowout was on. Many of the students that did show up cheered meekly, sat through most of the game and left early.
"It's pathetic that there are 47,000 students at ASU, and none of them are here," architecture sophomore Angela Sincliar said. "My high school got more into football games than this."
Eastern Washington is not USC. Eastern Washington isn't even San Diego State. On the other hand, Central Florida, ASU's next opponent at Sun Devil Stadium, is better than both those teams.
UCF went 6-5 last season with narrow losses to Arkansas, Syracuse and Clemson. The Golden Knights gave Penn State a scare Saturday, before losing 27-24.
ASU and UCF will play a competitive game this weekend, but the question is this: If the Sun Devils lose and no one shows up, will anyone even care?
Reach the reporter at hhshawk97@yahoo.com.
