24/25 MBB Attendance Tracker

NorthTexasWeLove · February 21

29 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

What does this even mean? How does a building start to disconnect people?

Hmmm...

When you feel like you're walking into a dated dungeon and not an arena people get turned off by it. It creates a this place "needs TLC" type of vibe and a "no wonder no one comes to games" energy.

UNTLifer · February 21

Just now, NorthTexasWeLove said:

Hmmm...

When you feel like you're walking into a dated dungeon and not an arena people get turned off by it. It creates a this place "needs TLC" type of vibe and a "no wonder no one comes to games" energy.

Thanks for the clarification.

Now, I have never felt that way walking into the SP.

NorthTexasWeLove · February 21

Just now, UNTLifer said:

Thanks for the clarification.

Now, I have never felt that way walking into the SP.

And you may not. But I can guarantee you many do. And that's just the structural design, lighting, color schemes, 80s scoreboard, oval floor, archaic ceiling, etc. Doesn't even take into consideration that when first time attendees (students) walk into our arena there is a small time feel to the environment due to 3500 (5k on a good day, 2-3x a year) people sitting in a 10,000 seat arena. Then when you consider the absolute lack of marketing this team/program gets from the athletic department, it's amazing we do sneak up into 5k at times.

If done properly, and assuming the on the court productivity stays at its current baseline, a new 5500 seat arena would sellout during all in-class games evey year.

NT80 · February 21

22 minutes ago, Green Otaku said:

Doing a quick search Devlin Fieldhouse has had 2 major renovations, once in 1988 and again in 2011, how many renovations has the SP had? That's a genuine question, not some sarcastic jab. I can only think of the time we hung the center scoreboard, but that wasn't structural or did they reinforce the roof?

The Super Pit has had several renovations over the years, from major to minor.

Just some that I can remember... As mentioned, the center scoreboard was added. The green seats were changed from the original orange seating and no cup holders! The roof and facade were replaced. offices added inside, plus several internal areas below the seating levels renovated.

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UNT Coliseum - Wikipedia

UNT #SuperPit @MeanGreenMBB

BigChiefGMG · February 21

These people act like it’s the worse gym in the state lol. What a joke. Enjoy the pit for another decade at least. We ain’t going anywhere 😏

NT80 · February 21

14 minutes ago, NorthTexasWeLove said:

Then when you consider the absolute lack of marketing this team/program gets from the athletic department, it's amazing we do sneak up into 5k at times.

This is what needs fixed.

The arena is fine (and paid for).

It's the Athletic Department's marketing and student relationships that need MAJOR repairs!

NorthTexasWeLove · February 21

1 minute ago, NT80 said:

This is what needs fixed.

The arena is fine (and paid for). It's the Athletic Department's marketing and student relationships that need MAJOR repairs!

100% correct.

So, when are we going to see it improve with great strides? How do we get people to care about their jobs? What a pathetic conversation we are being forced to have.

greenminer · February 21

Just want to clarify: a new facility would be incredible. It would generate excitement. But It ain't a priority to me.

Just now, NorthTexasWeLove said:

And you may not. But I can guarantee you many do.

I'm skeptical. The casuals I think we are talking about are not people we are dragging in against their will, and counting Super Pit negatives as reasons to regret coming. The casuals I'm thinking of are giving the game a chance, having never really thought about the team before. They aren't intimately aware of our history or disconnect. They just want to find reasons to have fun.

You're looking it this through your anti-AD lens, and this includes a pretty thick magnifying glass at anything our AD can do better.

NT80 · February 21

7 minutes ago, NorthTexasWeLove said:

100% correct.

So, when are we going to see it improve with great strides? How do we get people to care about their jobs? What a pathetic conversation we are being forced to have.

It will continue to take fans to call out and put pressure on the AD/marketing folks to do their jobs better.

I think we saw results recently of some meaningful (but late) attempts to have events with remaining home games...

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UNTLifer · February 21

12 minutes ago, NorthTexasWeLove said:

And you may not. But I can guarantee you many do. And that's just the structural design, lighting, color schemes, 80s scoreboard, oval floor, archaic ceiling, etc. Doesn't even take into consideration that when first time attendees (students) walk into our arena there is a small time feel to the environment due to 3500 (5k on a good day, 2-3x a year) people sitting in a 10,000 seat arena. Then when you consider the absolute lack of marketing this team/program gets from the athletic department, it's amazing we do sneak up into 5k at times.

If done properly, and assuming the on the court productivity stays at its current baseline, a new 5500 seat arena would sellout during all in-class games evey year.

The structural design? I don't even know where to do with that.

Lighting: Has been upgraded. Please be specific. What is the issue with the lighting? I seem to recall this was upgraded a couple of years ago.

Oval floor: I prefer the rectangular design, but it really doesn't effect me where I sit and they've added floor seating to the side without the player benches, so half of that has been addressed.

Archaic Ceiling: Really don't know what to make of this. It is the support structure and catwalks, like every other arena out there, to some degree.

