Michael Vick and Norfolk State could potentially finish their season with one win, but attendance numbers tell a completely different story. Despite raising season-ticket prices by 82 percent, changing the Homecoming ticketing system, and enduring the program’s worst on-field results since 2015, the Spartans posted one of their strongest attendance years of the past decade.
The reason is simple: Michael Vick’s arrival changed everything.
Comparing Homecoming Crowds: 2025 vs. 2023
Homecoming is Norfolk State’s biggest annual measurement of fan engagement. And under Vick, the jump was significant.
2025 Homecoming (South Carolina State)
47,273 fans
2023 Homecoming (Morgan State)
24,960 fans
That’s an increase of +22,313, nearly doubling the previous Homecoming turnout.
Norfolk State fans stand on the concourse during the 2025 homecoming game. (Steven J. Gaither/HBCU Gameday)
But there’s crucial context
In 2025, Norfolk State implemented a new ticketing policy requiring all campus participants— alumni, vendors, tailgaters, and general spectators—to have a valid game ticket to access the Homecoming footprint.
This policy automatically elevated the official attendance count by pushing thousands of people who previously might not have entered the stadium—or been counted—into the paid/validated total.
Still, even after factoring in the policy change, the increase was far too large to explain through ticketing alone. The combination of Vick’s star power, national curiosity, and a more controlled event footprint produced the largest Homecoming crowd in NSU history.
The Michael Vick Effect: 2023 vs. 2025
If Homecoming measures hype, the season finale measures true fan stamina—especially when a team has a losing record.
Here is where Vick’s influence becomes even more clear.
2023 Final Home Game (South Carolina State)
3,087 fans
2025 Final Home Game (Morgan State)
7,294 fans
That’s an increase of +4,207, more than double the attendance of the same end-of-season slot two years earlier.
And the context matters:
- 2023 team record at that point: 3–7
- 2025 team record at that point: 1–9
Usually, interest collapses when seasons go poorly. Instead, 2025’s worst record produced a stronger end-of-year crowd—one of the clearest signs that the baseline level of engagement around NSU football has risen under Vick.
Norfolk State has consistently brought more fans that usual despite the losses. (Steven J. Gaither/HBCU Gameday)
Comparing the Overall Seasons
Norfolk State’s decade-long attendance averages have typically hovered between 8,000 and 15,000 total home attendance per year. Even in 2011, when the HBCU won its lone MEAC title (later vacated), the average was 15,171.
2025 Attendance Total:
106,062 across five home games
That number alone surpasses 2023 and 2024 combined and marks one of the largest total-season attendance figures in modern NSU football history.
Why Fans Kept Coming
The attendance boom stems from multiple forces:
- Michael Vick’s national magnetism
- A renewed sense of program relevance in the HBCU world
- A campus-wide ticketing policy push at Homecoming
- Community curiosity and media attention
- A belief that change is coming—even if wins haven’t yet
As Vick put it earlier this year:
“People want to support when they feel momentum. Our job is to give them something to believe in.”
Where do Michael Vick and NSU go from here?
Even with losses stacking up, Norfolk State’s crowds have grown, not shrunk.
Homecoming nearly doubled. The season finale more than doubled. Overall attendance skyrocketed.
Michael Vick hasn’t turned the Spartans into winners—yet. But he has done something arguably more valuable in Year One:
He made Norfolk State football matter again.
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