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Guinness World Records reports fewer number of Battle at Bristol attendees
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According to WATE 6 sports reporter Emily Proud, last weekend’s Battle at Bristol matchup between Tennessee and Virginia has broken the Guinness world record for the biggest crowd to attend a college football game.
However, Guinness — which left out players, the two bands, staff and media members — has come up with a different total number of those in attendance than the official number announced at the game.
“They had a confirmed total of ticketed attendees at 130,045 people,” said Kim Partrick, head of records management for the United States and Canada. “In many cases, announced attendance is actually higher than the real ticketed attendance. And for this reason, from a Guinness World Records attendance standpoint, we’ve decided that globally the way that we count attendance records, so that it can be compared from place to place, is just for that barcoded, ticketed attendance.”
Either way, the game broke the all-time NCAA record for attendance, which was previously set by Notre Dame-Michigan (115,109) in the Big House during the 2013 season.
“It’s just important to note that yes, we know that higher figures than the one we recorded have been publicized, but either way whether it’s 130,045 or over 150,000 this is an incredibly impressive achievement on behalf of Bristol Motor Speedway in getting that many people there to watch the game,” said Partrick.
Tennessee improved to 2-0 with a decisive 45-24 win over Virginia Tech in this one.
Tyler Waddell is a member of the Saturday Down South news team. He brings over five years of professional journalism experience and is closing in on a Bachelor's in sports management. Follow him on Twitter (@Tyler_Waddell).
