NCAA Releases Last Years Attendance Numbers

[STLfan]

SLU checks in with 7,149 good for 73rd in the nation.

Here is how the A10 did.

Dayton - 12,259 - 28th

Xavier - 10,123 - 44th

Saint Louis - 7,149 - 73rd

Temple - 6,376 - 83rd

Charlotte - 6,156 - 87th

The rest were outside the top 100 in attendance

Rhode Island - 5,227

Richmond - 4,629

St. Joseph's - 4,528

St. Bonaventure - 4,173

UMass - 3,987

Duquesne - 3,461

Fordham - 2,614

George Washington - 2,208

La Salle - 2,171

Here is how the MVC did.

Creighton - 14,495 - 15th

Wichita State - 10,333 - 41st

Bradley - 9,339 - 52nd

Missouri State - 6,645 - 80th

Illinois State - 6,561 - 82nd

UNI - 5,642 - 97th

The rest were outside the top 100 in attendance

Evansville - 4,832

Indiana State - 4,807

Southern Illinois - 4,780

Drake - 4,510

Here are the schools in Missouri

Missouri - 10,349 - 40th

Saint Louis - 7,149 - 73rd

Missouri State - 6,645 - 80th

Central MO - 2,903 - 4th (D2)

SEMO - 2,511

UMKC - 1,749

SIUE is listed under Reclassifying Teams to Division I and they averaged 1,593

Link

[STLfan]

Also it is just my opinion but if you can't even average 1,000 fans a game you shouldn't be allowed to compete at the D1 level. If a team can't average at least a 1,000 fans a game over say a five year period they should be bumped down to D2. Of course you would have to force everyone to report actual attendance.

This year 26 teams failed to get an average attendance of even a 1,000. There is honestly a D1 basketball program averaging 328 fans a game.

School - Average Attendance

Bethune-Cookman - 705

Boston - 968

Centenary (LA) - 881

Charleston So. - 747

Colgate - 508

Coppin St. - 989

Dartmouth - 595

Fairleigh Dickinson - 524

Howard - 991

Long Island - 725

McNeese St. - 550

New Orleans - 477

Nicholls St. - 328

NJIT - 422

Northern Ariz. - 839

Sacramento St. - 680

Sacred Heart - 802

Southeastern La. - 746

Southern U. - 504

St. Francis (NY) - 520

St. Peter's - 916

Tex.-Pan American - 513

Texas-Arlington - 756

UC Riverside - 750

UNC Asheville - 910

Western Ill. - 983

I'm not going to list them all but I counted 118 teams that couldn't bring in 2,000 fans a game.

[slufanskip]

SLU checks in with 7,149 good for 73rd in the nation.

Here is how the A10 did.

Dayton - 12,259 - 28th

Xavier - 10,123 - 44th

Saint Louis - 7,149 - 73rd

Temple - 6,376 - 83rd

Charlotte - 6,156 - 87th

The rest were outside the top 100 in attendance

Rhode Island - 5,227

Richmond - 4,629

St. Joseph's - 4,528

St. Bonaventure - 4,173

UMass - 3,987

Duquesne - 3,461

Fordham - 2,614

George Washington - 2,208

La Salle - 2,171

Here is how the MVC did.

Creighton - 14,495 - 15th

Wichita State - 10,333 - 41st

Bradley - 9,339 - 52nd

Missouri State - 6,645 - 80th

Illinois State - 6,561 - 82nd

UNI - 5,642 - 97th

The rest were outside the top 100 in attendance

Evansville - 4,832

Indiana State - 4,807

Southern Illinois - 4,780

Drake - 4,510

Here are the schools in Missouri

Missouri - 10,349 - 40th

Saint Louis - 7,149 - 73rd

Missouri State - 6,645 - 80th

Central MO - 2,903 - 4th (D2)

SEMO - 2,511

UMKC - 1,749

SIUE is listed under Reclassifying Teams to Division I and they averaged 1,593

Link

I'd say under 3k should be D2. Goodbye GW

[TheA_Bomb]

UT-Arlington actually plays games on a stage in a theatre. I've been thinking about checking out a game just because that is such a strange venue.

[FromDaEastSide]

We led the nation in home games with 22 - according to the report.

[brianstl]

Also it is just my opinion but if you can't even average 1,000 fans a game you shouldn't be allowed to compete at the D1 level. If a team can't average at least a 1,000 fans a game over say a five year period they should be bumped down to D2. Of course you would have to force everyone to report actual attendance.

