Not a Full House

A time-worn issue came up again last Saturday at Utah’s football game against Colorado State.
There were empty seats.
Which is embarrassing for the program and its fans.
With the Utes undefeated and ranked nationally, and a perfect, sunny afternoon, there’s no excuse for not selling out Rice-Eccles Stadium.
Yes, it was UEA week, but what better way to spend a long weekend than to attend a football game?
Truth is, Utah fans are waiting around to see what happens. All those decades of bad football, followed by years when they started out nicely, but faded, have taken a toll. At Saturday’s game, the announced attendance was 44,793, 224 short of a sellout. But actually there were a couple of thousand empty seats, especially in the southeast corner.
For the Utes to be undefeated and having the success they’re having, yet not sell out, is perplexing at best, shameful at worst.
Maybe they’re waiting for the Fiesta Bowl.
The good news for the Utes is that there’s a virtual impossibility of failing to sell out the final two home games. Those games are against nationally ranked TCU and BYU.
Unless, of course, Utah loses at New Mexico Nov. 1.
Then it will back to the old Ute crowds, with 5,000-10,000 empty seats for the TCU game.
Count on it.
The other thing you can count on: A sellout for the BYU game. No matter what the year.