Stormin in Norman
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Oklahoma football: Only the best teams bring in the best crowds

By Chip Rouse

NORMAN, OK - NOVEMBER 25: A general view of the stadium during the West Virginia Mountaineers vs. the Oklahoma Sooners game at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on November 25, 2017 in Norman, Oklahoma. Oklahoma defeated West Virginia 59-31. (Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images)
NORMAN, OK - NOVEMBER 25: A general view of the stadium during the West Virginia Mountaineers vs. the Oklahoma Sooners game at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on November 25, 2017 in Norman, Oklahoma. Oklahoma defeated West Virginia 59-31. (Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images) /
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Only the best college teams draw sell-out crowds over an extended period of time. Count Oklahoma football among that prized group.

The Sooners not only boast one of the teams with the best run of success on the field in the college game, but also one of the best fan followings.

Several renovation phases have increased the capacity of Gaylord Family — Oklahoma Memorial Stadium by nearly 9,000 since 1998, to 83,489. Since 1999, the Sooners have played 116 home games, and every one of them has been a sellout. They could have added 20,000 more seats, and Sooner fans would have filled up every one of those seats, too.

The beautiful stadium features and festive fan environment has a lot to do with it, but the biggest factor for drawing repeated capacity crowds to OU football games is the winning product on the field.

Oklahoma Sooners
Oklahoma Sooners /

Oklahoma Sooners

The memorable catchphrase from the popular 1989 movie “Field of Dreams,” was “If you build it, they will come.”  In the case of Oklahoma football, if you win and compete for championships (like 11 conference and six national in the past 19 seasons), we will come…and keep coming…by the droves.

Winning has become nearly automatic for the Sooners when playing at home. Oklahoma has won 387 of 488, or 81 percent, of the games played at Oklahoma Memorial Stadium since the first game held there on Oct. 20, 1923. And since 1999, the Sooners have lost just 10 times at home in 116 games. To put that into perspective, they have more Big 12 Championships (11) that home losses in the last 19 seasons.

Oklahoma averaged 86,520 in six home dates in 2017. That’s 3,000 more than capacity and ranked 12th in the country, according to NCAA attendance records. The Sooners were the ninth best team for drawing attendance through all games (home, road and neutral). OU drew total attendance of 1,054,046 in 14 games last season.

The largest home game in Oklahoma football history was for Ohio State on Sept. 17, 2017, one of the nine home losses for the Sooners since 1999. Ohio State won the game 45-24 in front of an overflow crowd of 87,979.

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The 10 largest crowds in the history of Oklahoma Memorial Stadium have been in the last two years. The Sooners play seven home games this season. That is the most since the 2007 season. OU won all seven home dates that season, including wins over No. 11 Missouri, Texas A&M and Oklahoma State.

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