Fresno State students snapping up tickets, could set a football attendance record in 2024

Fresno State students, who added a jolt of energy to Valley Children’s Stadium on football game days a year ago, are lining up to do it again this season.

Fall semester classes do not begin until Aug. 21, but the athletics department through Friday had sold 1,098 student season tickets. That is a 94% increase from the same point last year, and the Bulldogs are on pace to play in front of record student section crowds for a fourth year in a row. The home opener is Sept. 7 against Sacramento State.

“The student experience is such a unique time in life, and part of that holistic experience should include the athletics component,” said Frank Pucher, the Bulldogs’ senior associate athletics director for external relations. “Being a part of the Red Wave and packing the student section with your peers can create such lasting memories that our students and alumni will cherish for years to come.

“We wanted to recapture that school spirit and to do so we had to modernize our approach. We’ve poured our efforts into social and digital media, we’ve changed how we tell our story, and we’ve developed brand campaigns that invoke pride and ownership among our students and the youth throughout our Valley community.”

Fresno State sold 522 student season tickets for football in 2021. It sold 2,158 in 2022. It sold 2,898 last season, and expects to hit 3,000 this year. The athletics department typically reserves around 3,500 tickets for students, but last season game after game it extended the student section into other sections of the stadium to accommodate demand and averaged 5,538 students at its six home games.

The Bulldogs averaged 39,969 overall, which led all Group of Five conference programs and was higher than a number of Power Five programs including Cal, Stanford and Washington State in the final year of the Pac-12.

Fresno State also is on pace to match or exceed the 18,871 total season tickets sold last year, when it sold out three home games in a 9-4 season that included a victory in the New Mexico Bowl. The Bulldogs have played in front of at least 35,000 at Valley Children’s Stadium for 14 games in a row, dating to the 2021 season.