How Saturday’s soccer attendance at Williams-Brice compares with Gamecock football games

Fans from across the country came together Saturday for a historic international soccer match at South Carolina’s Williams-Brice Stadium.

Tickets were sold to people from all 50 U.S. states, according to USC, with official attendance announced as a 77,559-fan sellout.

Liverpool defeated Manchester United 3-0 in the friendly battle of English Premier League teams, a night that was part of a multi-city summer tour. The match featured a unique and electric atmosphere from start to finish.

So how did the crowd compare with those from a typical football Saturday at Williams-Brice, which has an official capacity of 77,559?

It’s pretty close — and it ultimately depends on how you interpret the numbers.

Football and soccer

Five of South Carolina’s seven home football games in 2023 were announced as sellouts, with Jacksonville State (75,348) and Vanderbilt (75,682) coming up short of that threshold. The Clemson game led the way at 80,172.

Announced attendance, though, includes more than just paying spectators. It’s historically a combination of tickets sold (or given away) plus USC students, media members, stadium workers, the players themselves and — in the event of a football game — all the band members. It includes a bit of estimation.

Scanned ticket data, which helps determine an event’s “show rate,” is a better reflection of how many fans passed through the stadium gates. There were 65,346 tickets scanned for Saturday’s event, according to a USC spokesman.

That 65,346 figure is impressive and matches up well with the most popular Gamecock games.

And it’s higher than 17 of the last 21 USC football home games.

Gamecock football ticket scans

USC’s football team averaged 58,194 scanned tickets per game in 2023, according to records obtained by The State. But that’s pulled down by a contest against FCS Jacksonville State (47,929) and a rainy Vanderbilt game (37,752).

Factor out those two games and the average scans jump to 64,335 per game for the other five contests — about 1,000 fewer fans than Saturday’s soccer match.

But the most popular games in 2023 topped that soccer figure: Clemson scans were at 70,459, Mississippi State was 66,111 and Florida was at 65,410.

In 2022, all USC football games had fewer ticket scans than the 65,346 from Saturday’s soccer match. The most tickets scanned were 63,199 against Georgia State at the opener. That’s ahead of 61,920 for Georgia and 61,458 for Tennessee, according to records provided by USC.

South Carolina’s football team averaged 56,280 scanned tickets per game in 2022. Excluding the South Carolina State game (31,366) that moved dates because of tropical weather, average scans were 60,432.

Just one game had more than 60,000 scans in 2021, with the Clemson contest at 68,506. That season was Shane Beamer’s first as South Carolina’s coach but also a bit of an anomaly for attendance trends nationally with the country emerging from the COVID pandemic.

While rain can crush a game’s actual attendance — see USC vs. Vanderbilt and SC State above — Saturday’s soccer friendly dodged the weather and was played in mostly dry conditions.

The historic nature of the match and the monetary investment made by ticket-buyers were likely other factors encouraging fans to show up. Most tickets for Liverpool vs. Manchester United cost hundreds of dollars, with the best seats over $1,000 each.