Largest sports crowd for every state

[rider]

I was so bored and had so much free time I decided to start this project. I'm sure that MANY of these can be topped and I haven't found them yet, so feel free to correct them. I decided to stick with team sports to make it less complicated though I added race tracks as reference.

Illinois: 112,912
Soldier Field (11/16/29): Notre Dame vs. USC (Regular season Div.I NCAA football)

Michigan: 112,118
Michigan Stadium (11/22/03): Michigan vs. Ohio State (Regular season Div.I-A NCAA football)
[Michigan International Speedway seats 137,243]

Pennsylvania: 110,753
Beaver Stadium (09/14/02): Penn State vs. Nebraska (Regular season Div.I-A NCAA football)

Tennessee: 109,061
Neyland Stadium (09/18/04): Tennessee vs. Florida (Regular season Div.I-A NCAA football)
[Bristol Motor Speedway seats 165,000]

Ohio: 105,565
Ohio Stadium (10/10/05): Ohio State vs. Texas (Regular season Div.I-A NCAA football)

California: 103,985
Rose Bowl (01/20/80); Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Los Angeles Rams (Super Bowl XIV)

Georgia: 92,746 (several times)
Sanford Stadium (11/19/05): Georgia vs. Kentucky (Regular season Div.I-A NCAA football)
[Atlanta Motor Speedway seats 125,000]

Louisiana: 92,664
Tiger Stadium (10/22/05): LSU vs. Auburn (Regular season Div.I-A NCAA football)

Maryland: 91,665
FedEx Field (08/28/04): Virginia Tech vs. USC (Regular season Div.I-A NCAA football)
[Pimlico Race Course seats 99,000]

Florida: 90,707
Ben Hill Griffin Stadium (09/03/05): Florida vs. Wyoming (Regular season Div.I-A NCAA football)
[Daytona International Speedway seats 167,785]

Alabama: 87,451 (Bryant-Denny stadium expanding to 92,000 in 2006)
Jordan-Hare Stadium (09/18/04): Auburn vs. LSU (Regular season Div.I-A NCAA football)
[Talladega Superspeedway seats 143,231]

Oklahoma: 84,943
Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium (11/26/05): Oklahoma vs. Oklahoma State (Regular season Div.I-A NCAA football)

Texas: 87,555
Kyle Field (11/23/01): Texas A&M vs. Texas (Regular season Div.I-A NCAA football)
[Texas Motor Speedway seats 204,861]

South Carolina: 86,092
Memorial Stadium, Clemson (10/23/99): Clemson vs. Florida State (Regular season Div.I-A NCAA football)

New York: 83,533
Yankee Stadium (05/30/38): New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox (Regular season MLB)
[Belmont Park seats 90,000]

Wisconsin: 83,062
Camp Randall Stadium (11/25/72): Wisconsin vs. Minnesota (Regular season Div.I NCAA football)

Missouri: 82,094
Arrowhead Stadium (11/04/72): Kansas City Chiefs vs. Oakland Raiders (Regular season NFL)

Indiana: 80,795 (several times)
Notre Dame Stadium (11/19/05): Notre Dame vs. Syracuse (Regular season Div.I-A NCAA football)
[Indianapolis Motor Speedway seats 257,325]

Connecticut: 80,000
Yalw Bowl (11/03/23): Yale vs. Army (Regular season Div.I NCAA football)

New Jersey: 79,378
Giants Stadium (01/08/06): New York Giants vs. Carolina Panthers (Postseason NFL)

Nebraska: 77,761
Memorial Stadium, Lincoln (11/12/05): Nebraska vs. Kansas State (Regular season Div.I-A NCAA football)

Colorado: 76,753
INVESCO Field at Mile High (09/22/03): Denver Broncos vs. Oakland Raiders (Regular season NFL)

Arkansas: 75,671
Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium (09/11/04): Arkansas vs. Texas (Regular season Div.I-A NCAA football)

North Carolina: 75,535
Bank of America Stadium (12/28/02): Virginia vs. West Virginia (Meineke Car Care Bowl - Div.I-A NCAA football)
[Lowe's Motor Speedway seats 167,000]

Arizona: 74,963
Sun Devil Stadium (11/09/96): Arizona State vs. California (Regular season Div.I-A NCAA football)
[Phoenix International Raceway seats 76,800]

Washington: 74,442
Husky Stadium (11/17/01): Washington vs. Washington State (Regular season Div.I-A NCAA football)

Kentucky: 71,022
Commonwealth Stadium (11/20/99): Kentucky vs. Tennessee (Regular season Div.I-A NCAA football)
[Churchill Downs seats 120,000]

Iowa: 70,585 (several times)
Kinnick Stadium (11/19/05): Iowa vs. Minnesota (Regular season Div.I-A NCAA football)

