Attendance at football games has two data points: ticket sales and scanned tickets. Often, announced attendance is based on the former and not the latter. However, the latest reports from Badger Extra show that the actual scanned tickets are much lower and align with what we observe while watching or attending the games. There are not as many fans as announced.
This isn't to say that Wisconsin is inflating numbers, in fact, that's normal to do attendance based on ticket sales more than scanned tickets because the second number can have some weird fluctuations depending on various factors. At the end of the day, attendance is dropping in both numbers, and it's because the product on the field is a losing product.
Luke Fickell's coaching tenure has seen a great decline in attendance, especially in 2025
Related: Not even homecoming vs. Iowa could fix the attendance struggles for Wisconsin
This may actually be the answer that fixes the problem. When the cost to keep a losing coach is greater than the cost to fire him, this is when decisions get made. This is when schools and leaders of these schools that may or may not care about sports actually pay attention. Revenue, sales, alumni buy-in, all the things that matter.
Empty seats are a powerful image. When decision makers look into Camp Randall, they are used to seeing packed-out crowds with no empty seats. Suddenly, it's a big difference: now there are lots of empty seats, and fans are leaving early. That's a powerful moment that fans can actually control.
This isn't to shame fans who still want to go and attend. It's also not to shame fans who decide to skip and not subject themselves to a losing performance. Each fan needs to determine how they want to proceed in their fandom, but know that booing, bags on heads, and empty seats help decision makers make faster decisions.
Luke Fickell being fired is a decision that needs to be made sooner rather than later.