Can Texas A&M Football Set an Attendance Record Against Alabama?

Will Texas A&M Football Set Kyle Field Record this Weekend?

This is perhaps the biggest home game for Texas A&M football since Alabama came rolling into town seeking revenge against Johnny Manziel, Mike Evans, and the rest of the crew in 2013. That was the second game of the year—so, it was very hot—and was the year before Kyle Field had been renovated, so the capacity was still in the mid-80,000s. The attendance that day was 87,596. The record would be set mid-renovation in the following season against Ole Miss, when 110,633 people were at the game.

In that 2013 Alabama game, as now, the lead in the SEC West was on the line. It would have been quite an early lead—and one to which Texas A&M football would not have held on had they won, if everything else that season had gone the same way—but it was a game with massive stakes. Technically, the lead in the division was also on the line in 2015 (the Aggies were even ranked higher than the Tide at that point due to Bama’s earlier loss to Ole Miss!) but that game and season got so out of hand that I don’t think many Aggies remember how consequential the contest seemed coming into the day. On that day, the attendance was 105,733. For the 2021 win over Alabama—where the Aggies were coming off of two straight conference losses to inferior opponents—the attendance was 106,815. Later in that same year, Kyle Field came as close as it’s ever been to breaking that 110,633 record, when 109,835 showed up to see the Aggies play Auburn.

Yesterday, Texas A&M football sent out this tweet:

I’m not sure I’ve seen them advertise SRO tickets like this before, even for that Auburn game. What this tells me is that demand is higher than it has been in recent memory. Is it high enough to break that record? They came within 1,000 people of doing it against Auburn that year. The brand that Alabama rolls into town and the rivalry they’ve developed with the Aggies makes it seem to me that this would be even more of a draw—especially now with it being so evident that Alabama is vulnerable.

So will Saturday be a new record? I’m not sure. But this is as good of a chance as any—at least, until a particular home game next season.