John Dugas is right next to me during games. I am normally the first person to get the attendance figure. He wrote down "paid attendance" and that was the number reported.
Here is what goes into paid attendance:
Tickets sold
Player Pass tickets
students
anything sold at the union
comp tickets (those aren't many)
NOT included in count
Band(s)
Cheerleaders,
Jazz
Concession workers,
Event staff
Security
And stuff like that.
Seating capacity at Cajun Field is officially listed at 36,900.
Having gotten a good look from above I can tell you:
South End zone was about 50% capacity.
Upper deck had a LOT of empty seats.
While there were empty chairbacks on the first level, most of those are season ticket no shows which are counted in the attendance figure.
Now, here is something you may not be aware of:
Virtually every school calculates non chairback seating capacity as allowing 18 inches per seat. In today's society, seating capacity is not, in reality, 36,900.
Because if you allow 18 inches and put Hawk, Hammer, Z, Turbine and me side by side I guarantee you that's more than five seats.
That is part of the reason why the stadium appears to be closer to capacity than it really is.
Hope the info helps everyone understand
PS--There weren't more than a couple hundred fans on the grass.
PS--Check out the sound next home game.