Not trying to argue, but I've yet to hear a reason that justifies spending over $100 million on a new arena that seat less when other areas in the AD need addressing and when other upgrades could be made to the arena.

NorthTexasWeLove · February 21

4 minutes ago, greenminer said:

Just want to clarify: a new facility would be incredible. It would generate excitement. But It ain't a priority to me.

I'm skeptical. The casuals I think we are talking about are not people we are dragging in against their will, and counting Super Pit negatives as reasons to regret coming. The casuals I'm thinking of are giving the game a chance, having never really thought about the team before. They aren't intimately aware of our history or disconnect. They just want to find reasons to have fun.

You're looking it this through your anti-AD lens, and this includes a pretty thick magnifying glass at anything our AD can do better.

No. I'm looking at this through my own lens. My first basketball game as a student came in 2012-2013. We lost. I just went and looked up attendance. It was 3361 that day. Which is great for how pathetic we were. Horrific considering we are pulling the same numbers now. Nevertheless, I showed up moments before tip. I felt as if people didn't know there was a game. I sat in the student section and a guy too old to be a student (but I think he was) handed me a sheet of paper with facts to make fun of the other team/players/coaches. There were like 30 of us. I sat there, looked around and thought this shit is weak and small time. Apparently, nothing has changed except for us being much, much better at basketball.

UNTLifer · February 21

15 minutes ago, NorthTexasWeLove said:

100% correct.

So, when are we going to see it improve with great strides? How do we get people to care about their jobs? What a pathetic conversation we are being forced to have.

Now I'm confused. You respond with the bolded above to the comment "the arena is fine. (and paid for)".

NorthTexasWeLove · February 21

1 minute ago, UNTLifer said:

Now I'm confused. You respond with the bolded above to the comment "the arena is fine. (and paid for)".

Yeah, man. Just roll with it.

NT80 · February 21

6 minutes ago, NorthTexasWeLove said:

No. I'm looking at this through my own lens. My first basketball game as a student came in 2012-2013. We lost. I just went and looked up attendance. It was 3361 that day. Which is great for how pathetic we were.

Well, that explains a lot. That was the first season of the Tony Benford era, lol. You couldn't have picked a worst time to start watching NT basketball, except that you got to see Tony Mitchell play.

NorthTexasWeLove · February 21

3 minutes ago, NT80 said:

Well, that explains a lot. That was the first season of the Tony Benford era, lol. You couldn't have picked a worst time to start watching NT basketball, except that you got to see Tony Mitchell play.

Play? Guy played optional basketball. As in effort was optional.

Brutal stretch of UNT basketball that no fan, alum, or student should ever have to endure again. I attended countless games during this stretch. I never understood what we were trying to execute on the floor on both ends. And his sub patterns were seemingly meaningless, 0 structure.

Nevertheless, anything and everything must be done to preserve the success of UNT basketball.

wardly · February 21

52 minutes ago, NT80 said:

This is what needs fixed.

The arena is fine (and paid for).

It's the Athletic Department's marketing and student relationships that need MAJOR repairs!

Agreed! We must somehow get the students to games.

untjim1995 · February 22

21 hours ago, NorthTexasWeLove said:

No. I'm looking at this through my own lens. My first basketball game as a student came in 2012-2013. We lost. I just went and looked up attendance. It was 3361 that day. Which is great for how pathetic we were. Horrific considering we are pulling the same numbers now. Nevertheless, I showed up moments before tip. I felt as if people didn't know there was a game. I sat in the student section and a guy too old to be a student (but I think he was) handed me a sheet of paper with facts to make fun of the other team/players/coaches. There were like 30 of us. I sat there, looked around and thought this shit is weak and small time. Apparently, nothing has changed except for us being much, much better at basketball.

So there are two points to consider about a new arena:

1.) how is it gonna get paid for? Always the same question at UNT regarding athletics.

2.) would cutting down on the size of a new arena to basically half of the Super Pit affect graduation ceremonies for a school with a giant enrollment that gets more people to Denton for these ceremonies than basketball games? It’s Texas and we aren’t going to have college graduations outdoors.

Finally, your student experience perfectly sums up our apathy. We had 30 students show up to see a team with a top 10 recruit and a new coach at home. Granted, Bumford was an RV hire, so he was almost assuredly gonna suck, but the point stands that in our first home game, with a team that had gone to the NCAA Tournament the year before and we had the excitement of a new coach and a giant recruit, you joined 39 fellow students at the game.

NorthTexasWeLove · February 22

23 minutes ago, untjim1995 said:

So there are two points to consider about a new arena:

1.) how is it gonna get paid for? Always the same question at UNT regarding athletics.

2.) would cutting down on the size of a new arena to basically half of the Super Pit affect graduation ceremonies for a school with a giant enrollment that gets more people to Denton for these ceremonies than basketball games? It’s Texas and we aren’t going to have college graduations outdoors.

