24/25 MBB Attendance Tracker

[keith]

It's that time of year again.  For those of us interested in this kind of stuff, here's this season's attendance tracker.  The chart is starting to get a bit unwieldy, but I'll probably stick with this for the season.

At 3,451, somewhat disappointing on the attendance front as we experienced our lowest season-opener attendance number over the last 4 seasons and down 964 compared to the UNI game last year.  We have some ballers on this team and they are going to be fun to watch as they come together as a group.  Get to the Pit to see for yourself and GMG!

Edited November 6 by keith

[CMJ]

Not really a surprise given we were going against election night though.

[wardly]

1 hour ago, keith said:

It's that time of year again.  For those of us interested in this kind of stuff, here's this season's attendance tracker.  The chart is starting to get a bit unwieldy, but I'll probably stick with this for the season.

At 3,451, somewhat disappointing on the attendance front as we experienced our lowest season-opener attendance number over the last 4 seasons and down 964 compared to the UNI game last year.  We have some ballers on this team and they are going to be fun to watch as they come together as a group.  Get to the Pit to see for yourself and GMG!

Thanks for doing this. It is appreciated!

[NT80]

1 hour ago, CMJ said:

Not really a surprise given we were going against election night though.

Yes, there were only 11 Division I men's games scheduled last night for a reason.

[Matt from A700]

I'm excited and worried to see what attendance will look like this year. Home opener on Election Night gets an expected low result. A lot of games over the Break, including one the Monday of Thanksgiving Week and only two Saturday games all year. I'm curious what Game 2 will look like tomorrow against NAIA Wayland Baptist. Doesn't seem like there's been much marketing for basketball yet.

[Matt from A700]

3,235 last night. Actual butts in seats was nowhere near that but Wayland Baptist did bring quite a few fans.

[keith]

As @Matt from A700 reported, 3,235 for Wayland Baptist.  Sure, it's a tough draw, but after two games in we are trending in the wrong direction and below last year's first two games against UNI and Omaha by a total of 1,262 or 631 attendees per game.

[NT80]

Those games are tough drives on weeknights just to see meaningless opponents.   Tipoff on a Thursday night at 8:10pm, after the women's game, means getting home after 11:30 pm before a school/work day for many.   I know it's all just excuses for out of towners.  I was disappointed in the student turnout.

[Matt from A700]

On 11/8/2024 at 6:42 PM, NT80 said:

Those games are tough drives on weeknights just to see meaningless opponents.   Tipoff on a Thursday night at 8:10pm, after the women's game, means getting home after 11:30 pm before a school/work day for many.   I know it's all just excuses for out of towners.  I was disappointed in the student turnout.

Doesn't seem like there's been much marketing for anything since the Wyoming FB game to be honest.

[keith]

Not much to say other than hopefully we've found the bottom (attendance-wise and you know).  Regardless of who the opponent is, 2,690 is not good.  We still have our head above a 3K average, but not by a lot.  Second game in a row with fewer fans than the previous game.  Have the students already left for Thanksgiving break?  Texas Wesleyan was a tougher test than expected.  Are they better than people thought or.....?  Will fans come out for Oregon State?  We'll see.

Edited November 22 by keith

[keith]

We are starting to cut into the deficit created by the first game compared to last year.  Now only down 8.72% in terms of average attendance.  Last night was the highest game 4 attendance of the last four years, but to be honest, I was a little disappointed it was only 3,292 for a "name" opponent (yes, even during Thanksgiving week).  November 25 was our earliest game 4, but a much stronger opponent.  The previous 3 years it was 12/4 (LSU Shreveport), 12/3 (Omaha) and 12/2 (Miss Valley State) respectively.  

I mentioned this during the in-game thread, but the ESPN+ broadcast sounds like the commentators are off site in a soundproof room or something.  Not hearing the crowd noise and the excitement in the arena really detracts from the game experience.  Need a better audio production.  I switched to the radio stream and it was much better from that perspective.  

 

[CMJ]

I was hoping for a bigger crowd too honestly, but unfortunately it also wasn't much of a surprise we only had about 3300.

[Matt from A700]

Second smallest crowd of the season but best crowd and I think the most accurately reported crowd. Evansville and Wayland were much further from their announced numbers.

[Green Lantern]

27 minutes ago, CMJ said:

I was hoping for a bigger crowd too honestly, but unfortunately it also wasn't much of a surprise we only had about 3300.