This year 26 teams failed to get an average attendance of even a 1,000. There is honestly a D1 basketball program averaging 328 fans a game.

School - Average Attendance

Bethune-Cookman - 705

Boston - 968

Centenary (LA) - 881

Charleston So. - 747

Colgate - 508

Coppin St. - 989

Dartmouth - 595

Fairleigh Dickinson - 524

Howard - 991

Long Island - 725

McNeese St. - 550

New Orleans - 477

Nicholls St. - 328

NJIT - 422

Northern Ariz. - 839

Sacramento St. - 680

Sacred Heart - 802

Southeastern La. - 746

Southern U. - 504

St. Francis (NY) - 520

St. Peter's - 916

Tex.-Pan American - 513

Texas-Arlington - 756

UC Riverside - 750

UNC Asheville - 910

Western Ill. - 983

I'm not going to list them all but I counted 118 teams that couldn't bring in 2,000 fans a game.

New Orleans is dropping to D3

[slu72]

SLU checks in with 7,149 good for 73rd in the nation.

Link

Our trend line was definitely up at the end of the season. Would expect this to increase by around 2k next season.

[kevinfootes]

SLU checks in with 7,149 good for 73rd in the nation.

Here is how the A10 did.

Dayton - 12,259 - 28th

Xavier - 10,123 - 44th

Saint Louis - 7,149 - 73rd

Temple - 6,376 - 83rd

Charlotte - 6,156 - 87th

The rest were outside the top 100 in attendance

Rhode Island - 5,227

Richmond - 4,629

St. Joseph's - 4,528

St. Bonaventure - 4,173

UMass - 3,987

Duquesne - 3,461

Fordham - 2,614

George Washington - 2,208

La Salle - 2,171

Here is how the MVC did.

Creighton - 14,495 - 15th

Wichita State - 10,333 - 41st

Bradley - 9,339 - 52nd

Missouri State - 6,645 - 80th

Illinois State - 6,561 - 82nd

UNI - 5,642 - 97th

The rest were outside the top 100 in attendance

Evansville - 4,832

Indiana State - 4,807

Southern Illinois - 4,780

Drake - 4,510

Here are the schools in Missouri

Missouri - 10,349 - 40th

Saint Louis - 7,149 - 73rd

Missouri State - 6,645 - 80th

Central MO - 2,903 - 4th (D2)

SEMO - 2,511

UMKC - 1,749

SIUE is listed under Reclassifying Teams to Division I and they averaged 1,593

Link

Does this number include the 4 CBI games? If so, it's a little on the low side. We averaged about 4500 fans for those 4 games. If you back those out, the average attendace is more like 7700. That would move us up 10 spots or so.

That's still not great considering we're in a brand new building with a coach of RM's pedigree, but better than what's being published here. It also bodes fairly well for any future realignments.

[GOSLU68]

Does this number include the 4 CBI games? If so, it's a little on the low side. We averaged about 4500 fans for those 4 games. If you back those out, the average attendace is more like 7700. That would move us up 10 spots or so.

That's still not great considering we're in a brand new building with a coach of RM's pedigree, but better than what's being published here. It also bodes fairly well for any future realignments.

those CBI games offered some very good contests against better than our other out of conference opponents-it was disappointing that more people did not show up but I must say getting tickets required

will call lines for many and I would not recommend they use that system, again.

[kevinfootes]

those CBI games offered some very good contests against better than our other out of conference opponents-it was disappointing that more people did not show up but I must say getting tickets required

will call lines for many and I would not recommend they use that system, again.

While the matchups were pretty good from a quality opponent standpoint, they weren't exactly "sexy". The reality is that it's tough to sell tickets to a 3rd tier tournament on extremely short notice. I seem to recall pretty good crowds for the NIT games in the Grawer era, but that was a better tournament and we had been in a LONG postseason drought.

For the first two seasons I've noticed fairly long lines for will call and walk-up purchases. Hopefully they'll either improve this or sell enough tickets in advance next year!

[FromDaEastSide]

Does this number include the 4 CBI games? If so, it's a little on the low side. We averaged about 4500 fans for those 4 games. If you back those out, the average attendace is more like 7700. That would move us up 10 spots or so.

That's still not great considering we're in a brand new building with a coach of RM's pedigree, but better than what's being published here. It also bodes fairly well for any future realignments.