Finally, your student experience perfectly sums up our apathy. We had 30 students show up to see a team with a top 10 recruit and a new coach at home. Granted, Bumford was an RV hire, so he was almost assuredly gonna suck, but the point stands that in our first home game, with a team that had gone to the NCAA Tournament the year before and we had the excitement of a new coach and a giant recruit, you joined 39 fellow students at the game.

If a far superior job was done at marketing this program then our arena could go another 10 years. Given I don't trust our athletic department with a potato gun, let's get the ball rolling with new arena talk.

CMJ · February 22

Was the attendance to the last game ever released?

NT80 · February 22

15 minutes ago, NorthTexasWeLove said:

If a far superior job was done at marketing this program then our arena could go another 10 years. Given I don't trust our athletic department with a potato gun, let's get the ball rolling with new arena talk.

A new arena is already on the Athletic's Master Plan (as is a baseball stadium), but those are just to reserve land space on the plan. It will happen some distant year, but not soon with NIL and donor fatigue right now.

Thus, while we have winning basketball programs and coaches we (the AD) should make all attempts to FIX and focus on the student attendance problem.

What is the issue, how to correct it? Next, same thing for locals, then alums, then staff attendance, etc......

NT80 · February 22

9 minutes ago, CMJ said:

Was the attendance to the last game ever released?

The Super Pit

7:00 PM, February 19, 2025Coverage: ESPN+

Denton, TX

Line: UNT -14.5

Over/Under: 128.5

Attendance: 4,032

keith · February 22

I was on the road, so was not able to update the attendance tracker until this morning.

4,032 attended the game against Tulsa. This was our 4th game of the season with at least 4K in attendance and 3rd game in a row with greater than four thousand in attendance. We are still well below last year with a deficit of 716 or 17.45% on average over the 14 home games so far this season. Two more home games (one more than last year) to go. By the accounts I read, the Mavs night was a success, so kudos to the AD for pulling that off.

There seems to be some on-going chatter in the social media circles about college basketball attendance, the AAC attendance and our attendance in particular. The general theme is we're down, but so is everyone else that's not a blue blood, so it's all good. Personally, I don't subscribe to that perspective. There's an old saying that goes something like, that which ceases to grow, soon withers and dies. I don't think anyone is expecting 10,000 people to all of a sudden fill the Super Pit, but I don't think it's unreasonable to expect some year-over-year percentage growth in attendance as a measuring stick for the performance of the AD, especially given the recent success of the team and the growth in overall university enrollment.

From the 22-23 season to the 23-24 season, we saw a 10.1% increase in average attendance. A good portion of that was helped by the 7,239 that showed up for the SMU game. We didn't have one of those this year. So, another 10% growth this year wasn't going to be in the cards, but is 1, 2, 3 or 5% YoY growth too much to ask for? We can't grow for ever and would plateau at some point, but I think better OOC scheduling this year and consistent promotion (especially during our annual lull period), would have gone a long way of at least holding serve compared to last year instead of the drop-off we are witnessing. My 2 cents.

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CMJ · February 22

Given we don't have an SMU this season, I would've hoped we could have at least cleared a 3752 average.

untjim1995 · February 22

1 hour ago, keith said:

I was on the road, so was not able to update the attendance tracker until this morning.

4,032 attended the game against Tulsa. This was our 4th game of the season with at least 4K in attendance and 3rd game in a row with greater than four thousand in attendance. We are still well below last year with a deficit of 716 or 17.45% on average over the 14 home games so far this season. Two more home games (one more than last year) to go. By the accounts I read, the Mavs night was a success, so kudos to the AD for pulling that off.

There seems to be some on-going chatter in the social media circles about college basketball attendance, the AAC attendance and our attendance in particular. The general theme is we're down, but so is everyone else that's not a blue blood, so it's all good. Personally, I don't subscribe to that perspective. There's an old saying that goes something like, that which ceases to grow, soon withers and dies. I don't think anyone is expecting 10,000 people to all of a sudden fill the Super Pit, but I don't think it's unreasonable to expect some year-over-year percentage growth in attendance as a measuring stick for the performance of the AD, especially given the recent success of the team and the growth in overall university enrollment.

From the 22-23 season to the 23-24 season, we saw a 10.1% increase in average attendance. A good portion of that was helped by the 7,239 that showed up for the SMU game. We didn't have one of those this year. So, another 10% growth this year wasn't going to be in the cards, but is 1, 2, 3 or 5% YoY growth too much to ask for? We can't grow for ever and would plateau at some point, but I think better OOC scheduling this year and consistent promotion (especially during our annual lull period), would have gone a long way of at least holding serve compared to last year instead of the drop-off we are witnessing. My 2 cents.

I think that CBB and CFB are just starting to feel the effects of the portal/NIL and the way fans are feeling left out, especially at non-power schools that get raided like we are a high school or juco.

It’s going to get MUCH worse before it gets better. The CFB playoff popularity will mask the real problems that lower power schools and G5s are showing with lower attendance and declining ratings for non-SEC/B1G/Notre Dame games. But the networks and the power school blue bloods won’t care as long as they get eyeballs for their big games. It’ll take the universities and conferences to basically call an end to this mess before anything changes.