Late starts leave Arizona attendance near bottom of Power 4 schools | Greg Hansen

For Tucson football fans, the biggest attendance problem at Arizona Stadium may not be the team’s record or the quality of its opponents. It may be the hour on the clock when games begin. Arizona ranked 59th among the 68 schools in the Power 4 conferences for average attendance as a share of stadium capacity after the first month of the season, filling 79.2% of its available seats, or about 40,271 spectators per game. Only nine schools ranked lower, placing the Wildcats near the bottom of major college football even as Tucson remains a community with a long tradition of supporting the university.

The attendance comparison is particularly striking because many of the schools below Arizona are not generally viewed as the strongest draws in the Power 4. UCLA filled 35% of its capacity, followed by Duke at 54%, Stanford at 55%, Pittsburgh at 64%, California at 70%, Houston at 72%, Boston College at 74%, Rutgers at 76% and Louisville at 78%. Arizona’s 79.2% figure was better than all of them, but it still left the Wildcats in 59th place. The numbers show that Arizona is not alone in struggling to fill a large stadium, though its attendance is low compared with the expectations surrounding a prominent state university and a program that has historically attracted substantial local support.

The primary explanation identified for Arizona’s position is the scheduling of late night home games. Under the Big 12’s television arrangements, kickoff times are determined in part by the conference and its broadcast partners. That system has placed Arizona games at hours that can be difficult for Tucson residents, particularly those who must work the next morning, have young children, or travel from outside the city. The Cincinnati game began at 8 p.m., and the upcoming game against TCU was scheduled for an even later 8:15 p.m. start. For many fans, attending is not simply a matter of watching a football game. It requires getting to the stadium, staying through the final whistle and making the trip home late at night.

Joseph Ballantyne, a longtime Arizona supporter and Tucson financial adviser, described the scheduling as deeply frustrating. He has held Arizona football season tickets for 30 years, basketball season tickets for 40 years, and identifies himself as a university alumnus and donor. His reaction illustrates why kickoff times can become a loyalty issue rather than a minor inconvenience. Fans who have maintained season tickets and contributed to the university may reasonably feel that the structure of the schedule is making it harder for them to use the tickets they bought. The concern is not only whether a particular game is attractive, but whether the overall experience remains practical for people who have supported Arizona for decades.

The time difference also affects how Arizona’s games are experienced by viewers in other parts of the country. A game that begins at 8 p.m. in Tucson starts at 10 p.m. for fans in Cincinnati, while the 8:15 p.m. TCU game will begin at 10:15 p.m. for viewers in that state. Television audiences may be willing to watch at those hours, especially when a conference and its broadcast partners are seeking desirable programming windows. Stadium attendance, however, depends on people physically reaching the venue and remaining there late into the evening. A kickoff that may help a television schedule can therefore create a different set of problems for the home crowd.

Arizona’s current situation also reflects a broader shift in the way college football schedules are built. Before television networks and conference officials placed greater emphasis on late windows, Arizona commonly played home night games beginning around 6:30 or 7 p.m. Those starts still allowed fans to attend after work while ending early enough to make the evening manageable. The earlier schedule was associated with stronger turnout in the upper deck on the east side of Arizona Stadium, which was often full. That section is now described as almost entirely empty, offering a visible sign of how the timing of games has changed the atmosphere inside the stadium.

The late start issue is not entirely new to Arizona or the wider western college football landscape. The former Pac 12 made late games part of its identity by heavily promoting its “Pac 12 After Dark” programming. That branding treated night football as an advantage for television exposure, but the Arizona attendance figures suggest that the same approach can carry a cost for local supporters. The Wildcats are now in the Big 12, where the conference and television partners continue to control many kickoff decisions. Arizona’s ranking indicates that the consequences of those decisions are being felt in the stands, not just in broadcast schedules.

For Tucson, the question is whether the university, conference and television partners can balance national exposure with the needs of people who actually attend games. Arizona has not been identified as the only school dealing with weak capacity numbers, and the list below it includes several Power 4 programs with lower percentages. Still, the Wildcats’ near bottom ranking, combined with the contrast between past 6:30 and 7 p.m. crowds and today’s sparse upper deck, gives the issue a distinctly local dimension. If late starts continue, season ticket holders, donors and casual fans will have to decide how often they can make the trip to Arizona Stadium. The attendance figures suggest that kickoff time has become an important part of that decision.