West Virginia: 70,222
Milan Puskar Stadium (11/20/93): West Virginia vs. Miami (Regular season Div.I-A NCAA football)

Massachusetts: 68,756
Gillette Stadium (01/07/06): New England Patriots vs. Jacksonville Jaguars (Postseason NFL)

Virginia: 65,115 (several times) (Lane Stadium expanding to 66,233)
Lane Stadium (11/26/05): Virginia Tech vs. North Carolina (Regular season Div.I-A NCAA football)
[Richmond International Raceway seats 105,000]

Minnesota: 64,471
Metrodome (11/22/98): Minnesota Vikings vs. Green Bay Packers (Regular season NFL)

Utah: 64,253
LaVell Edwards Stadium (09/25/82): BYU vs. Air Force (Regular season Div.I-A NCAA football)

Mississippi: 62,552
Vaught-Hemingway Stadium (11/22/03): Mississippi vs. LSU (Regular season Div.I-A NCAA football)

Oregon: 59,129
Autzen Stadium (09/24/05); Oregon vs. USC (Regular season Div.I-A NCAA football)

District of Columbia: 58,012
Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium (07/24/96): United States vs. Portugal (Olympics Men's Soccer)

Kansas: 53,811
Bill Snyder Family Football Stadium (11/11/00): Kansas State vs. Nebraska (Regular season Div.I-A NCAA football)
[Kansas Speedway seats 80,000]

Hawaii: 50,445
Aloha Stadium (02/04/90): AFC vs. NFC (NFL Pro Bowl)

New Mexico: 44,760
University Stadium, Albuquerque (09/17/05): New Mexico vs. New Mexico State (Regular season Div.I-A NCAA football)

Nevada: 42,075
Sam Boyd Stadium (08/31/02): UNLV vs. Wisconsin (Regular season Div.I-A NCAA football)
[Las Vegas Motor Speedway seats 156,000]

Wyoming: 34,745
War Memorial Stadium, Laramie (10/18/97): Wyoming vs. Colorado State (Regular season Div.I-A NCAA football)

Rhode Island: 33,000
Brown Stadium (11/19/32): Brown vs. Colgate (Regular season Div.I NCAA football)

Idaho: 30,924
Bronco Stadium (10/18/02): Boise State vs. Fresno State (Regular season Div.I-A NCAA football)

Montana: 23,867
Washington-Grizzly Stadium (11/20/04): Montana vs. Montana State (Regular season Div.I-AA NCAA football)

Delaware: 23,619
Delaware Stadium (08/27/73): Delaware vs. Temple (Regular season Div.I NCAA football)
[Dover International Speedway seats 140,000]

New Hampshire: 21,530
Memorial Field, Hanover (10/26/74): Dartmouth vs. Harvard (Regular season Div.I NCAA football)
[New Hampshire International Speedway seats 91,000]

North Dakota: 18,865
Fargodome (08/28/04): North Dakota State vs. Valparaiso (Regular season Div.II NCAA footbal)

South Dakota: 16,193
Coughlin-Alumni Stadium (10/18/85): South Dakota State vs. South Dakota (Regular season Div.II NCAA fotball)

Maine: 10,048
Harold Alfond Stadium (09/11/04): Maine vs. North Colorado (Regular season Div.I-AA NCAA football)

Alaska: 8,700 (several times)
Sullivan Arena (11/29/03): Duke vs. Liberty (Great Alaska Shootout - Div.1 NCAA basketball)

Vermont: somewhere between 4,200-4,500 (I can't find the exact record)
Centennial Field (1994-2006): A Vermont Lake Monsters (formerly Expos) game (Class A minor league baseball)

[malax31]

penn state had over 113000 at the ohio state game this year. i was at the wisconsin game and there were 110000 there. beaver staduim rocks

[twin58]

Maryland: 91,665
[Pimlico Race Course seats 99,000]

Does that include the infield? (Is that the right word for the part of Pimlico that is inside the course?) Isn't that standing room only?

[Eclipse]

Wow Vermont...thats like a highschool game.

[navylaxfan15]

how is nebraska so low considering everyone in that state goes to NU's college football games?

[SeanO39]

Because noone lives in Nebraska. You should try and put that into alphabetical order. It took me about 5 minutes to find Massachusetts.

Edit: Oh wait I get they go biggest crowd to smallest. Cool.

[rider]

penn state had over 113000 at the ohio state game this year. i was at the wisconsin game and there were 110000 there. beaver staduim rocks
I checked the box scores for those games and they listed sellout crowds of 110,753 (which means I should highlight the latest sellout, since that's what I did for other states). I find it totally plausible that 113,000 would have been in there but announced only 110,753 to avoid any fire safety regulations or something. Do you have a link that shows it?

