The Clemson University Athletic Department says it will work throughout the remainder of the season with student leadership and campus groups to encourage students to attend the football games.

The athletic department is responding after it has received so many inquiries regarding seating on The Hill through the Tigers’ first four football games.

Empty spaces on the hill have been noticeable all season on Death Valley’s east side of the stadium, but they were even more noticeable prior to Saturday’s win over Wake Forest. As the Tigers ran down the hill, the entire left side was almost empty (see above picture).

The matter got even more heated after Saturday’s game when head coach Dabo Swinney had to address a question from the media about the empty spots on The Hill.

“They will not let them in there like they used to until, I think, we come down the hill or something,” Swinney said after the Wake Forest game. “I don’t understand all of that … fire marshal or whatever. It is kind of out of my lane.”

Clemson defensive end Austin Bryant said on Monday he knows a lot of students are upset about the new ticketing system the athletic department and the student government agreed upon back in the spring.

“Yeah, as a part of the student body, I know a lot of the students are kind of frustrated with the new ticketing system,” he said. “I’m not exactly sure how it works, but that has been a concern among the students that I’ve heard just being in class or walking around and hearing them talking about the game. So I definitely think it will help if the administration can try and fix those problems and hear their end of the story and see the flaws that they see.”

The only flaw the administration is seeing right now is that the students are not using the tickets. Of the 3,000 tickets allocated to the students, not once has all 3,000 tickets been used. The Auburn game had the most tickets used at 2,713.

Hill attendance was down to 2,062 for the Boston College game and only 1,539 used the Hill for the Wake Forest Game.

But it just is not on the hill. As the chart below shows, total student attendance for the four home games to this point have not been met. Clemson allocated 10,724 tickets to every home game and the largest attended game to this point has been the Auburn game, which was still nearly a 1,000 short.

This all comes after nearly 10,000 students signed an online petition prior to the season expressing their displeasure about the new student ticketing system.

As for those students that are coming, a noticeable amount leave at halftime and are not coming back. When asked if he noticed when students leave the game after the third quarter, Bryant said he did.

“Yeah, you can notice the green spots on the hill,” he said. “Usually that never happens, but every now and then you look up at the big board and see the hill and you can see the few people left, but you have to keep playing.”

Clemson says it will encourage students to attend games as long as they have requested a ticket through the online system. They also ask that they return their ticket for use by someone else who can attend if they cannot and that they arrive to games earlier. Discussions will also continue with student representatives and campus organizations to better optimize the student ticket allotment next season.

“We are going to be working on this issue over the next 20 days prior to the Georgia Tech game, and continue to find the best – and safest – possible way for our students to continue to support our football program,” Clemson Director of Athletics Dan Radakovich said in a statement. “And we encourage everyone – not only students – to arrive to Memorial Stadium early and help create the tremendous Death Valley atmosphere known around the country.”

STUDENT ATTENDANCE