MARAUDERS HOPING FOR BIG CROWD.

Byline: Daily News

There's something happening at the Marauder Stadium turnstiles. It's November and they're actually welcoming more fans.

Attendance at AVC football games normally declines once the weather turns sour. But since a tiny gathering of 99 for the Oct. 18 game against Desert, the Marauders drew crowds of 220 and 156 for matchups with Chaffey (on Nov. 1) and Grossmont (Nov. 8).

Tonight in the season finale, bowl-bound AVC hosts Foothill Conference bottom feeder Victor Valley, a team the Marauders have never lost to.

Should Mother Nature cooperate with at least tolerable weather, AVC, which won four straight before last week's 21-20 loss at San Bernardino Valley, could top its crowd count in recent season finales.

Since 1993, Marauder Stadium drew just 130, 52, 98 and 123 in the last home games of the season. From 1990-92, when the school won eight games each year, attendance was quite a bit higher than in the 3-7, 4-6 and 5-5 seasons of 1994-96.

In those glory years, crowds were regularly counted off in access of 400 and 500. The modern record is the 634 on hand in 1989 in the season-opener against El Camino.

``The trend is starting to turn our way now. We went from 8-2-1 to 6-5 and then 3-7 and the crowds plummeted,'' said AVC Sports Information Officer Glenn Haller. ``The key to attendance has always been about marketing and wins and losses.

``We lost to Moorpark in our first game (this season), then we host (Kings River) the next week and it's the smallest paid crowd (291) for a home opener since (1986).''

The Marauders will accept a bid to the AVC-hosted McDonald's Charity Bowl on Dec. 6. Haller is hoping for a crowd in access of 1,000 in the stadium.

``We played in bowl games here before, but it just wasn't well attended,'' Haller said. ``The tickets for this game go to charity so I think fans will buy the tickets but might not attend the game. That's not an unusual thing. We could sell 5,000 tickets.''