A 10-win season has bolstered Gophers football attendance even more than the team has indicated.
The team's average announced attendance — the number of tickets sold — was 46,190 this season, up from 37,914 one year earlier.
But the actual number of tickets scanned spiked from 22,656 last season to 37,703 this year, according to data the Star Tribune obtained from the University on Monday.
The year-by-year comparison shows that 81.6% of the tickets the Gophers sold this season were actually used, compared to just 59.8% last season.
The Gophers typically play seven home games each season at TCF Bank Stadium, where the official capacity is 50,805.
Minnesota announced its first two sellout crowds since 2015 for the final two home games this season. In each case, the scanned tickets were below capacity — 45,025 for Penn State, and 44,609 for Wisconsin.
But those scanned ticket numbers were considerably higher than the two final home games last season — 15,434 for Purdue, and 15,160 for Northwestern.
Here's a look at the announced crowds and ticket scanned numbers for the past two seasons.