Does that include the infield? (Is that the right word for the part of Pimlico that is inside the course?) Isn't that standing room only?
Yea, most likely. But I don't see standing room only as any less credible than putting 100 people on a 50 seat bench (like what they do in Ann Arbor).

[Mustangs21]

Nice job... I was at the New Jersey most attended one.... To bad my Giants got killed :(.

[chsattack22]

Wow Vermont...thats like a highschool game.
yea im from there, it blows. university of vermont's football team has been undefeated since 1974 tho :agree:

[3rdCoastlax07]

yea im from there, it blows. university of vermont's football team has been undefeated since 1974 tho :agree:

lol, I wonder why they don't draw more fans

[chsattack22]

lol, I wonder why they don't draw more fans
sorry that was a joke...their undefeated cause they havent had one since '74!! some kid on my football team had a shirt on today that said that.

god i hate this state. nothing to do.

[twin58]

i hate this state. nothing to do.

But, but: Ski Vermont (http://www.skivermont.com/)

and especially within the next few weeks: State Foliage Information (http://www.madrivervalley.com/business/detail/org_2002-09-03.htm)

[chsattack22]

shut up twin.jk. ooh ski and look at trees, sounds like a grand ole time (if the trees were green, that would be different). and they wonder why university of vermont is the biggest pot and high up there party school, theres nothing to do

[twin58]

shut up twin.jk.

No problem.

ooh ski and look at trees, sounds like a grand ole time

Gee, it works for some folks. Checking, I see that full-day weekend lift tickets at Stratton (http://www.skivermont.com/alpine/resort/stratton) for the upcoming season will be a stratospheric $72.00, which means that I won't be one of those folks.

[chsattack22]

yea but those folks are usually really stuck up rich people or theyre old. actually 72 bucks for two full days is a bit of a discount.

[libertyvillelax]

Indiana: 80,795 (several times)
Notre Dame Stadium (11/19/05): Notre Dame vs. Syracuse (Regular season Div.I-A NCAA football)

^^nice i was at that game

And WOW i had no idea soldier field used to seat over 100,000.

[twin58]

The $72.00 is for one day, when that one day is a Saturday, Sunday, or holiday. During the week, the full-day lift ticket is $59.00, still out of my range. Well, that's disposable income for you.

In the Denver area, you can save a few bucks by buying lift tickets at the King Sooper grocery store; the Safeway has them too. I hope Vermont has something like that. Otherwise, I don't see how the "clothes held together with duct tape" crowd can afford to go skiing or boarding in Vermont.

[chsattack22]

i go to smugglers notch which is like 38 bucks for a full day which isnt bad. and yea there is definately a way to save money when buying lift tickets.

[twin58]

"i go to smugglers notch"

That's not something to do?

[chsattack22]

well in the winter it is, but other than that. you have to usually spend money to do anything in this state

[marflax33]

how is nebraska so low considering everyone in that state goes to NU's college football games?

Stadium doesnt hold enough people. It got an expansion added on, now it seats like 85,000 or something. First game this year the Nebraska record will be broken on there, as they havent not sold out a game since like the 70's.

[twin58]

"you have to usually spend money to do anything in this state"

This happens often in the other forty-nine as well.

(I hope that there are still fifty states. They haven't decided that one isn't a state anymore, have they?)

[fenwicklax89]

god i hate this state. nothing to do.

id chill at the Burton headquarters in burlington. but thats just me.....

[mfLax03]

theres no way that the biggest crowd in kentucky wasn't at a kentucky derby, or at a uk uofL game

[rider]

theres no way that the biggest crowd in kentucky wasn't at a kentucky derby, or at a uk uofL game
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Stadium_%28Kentucky%29

It says right here that the largest game was the UK-Tennessee game, and they had an crowd overflowing the capacity by 1,000. And I know that Kentucky Derby draws way more, but as I stated, I didn't post race track attendances because it's hard to find records for them (probably because they all sell out).

[mfLax03]

wikeipedia isnt always right, but what do i know, and nice thread by the way

[Sack Attack]

The Georgia one has to be wrong, Sanford Stadium seats 92K at capacity, standing room only is probably close to 100K.

And Florida's record at a game vs. Wyoming? I don't think so.

[chsattack22]

vermont... :whyme: :chuckle: :banghead:
i know im officially embarrassed. cmon alaska had more people at a sporting event. we are pitiful

[BTlaxripper]

A highschool basketball game or highschool football game could set the record for Vermont. That is just sad.

I would like to point out that most of the college football games that set the record are when LSU was playing.