Yes - Regular Season + CBI games

[slufanskip]

UT-Arlington actually plays games on a stage in a theatre. I've been thinking about checking out a game just because that is such a strange venue.

I graduated from HS on that stage. Go Mavs.

[knockahoma]

I graduated from HS on that stage. Go Mavs.

Aren't they the Roadrunners?

-exiting stage left...

[bonwich]

A column showing the percentage capacity represented by total attendance would make the chart more meaningful.

[slufanskip]

Aren't they the Roadrunners?

-exiting stage left...

Nope, still the Mavericks

[kevinfootes]

A column showing the percentage capacity represented by total attendance would make the chart more meaningful.

All attendance numbers on their own are misleading, including % capacity IMO. Is a school with a 5K seat arena at 95% capacity for the season doing "better" than a school with a 10K seat arena at 90% capacity? It depends on what you're trying to accomplish. The smaller the building, the higher % capacity a team SHOULD have. It's always easier to sell fewer tickets.

Duke SHOULD have a very high capacity given their success and the relatively small size of their building (vs. comparable big names like Kentucky, Syracuse, Kansas).

I do agree that % capacity is an interesting piece of the puzzle that helps paint a more complete picture.

[slufanskip]

All attendance numbers on their own are misleading, including % capacity IMO. Is a school with a 5K seat arena at 95% capacity for the season doing "better" than a school with a 10K seat arena at 90% capacity? It depends on what you're trying to accomplish. The smaller the building, the higher % capacity a team SHOULD have. It's always easier to sell fewer tickets.

Duke SHOULD have a very high capacity given their success and the relatively small size of their building (vs. comparable big names like Kentucky, Syracuse, Kansas).

I do agree that % capacity is an interesting piece of the puzzle that helps paint a more complete picture.

I think that's what he said.

[kevinfootes]

I think that's what he said.

I wasn't disagreeing with Bonwich. Neither peice on its own shows the whole picture.

[Hawk]

All attendance numbers on their own are misleading, including % capacity IMO. Is a school with a 5K seat arena at 95% capacity for the season doing "better" than a school with a 10K seat arena at 90% capacity? It depends on what you're trying to accomplish. The smaller the building, the higher % capacity a team SHOULD have. It's always easier to sell fewer tickets.

Duke SHOULD have a very high capacity given their success and the relatively small size of their building (vs. comparable big names like Kentucky, Syracuse, Kansas).

I do agree that % capacity is an interesting piece of the puzzle that helps paint a more complete picture.

They are very misleading numbers without an idea of capacity. Especially teams like Syracuse who play in a modified football stadium. Then there are also several teams that are at or over their official capacities, such as Duke, Kansas, and Kentucky.

[billiken_roy]

imo unless the school's being compared are sellouts every single game, capacity doesnt matter all that much. i would bet that the majority of schools do not sell out their arena's even the majority of their games.

[courtside]

imo unless the school's being compared are sellouts every single game, capacity doesnt matter all that much. i would bet that the majority of schools do not sell out their arena's even the majority of their games.

As Footes stated, both have value, not just one or the other. There's definitely value in the ability of Syracuse to draw so many fans regardless of capacity, and there is separate value in percent capacity.

Case study: Marquette was top ten this year, the other private school besides Syracuse. They sell out most league games and other higher profile games. Capacity is 18,600. (They have stuffed in over 19k) many times. Marquette does not sell out the early week/mid week cupcake early season games. Marquette is tenant #2 in their building, behind NBA hoops and ahead of minor league hockey. Alums there would like to see more weekend games and more night weekend games.

A list of ticket revenue per school would also have value. As for SLU, as has been discussed, ...down the road SLU can be more aggressive with pricing and create more revenue...but imo and others, SLU jumped the gun a few to several years in ticket pricing. SLU has since made some adjustments in this area. SLU has been pricing itself as a school that is producing on the court more than it has been producing. As the performance on the court increases, so will attendance as long as pricing is in line with other schools, as long as SLU also does other things to enhance the experience as well.

Marquette btw has the largest hoops budget in the Big East which covers a lot of areas in their program, including game experience.

[kevinfootes]

As Footes stated, both have value, not just one or the other. There's definitely value in the ability of Syracuse to draw so many fans regardless of capacity, and there is separate value in percent capacity.

