College Basketball Attendance

[RF1]

Gators see spaces in the crowd

The announced attendance for Wednesday night's game between Florida and Southeastern Louisiana was 8,057.
Matt Stamey/Staff photographer
By Kevin Brockway
Gainesville Sunr


http://www.gainesville.com/article/2012 ... -the-crowd

[ATPTourFan]

Great read, RF1.

Didn't hear about Texas-UCLA at Reliant Stadium... makes Ryan Center look packed in comparison!!
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaab-the ... ncaab.html

[Iggy1979]

Article raises a lot of interesting issues. As a supply and demand issue this is good for those of us who go to games. Schools will be reluctant to increase seat fees and feel pressure to bring in quality opponents. Not to mention the pressure to have a good team.

[Obadiah]

BTW, I was looking at the stats in the box score for the Georgia State game and noted that attendance was listed as 3,822. That number seemed familiar and sure enough when I checked attendance for the SMU game, it was 3,822. Now what are the odds that the announced attendance would be exactly the same two games in a row. A wild coincidence??

[RIFan]

I have mentioned before, that this is a trend all across the country.

[rjsuperfly66]

I believe a large portion of the problem is these ticket prices...

I don't mind paying because I'm a diehard PC fan, like you guys are diehard URI fans. But there is only so much you would be willing to spend.

I would be willing to spend $35 to sit upper balcony at the Ryan Center, but to a lot of casual Rhody fans for a game against Georgia Southern, probably not the case.

Most center court seats, upper or lower at the Dunk, start at $50. It's outrageous to expect people casual RI basketball or PC fans to pay that to go see them face Colgate. Sure you can usually buy cheap tickets and move down, but a lot of people don't know that.

I used to think that was bad, until I looked at PC @ Syracuse tickets a few years ago, $123 they wanted for last row in the Carrier Dome. They change their ticket prices based on opponents, but you will often still see them charge $40 or $50 for those same tickets against St. Francis NY.

Then you look at some of these ticket prices for netural court games. NCAA tournament games, $75 for a double-header set, $150 for a full day. Not terrible, until you look and see that in bigger venues, they don't draw well. Some of these 25,000 seat venues on Day 1 of the tournament, most of the time they are 75% full at best. Remember the stories about UCONN in the 2011 championship game, couldn't sell like 800 student tickets, forget their normal allotments, and the tickets ended up given away to local children, a good gesture but just shows the lack of interest that exists.

When the Dunk held the NCAA back in 2010, my Grandfather and I had tickets to the Day 2 event on the Saturday. We showed up early, grabbed two seats, center court, 2 rows back. We mingled with JTII, Andy Katz, Bill Raftery, and Verne Lundquist for a little while. We decided to just sit there for a while, figuring someone would eventually kick us out. We sat there until four minutes were left in the first game (Nova vs. St. Mary's) before someone showed up. We went back to our seats for the end of that game, and than the seas parted, the St. Mary's fans left, and we had our pick of row after row of seats in the Ohio fan section.

Actually heard a radio bit from Doug Gottlieb this week about how he said the NCAA needs to return a bit to smaller arenas. No need to play games in 50-70,000 seat venues. Price and interest wise, it's just not there usually.

[rodfromcranston]

I sit in 214 at The Ryan Center, which are great seats, and are only $25.00, if you were to
purchase individual seats in that section.

[rjsuperfly66]

I sit in 214 at The Ryan Center, which are great seats, and are only $25.00, if you were to
purchase individual seats in that section.

Yeah, I think the tickets were probably around $25-$30, but than you have all the associated ticketmaster fees which are horrifically high.

[Ramulous]

It's just another brick in the wall......the chase for big money by the colleges and universities....it is why I bemoan the fact that we don't belong in conferences with schools we've played for 50 years because we can't have two teams in the same TV market in the same conference...you want to be "Big-time" all it takes is looks and a whole lot of money....you want to pay to keep Cooley and Hurley ?

[jmck]

i sat courtside at bryant last year for $15. my kid used to complain about contact at her games. she could not believe what went on and what was said under the basket. for a little more, we sit in the 300's at uri and don't get near the experience.