And I was going to say, if Louisiana's record didn't happen at LSU that these statistics are bogus. Luckily it did. "Earthquake Game" anyone?

http://img1.travelblog.org/Photos/1029/26535/t/131096-LSU-football-game-0.jpg
GEAUX TIGERS!

[rider]

The Georgia one has to be wrong, Sanford Stadium seats 92K at capacity, standing room only is probably close to 100K.

And Florida's record at a game vs. Wyoming? I don't think so.
You probably are right about Georgia but I looked at as many box scores from the past few years as I could and the largest crowds announced were the 92k sell outs. It obviously does not mean that there weren't more people there, but they may not annouce it because having more people may be breaking fire safety codes. So I just put in the announced crowds rather than what fans want to estimate.

I'm not sure how many times 90,716 was reached at Ben Hill Griffin but that is considered a sell out crowd (their stadium capacity is 88,548) and believe it or not, the last that number was reached was against Wyoming (you can check the box scores if you don't believe me). But really, it may not be that strange, games against rivals were only a few hundred off and keep in mind, all these crowds were above capacity so there is bound to be weird numbers in these attendances.

[twin58]

"[Vermont] ... people at a sporting event"

I wonder what the attendance record was for a Phish concert in Vermont.

[rider]

"[Vermont] ... people at a sporting event"

I wonder what the attendance record was for a Phish concert in Vermont.
Well, since you asked...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phish#One_more_time_.282002-2004.29

20,000 people attended but 100,000 could have attended if there weren't severe safety restrictions.

[twin58]

[Phish, 20,000]

Do you suppose that is the record attendance for any event in Vermont? You'd think that UVM ice hockey would have set some sort of record.

An alternate way to view this is to take the attendance as a percent of the state population. It may be the case that when 4,000 people show for minor league baseball in Vermont, that represents a greater percent of the population than, say, 65,000 showing up for an event in Virginia.

[twin58]

At the beginning of the broadcast of tonight's Iowa - Ohio State game, the announcer said that the crowd assembled in Iowa City was the largest ever to see a sporting event in the state of Iowa. I do not know what the actual attendance is.

[NHDSlax]

My great uncle was at the USC-Notre Dame game. #1 on the list. The ticket is framed and is now a familiy heirloom.

[FPDefense]

Largest World Cup Soccer Game Attendance
The greatest recorded crowd at any soccer match was 199,854, for the Brazil v. Uruguay World Cup final in the Maracanã Municipal Stadium, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on July 16, 1950.

almost 200,000... dear god

[rider]

My great uncle was at the USC-Notre Dame game. #1 on the list. The ticket is framed and is now a familiy heirloom.
That is pretty awesome, how much is the price on that ticket?

And I'm definitely updating this list after the college football season ends, since several states have gotten new records. And one big twist in the Vermont question.

http://www.uvm.edu/~sportspr/?Page=faccentennial.html&SM=facilitiesmenu.html

In 1989 Centennial Field was the site of the first two rounds of the NCAA Men's Soccer Championship with UVM drawing a pair of crowds in excess of 5,000 fans.

As of now, I'm gonna accept that as the Vermont record, as amazing as it seems.

Vermont: 5,000
Centennial Field (11/18/89): Vermont vs. Yale (Postseason NCAA Div.1 soccer)

[Dan]

YESSS! WE BEAT THE 5000 MARK! Vermont is the best state in the world. Now I live in Utah. But Vermont, well, we are chill there. We don't like the sports. We like the weed. I think the Our Lady Peace concert I went to when I was 13 had more people then any UVM or Middlebury game ever. Awesome. Awesome. I have so much Vermont pride.

[marflax33]

http://img1.travelblog.org/Photos/1029/26535/t/131096-LSU-football-game-0.jpg
GEAUX TIGERS!

An even color spread... Meaning that LSU cant sell out the stadium to their own fans.

http://content.imagesocket.com/thumbs/memorial_stadium_pic32e.jpg (http://imagesocket.com/view/memorial_stadium_pic32e.jpg)

Every game looks exactly like that. 100% red and white(nebraska colors). 280+ Consecutive sellouts. The longest in any sport in history.

If only the stadium seated more people.... Whatever. Expansions will come.

[Dan]

Dude, the only reason LSU looks like a mix is because Purple and Yellow are contrasting colors, and when mixed (correctly) will make grey (or brown, if mixed incorrectly), thus, from afar, the crowd looks like a regular old mass of people, but in reality, upon closer inspection, it's pretty purple and yellow. And when I go to BYU games I wear like orange jackets or like green t-shirts. I just go to cheer. And watch my team rock it up. 4-2! Best start since like 2001.

[rider]

Yea seriously, how can you not be impressed by that LSU picture? It seems pretty clear that they're pretty much all LSU fans. Seriously, any football program that can sell more than 50,000 seats year after year after year after year is impressive in my book.