Case study: Marquette was top ten this year, the other private school besides Syracuse. They sell out most league games and other higher profile games. Capacity is 18,600. (They have stuffed in over 19k) many times. Marquette does not sell out the early week/mid week cupcake early season games. Marquette is tenant #2 in their building, behind NBA hoops and ahead of minor league hockey. Alums there would like to see more weekend games and more night weekend games.

A list of ticket revenue per school would also have value. As for SLU, as has been discussed, ...down the road SLU can be more aggressive with pricing and create more revenue...but imo and others, SLU jumped the gun a few to several years in ticket pricing. SLU has since made some adjustments in this area. SLU has been pricing itself as a school that is producing on the court more than it has been producing. As the performance on the court increases, so will attendance as long as pricing is in line with other schools, as long as SLU also does other things to enhance the experience as well.

Marquette btw has the largest hoops budget in the Big East which covers a lot of areas in their program, including game experience.

I agree that we were overly agreesive in terms of pricing during the first year. I know Biondi is eager to bring in revenue, but based on where the program was at the that time it would have been nice to see some good ticket prices for some of the early games in the first season in order to get people into the building.

All water under the bridge at this point. Some adjustments have been made.

[brianstl]

I agree that we were overly agreesive in terms of pricing during the first year. I know Biondi is eager to bring in revenue, but based on where the program was at the that time it would have been nice to see some good ticket prices for some of the early games in the first season in order to get people into the building.

All water under the bridge at this point. Some adjustments have been made.

The one thing about ticket prices is you have to be careful not to devalue the product. You don't want to end up like the Blues who are now in the top 7 in attendance and still can't turn a profit because they have devalued their product. They are now faced with turning off a large segment of the ticket base by raising prices while coming off a disappointing season which will lead to an attendance drop and the fact they still won't be able to turn a profit. People expect to get cheap tickets to Blues games and won't go unless they can get a cheap ticket.

[courtside]

The one thing about ticket prices is you have to be careful not to devalue the product. You don't want to end up like the Blues who are now in the top 7 in attendance and still can't turn a profit because they have devalued their product. They are now faced with turning off a large segment of the ticket base by raising prices while coming off a disappointing season which will lead to an attendance drop and the fact they still won't be able to turn a profit. People expect to get cheap tickets to Blues games and won't go unless they can get a cheap ticket.

If the Blues put out a much better product, they can raise prices and people will pay, both corporate and Joe fan. I think Checkettes is great on radio and positively aggressive in the community, but at some point, the product needs to be much better in order to charge higher prices. Checketts knew and knows that with little money and the inability to produce higher profile "in their prime" stars, he won't have any fans if he charged more. Imo this has worked because Checketts is to some extent inexplicably disproportionately popular despite not yet producing on the ice. Blues are trying to maintain a strong loyal fan base and build it. Until they get a a big money investor, they don't have much choice in their approach.

Btw...on a separate note...Marquette has pretty similar pricing to SLU, with more quantity of value seats upstairs do to the larger capacity. Imo SLU has "the going" rate pricing compared to many higher profile and better result programs even since the adjustments. I don't believe the results have justified the pricing. And, to some extent people have spoken with their dollars. I would also add everyone knows the poor marketing and pr etc...which doesn't help.

Duke is for an example and exception school because they can and do charge a lot of money for some of their seats and in return produce quite a bit in event experience and on court success.

[kevinfootes]

The one thing about ticket prices is you have to be careful not to devalue the product. You don't want to end up like the Blues who are now in the top 7 in attendance and still can't turn a profit because they have devalued their product. They are now faced with turning off a large segment of the ticket base by raising prices while coming off a disappointing season which will lead to an attendance drop and the fact they still won't be able to turn a profit. People expect to get cheap tickets to Blues games and won't go unless they can get a cheap ticket.

The Blues are essentially break even. They could turn a profit if they made the playoffs. Failure to do so, IMO, lies in the hands of Checkets, JD, etc. The fans came back in part because of the lower ticket prices. That said, you can't deny the fact that the team is extremely media friendly. On that front, they're way ahead of most sports teams. The good will generated got the fans to buy into the turnaround plan and come to the games.

The Blues could get away with some modest price increases, but it looks like they're stretching it a bit. I'm not sure why you say they have "devalued" the product. Would they have been in better shape if the ticket prices were 10% higher last season and attendance were 10% lower? At a certain point, your team has to do something on the field/court/ice to justify higher ticket prices. The Blues haven't done that yet.