[Rhody74]

We have season tickets in 312, 2nd row. It's not center court, but you see the action well. While you're not up close and personal, it's nice to see the game from that perspective .... the different defenses, the ball screens as they develop, etc.

[ATPTourFan]

A10 Avg Attendance through Jan 6

Code: Select all

ATTENDANCE      Avg     Cap     % Cap
Dayton          12243   13455   91%
Xavier          9678    10250   94%
VCU             7693    7617    101%
Butler          6906    10000   69%
Saint Louis     6191    10600   58%
Charlotte       5584    9105    61%
Richmond        4853    9071    54%
Massachusetts   4776    9493    50%
Temple          4677    10206   46%
Rhode Island    4049    7657    53%
Saint Joseph's  4037    4200    96%
St. Bonaventure 3694    5780    64%
Duquesne        2996    4406    68%
La Salle        2489    4000    62%
Fordham         2169    3470    63%
Geo. Washington 2027    5000    41%

A10 Attendance by % to Capacity

Code: Select all

ATTENDANCE          Avg     Cap     % Cap
VCU                 7693    7617    101%
Saint Joseph's      4037    4200     96%
Xavier              9678   10250     94%
Dayton             12243   13455     91%
Butler              6906   10000     69%
Duquesne            2996    4406     68%
St. Bonaventure     3694    5780     64%
Fordham             2169    3470     63%
La Salle            2489    4000     62%
Charlotte           5584    9105     61%
Saint Louis         6191   10600     58%
Richmond            4853    9071     54%
Rhode Island        4049    7657     53%
Massachusetts       4776    9493     50%
Temple              4677   10206     46%
Geo. Washington     2027    5000     41%

I think Temple may have the worst fans in the A10. The Owls are always good and yet they barely draw anyone to the comfy confines of the Liacourus Center.

[rodfromcranston]

When did we draw 4,000, let alone average 4,049?

[rambone 78]

Such is the reward we reap for 10-12 years of mediocrity. 53% of capacity is pathetic.

It's going to take some serious winning, to get us back to the 75% range where we should be.

Now we know why X and Dayton are hot commodities. X always wins, and Dayton draws win or lose. They might be the only program in the A10 that draws either way. VCU's numbers are due to Shaka Smart and the Final Four.

[Rhody74]

When did we draw 4,000, let alone average 4,049?

The Norfolk St game was 5045, according to http://www.gorhody.com/sports/m-baskbl/ ... 9_xsii.xml

[bigappleram]

the Temple numbers are astounding.

[bigappleram]

And these are the avg per game attendance figures for the vaunted C7 as of Dec 15th, obv they will go up in conference play, when they play all the national programs that are leaving (uconn, syracuse, louisville, pitt, wvu, etc). Sorry, when I look at this and see St Johns is drawing 100 more people a night than URI it doesn't make me scream VALUE! Our top 7 programs outperform the C7 at the gate.


Marquette: 12,777
Georgetown: 9,020
Villanova: 6,500
DePaul: 6,245
Providence: 5,530
Seton Hall: 5,212
St Johns: 4,151
Rutgers: 3,685

[SGreenwell]

When did we draw 4,000, let alone average 4,049?

URI goes by tickets sold, I believe, not people at the game. Most of the numbers for the games have been at or near 4,000.

[EasyEdBrown]

And these are the avg per game attendance figures for the vaunted C7 as of Dec 15th, obv they will go up in conference play, when they play all the national programs that are leaving (uconn, syracuse, louisville, pitt, wvu, etc). Sorry, when I look at this and see St Johns is drawing 100 more people a night than URI it doesn't make me scream VALUE! Our top 7 programs outperform the C7 at the gate.


Marquette: 12,777
Georgetown: 9,020
Villanova: 6,500
DePaul: 6,245
Providence: 5,530
Seton Hall: 5,212
St Johns: 4,151
Rutgers: 3,685

Boy is Rutgers in for a surprise when the Big 10 finds out they are Catholic.