In its first season in Pac-10 football, 1978, Arizona set a record by averaging 51,360 fans at Arizona Stadium. It was the first time the Wildcats had crossed the 50,000 threshold, and the future had never been more promising.
Bob Jacobsen, the school’s sports information director, once told me that “the interest and demand for tickets was so great that we could’ve sold lawn chairs to squeeze more people in.â€
Tucson was a football town in those early years of the Pac-10. The appeal of playing USC and Washington and UCLA instead of Wyoming and New Mexico — big boy football — surged in a community whose population was then about 500,000. The school wondered if the new upper deck on the east side, increasing the capacity of Arizona Stadium from 40,000 to 58,000, would be big enough.
Today, with a population of the greater Tucson metro area over 1 million — more than double the number of 1978 — Arizona has not averaged 50,000 at Arizona Stadium since 2015.
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The Wildcats are averaging 42,231 this season, a much-inflated number. It would be more accurate to say that no more than an average of 35,000 has been at Arizona Stadium for home games against Hawaii, Weber State, Kansas State, Oklahoma State and BYU.
Arizona wide receiver Chris Hunter (11) cradles the ball that dropped just out of reach of Oklahoma State cornerback Kale Smith (10) for a touchdown during the third quarter, Oct. 4, 2025, at Arizona Stadium.
Let’s just say USC and UCLA aren’t coming back to Tucson any time soon.
Tucson hasn’t been a “football town†for more than 40 years. Most of that can be attributed to Lute Olson’s overwhelming success at McKale Center from 1983-2007. In Dana Cooper’s epic 1988 film “Memories ’88,†the signature song says “Tucson, Arizona, is a basketball town.†So true.
Through games of Oct. 18, Arizona and Houston were the only teams in the Big 12 that had not averaged 90% capacity at home football games. Granted, home opponents have been uninspiring, and the BYU game was played on the rainiest weekend of the last few months, but it again proves that Tucson fans, in general, aren’t fans of UA football, but rather fans of winning.
There is no better example than season ticket sales in the 1990s. Here’s the list, obtained from the Daily Star archives:
– 1994: 37,841 season tickets, a school record
– 1995: 32,601
– 1996: 27,302
– 1997: 20,853
– 1998: 19,674
Fans bought a record number of season tickets in 1994 because the UA was coming off a 10-2 season, Desert Swarm and all that, which was capped by a stunning 29-0 victory over mighty Miami in the Fiesta Bowl.
But after a letdown 8-4 season in ’94, season ticket sales dropped by 5,000. The Wildcats then went 5-6 and 7-5, a big letdown. Entering what would be a historic 1998 season, the 12-1 team ticket sales dropped almost 50% from five years earlier.
At a time when it appeared Arizona could join such football-fever schools as, say, Iowa, Washington and Wisconsin, it began to come apart. After the rousing ’98 season, Arizona averaged 51,151 in 1999, but then Dick Tomey‘s program crumbled, and Tucson’s stance as a basketball town was strengthened.
What many UA football fans have forgotten is that this town got behind Mike Stoops like no previous coach in UA history. After the dark John Mackovic years, UA fans were so eager for better football that they jumped aboard the Good Ship Stoops and set a record by averaging 50,000 or more for seven consecutive seasons, which today seems unfathomable.
– 2004: 50,111
– 2005: 53,613
– 2006: 55,798
– 2007: 52,160
– 2008: 52,440
– 2009: 52,555
– 2010: 55,408
As Stoops went from twin 3-8 seasons in a massive rebuild, Tucsonans strongly supported each small step forward, leading to bowl games in 2008, 2009 and 2010. And then it all went flat when Stoops unaccountably opened the 2011 season 1-5. New athletic director Greg Byrne lost his patience, firing Stoops.
Even though Stoops’ successor, Rich Rodriguez, opened 8-5, 8-5 and 10-4, he couldn’t sustain it. He didn’t connect with the community, fan support ebbed and then came Kevin Sumlin.
Arizona has two remaining home games, against Kansas (Nov. 8) and Baylor (Nov. 22), and it would be encouraging if 50,000 attended at least one of those games, but it’s unlikely. Tucson has become a show-me city; if the Wildcats win, the “fans of winning†will ultimately get out of the house and to Arizona Stadium. Until then, it looks entirely possible the UA will finish last in the Big 12 in average home game capacity this season.
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