Over 400K sports fans attended events in Alabama on the 3rd weekend in October. Was it the most ever?

Here is something that slipped under everyone’s radar this month. On the weekend of October 17-19, about 389,000 fans attended three huge sporting events in the state of Alabama.

Like planets aligning in the night sky, the Alabama Crimson Tide and Auburn Tigers played games at home the same weekend as the races at Talladega Superspeedway.

Here are the attendance  totals:

• 100,077 — Alabama v Tennessee in Tuscaloosa
• 88,043 — Auburn v. Missouri
• 150,000 (estimated) — YellaWood Talladega 500 weekend 

In addition to the three big events, UAB and UNA played home games drawing nearly 30,000.

• 19,077 — UAB v. Memphis (UAB notched the biggest upset of 2025)
• 8,922— UNA v. Eastern Kentucky

7+% of Alabamians at three sporting events

Here is another fact that will blow your mind: The state of Alabama’s population is a little over 5.1 million. That means about 7% of the state’s population attended sporting events that weekend (and none of this counts the tailgaters OUTSIDE the stadiums!)

Questions: Was this the most fans attracted to sporting events over a weekend in Alabama? If not, tell us about other moments and times.

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