Well our perpetually underperforming football team gets all the promotion and human resources thrown at it while season is still underway, even when they don’t deserve it.

We didn’t promote this game heavily at all which is a shame. My oldest is going on a Denton ISD field trip for a women’s game next week which should be fun, but thought this was a missed opportunity to do a targeted promotion to families on Thanksgiving break, along with like a Denton Chamber Mixer pregame or something along those lines. Target the community with a great offer to see a quality opponent people have heard of since you know it’s going to be light on students. 

[Glory to the Green]

1 hour ago, Green Lantern said:

thought this was a missed opportunity to do a targeted promotion to families on Thanksgiving break

This is a good point.  We live an hour away, so weeknight games are tough to get to.  We went last night because we’re on Thanksgiving break. Next time…

[keith]

Through 5 home games, attendance is down 11.6% or an average of 400 per game compared to last year.  Out of conference scheduling miscues (opponents and timing) will likely put us in a significant attendance hole prior to conference play.  As there doesn't appear to be that 7K+ game on the schedule, not sure if we will be able to pull ourselves out of it by the end of the season.  Sorry, but home slates against Wayland Baptist, Texas Wesleyan, Mississippi Valley State and Houston Christian will have that effect.  Plus, 3 games in 5 days during our normal low time (students off campus) may exacerbate our attendance woes.  Let's see if the upcoming Friday and Sunday games help or accelerate the slide.

 

[CMJ]

Unfortunately I feel like many folks might rather watch the Notre Dame/Indiana playoff game on Friday.

[Matt from A700]

Yeah, this season might be a wash. We have only three weekend home games in conference play and they're all in consecutive weekends in late January/early February: FAU, UTSA, and Tulane. The AD should be working to fill the stands for those games. I'm also hearing there's a big push to get a good crowd (especially students) out for the penultimate home game in March against Wichita State.

[Matt from A700]

2 hours ago, keith said:

and timing)

I bet teams like Oregon State agree to come here, but they dictate the date - they make sure we play on a holiday week when attendance is lighter. I hope we return the favor.

According to Burton, SMU only agreed to play the women this season if they made it a MTE and had a guaranteed win (Chicago State) out of it. Also hurts that this rivalry game is on December 19th.

[Green Otaku]

59 minutes ago, Matt from A700 said:

I bet teams like Oregon State agree to come here, but they dictate the date - they make sure we play on a holiday week when attendance is lighter. I hope we return the favor.

 

They do. It's why in football Kstate played us the week of thanksgiving.

[UNTLifer]

7 hours ago, CMJ said:

Unfortunately I feel like many folks might rather watch the Notre Dame/Indiana playoff game on Friday.

Who?

[CMJ]

2 hours ago, UNTLifer said:

Who?

Well, I just know all the football only fans we seem to have.

[keith]

Well, I guess it was inevitable.  We have slipped below 3,000 (2,984) in average attendance for the season.  The last time we were below 3,000 was 1/6/2022 when our average after that game was 2,999.  Since then, we have been well over 3,000 and even finished last year's campaign over 4,000 in average attendance.   In six home games this year we have had 3 games under 3,000 in attendance.  Compare that to 3 games under 3,000 in the last two seasons combined.  

It was a fun game last night.  A lot of back-and-forth runs and a Mean Green win, but boy have we squandered the momentum built at the end of last season.  Very disappointed in the inability of our Athletic Department to promote and stimulate demand, get butts in seats and ultimately generate revenue.  Does anyone know if the AD has done anything to try to make up the short fall we all know happens when school is not in session?

 

[CMJ]

Sure, the AD could do better, but also put blame on our fanbase.

[keith]

30 minutes ago, CMJ said:

Sure, the AD could do better, but also put blame on our fanbase.

I hear you, but this is the AD's JOB.  It is what they get paid to do to.  They should have goals/objectives around these metrics and strategies/programs to achieve them.  What are the goals?  What are they doing to achieve them?  We (the collective fan base) pay somewhere in the neighborhood of $9,000,000 a year in overall AD salaries, compensation and bonuses.  Throw in another $4,000,000 or so annually in "overhead and administrative expenses."  Fund raising, marketing and promotion is a little over $900K (total for all sports).  I wonder how much is going to promote basketball to the local community?