Nov. 4—Isaiah Perez recognizes that Roos Field is not a huge football stadium, especially compared to some of the FBS sites he's played at over his time at Eastern Washington.
"I think for the most part everybody on the team isn't looking in the stands," Perez, who has three games left in his college playing career, said this week. "I know my wife and daughters are in the stands, and that's all that matters to me."
Still, a cursory scan of the crowds at the Eagles' home venue the last couple of games — against Montana and Montana State, two schools with winning records and within driving distance of Cheney — painted a less-than-red picture: seats filled with maroon-clad Grizzlies fans and, two weeks earlier, swaths of Bobcats gold and blue.
Eastern Washington will play its next two games on the road, starting Saturday at Idaho and then the following week at Utah Tech, before playing its final home game of the 2026 season against Portland State.
It's a string that isn't nearly as meaningful as the Eagles hoped, but a 2-7 overall record and 1-5 Big Sky record cannot be improved upon enough for Eastern to posture for a postseason bid.
That record hasn't done much for Eastern's crowds this season, either.
But then, it's been a while since the Eagles had anything close to a stadium full of fans.
Eastern's last crowd of more than 8,000 fans came two seasons ago, the last time it hosted Montana, on Sept. 28, 2024. It was Eastern's first Big Sky game and second home contest of the season.
Since then, attendance has steadily declined. The Eagles drew crowds of 7,419 (against UC Davis), 6,258 (Montana State) and 4,854 (Idaho State) the rest of the 2024 season. In 2025, the Eagles hosted five home games, averaged 5,206 attendees per game and peaked at an announced crowd of 6,071 against Idaho.
This season, the largest crowd was the one on Sept. 26 against Cal Poly (5,320), almost the same as the attendance figure against Montana State (5,318) and slightly more than last weekend's crowd of 4,900 against Montana. Across five games, average attendance is 4,983.
This season, Eastern's attendance ranks fifth lowest in the 13-team Big Sky. The four teams below them, like Eastern, have a losing record this season.
It's a far cry from the Roos Field crowds of the 2010s, when on 21 occasions they were announced to be at least 10,000.
There has been much conversation around college football attendance this season, with photos of stadiums at UCLA, Texas Tech, Penn State and Maryland showing half-empty stadiums at venues normally associated with full crowds.
At the FBS level, 70 of the 138 teams have reported lower attendance figures this year as compared to last year, according to D1.ticker, which tracks such data. That includes the University of Washington, which is down 4.9% this season compared to last, and Washington State, which is down 0.1%.
Washington is 5-3 overall this year — including a 48-16 victory over Eastern and a 24-10 victory over Washington State. The Cougars are 1-8 overall and 0-5 in the Pac-12.
Tim Collins, EWU's athletics director, said there are a number of factors that have affected Eastern's football attendance figures this season and that the department employs various strategies to drive up attendance.
"If the market conditions start turning people away (from college football games), what is going to happen?" Collins said. "We've got to do more, we've got to be a little more creative. ... Your most loyal and dedicated fans are going to come to the home opener, homecoming and the rivalry games. How do you give them an excuse to come to the other ones?"
He acknowledged, too, the biggest factor.
"I think winning cures a lot," Collins said. "Winning and hope."
Speaking of Saturday's game specifically, Collins said Halloween celebrations almost certainly affected attendance figures. While Eastern moved its gametime up to 1 p.m. — the four previous home games kicked off at 4 p.m. to account for families with children's sports commitments and to allow for a longer tailgating experience — it was nearly dark by the end of the game, which Montana won 42-33.
Collins also said that when he got home after the game and prepared to join his own children for trick-or-treating, he noticed there was not a college football game on ESPN during the 7 p.m. window.
"I think it goes to show you people saw what they were up against with Halloween," he said. "Naturally, we did not want to compete against that."
From 2023 to 2025, ticket sales across all its sports represented just 4% of Eastern Washington's athletic department revenues, and in 2025 it brought in $940,000, according to data from Knight-Newhouse College Athletics Database. Separate from that, the Eagles received $360,000 from Boise State that season for playing the Broncos football team.
Still, Saturday's attendance was the lowest among the eight played all-time at Roos Field between Montana and Eastern Washington, and it was the lowest by more than 3,000 fans.
Collins said the department is continuing to expand its gameday offerings and ticket packages to widen its attendance base.
"Success definitely plays a part in it, but also, what our stadium is offering plays a part in it ," he said. "You're hoping to build in some of these offerings and promotions to sustain some of the ebbs and flows of success."
