Looks Like Syracuse Finishes in 2nd Place in Hoops Attendance Again this Year

[sutomcat]

despite the great season on the court. Bad crowds for the OOC games are the culprit.

Assuming UK matches it's attendance numbers from last season, when it averaged 23,603 per game, Syracuse needs to average 28,820 for it's last 5 home games to match that number. Assuming the team finishes strong, we should make it close, but I don't think we will be able to catch the Cats.

SU attendance to date 275,527 (13 games)
Average attendance 21,195
Projected total attendance number to beat 448,457 (based on an average of 23,603*19 home games)
Difference 172,920
Difference divided by remaining home games (6) 28,820

We usually get a nice bump in season tickets when we have a great year, so maybe next year we can catch Kentucky again. We haven't led the country in attendance since 2005, the one year we have been #1 since 1995.

Link

 

[Marsh01]

despite the great season on the court. Bad crowds for the OOC games are the culprit.

Assuming UK matches it's attendance numbers from last season, when it averaged 23,603 per game, Syracuse needs to average 28,820 for it's last 5 home games to match that number. Assuming the team finishes strong, we should make it close, but I don't think we will be able to catch the Cats.

SU attendance to date 275,527 (13 games)
Average attendance 21,195
Projected total attendance number to beat 448,457 (based on an average of 23,603*19 home games)
Difference 172,920
Difference divided by remaining home games (6) 28,820

We usually get a nice bump in season tickets when we have a great year, so maybe next year we can catch Kentucky again. We haven't led the country in attendance since 2005, the one year we have been #1 since 1995.

Link

Not so fast my friend...

The last 5 games are:

WVU
Gtown
Uconn
USF
Louisville

Now for Gtown, Uconn and Louisville I expect 30,000+ for each game. I also expect 25,000-28,000 for WVU. That leaves South Florida.

There is a chance.

 

[dasher]

according to waters, the next games should have crowds over the 30k mark. Maybe not Pitt. I agree, it will be close.

 

[jdubs30]

That last Louisville could be the largest Dome crowd ever if all goes according to plan.

 

[OttoMets]

We haven't gotten more than 27,000 for a weeknight game in 20 years; I don't think Georgetown will be any different. Close to 30,000 for West Virginia is more likely, but if we can't get even 24,000 for a Saturday evening Big East game last night, it's hard to be optimistic about crowds for anything other than Louisville and Connecticut.

Poor crowd turnout this year, even for Syracuse fans.

 

[Whitey23]

Not to shabby for a private school!

 

[cto]

We haven't gotten more than 27,000 for a weeknight game in 20 years; I don't think Georgetown will be any different. Close to 30,000 for West Virginia is more likely, but if we can't get even 24,000 for a Saturday evening Big East game last night, it's hard to be optimistic about crowds for anything other than Louisville and Connecticut.

Poor crowd turnout this year, even for Syracuse fans.

Students have not been there for a single Big East game. Most will be back tomorrow (classes begin on Tuesday). Therefore, we should improve on attendance for the next five games.

 

[upperdeck]

we are at about 25k for gtown, 30 for UL, 24K for pitt, 28k for Uconn, 23k for USF judging by past ticket master counts.

it doesnt help the school is doing next to nothing to promote the games. no special deals, no hype at all.

if they had any sense they would be pushing to get 30k for all the sat games and selling out the UL game.. by these numbers we are 10k short.. i think you could get 3k more for the UL in a heart beat with some promotion. Pitt is pretty much a done deal . USF is the one you should be pushing to get to the 28K. something special to try and get the title back. promote it that way. $10-20 tickets for the record with t-shirts and I think you could sell it out..

 

[Madbiker]

If we get 34,000 for both UConn and Ville there is a decent chance.

 

[Cuseman78]

We haven't gotten more than 27,000 for a weeknight game in 20 years; I don't think Georgetown will be any different. Close to 30,000 for West Virginia is more likely, but if we can't get even 24,000 for a Saturday evening Big East game last night, it's hard to be optimistic about crowds for anything other than Louisville and Connecticut.

Poor crowd turnout this year, even for Syracuse fans.

Poor turnout? Its our best turnout in years. Add on 3500 student tickets and we are 28k for Seton Hall and 27K for Providence. Yea, thats just awful.

 

[OttoMets]

Poor turnout? Its our best turnout in years. Add on 3500 student tickets and we are 28k for Seton Hall and 27K for Providence. Yea, thats just awful.

But there weren't 3,500 students there. Those games were during Christmas break.

The Seton Hall turnout was really good. No one can complain about 25,000 during a vacation weeknight. Last night's numbers (not the crowd itself, which was active enough) stunk. There's no other way to slice it: 23,000 for Syracuse - ranked #1 - on a weekend night isn't good at all. That included a few hundred students who paid market prices to get into the building.

Put differently, the same number of non-students showed up to see an 18-0, #1 team on a Saturday night as showed up to watch our 0-0 team play Fordham in November. People are well within their rights to not show up to games, but that's a pretty lame fanbase.

 

[Cuseman78]

But there weren't 3,500 students there. Those games were during Christmas break.

The Seton Hall turnout was really good. No one can complain about 25,000 during a vacation weeknight. Last night's numbers (not the crowd itself, which was active enough) stunk. There's no other way to slice it: 23,000 for Syracuse - ranked #1 - on a weekend night isn't good at all. That included a few hundred students who paid market prices to get into the building.

Put differently, the same number of non-students showed up to see an 18-0, #1 team on a Saturday night as showed up to watch our 0-0 team play Fordham in November. People are well within their rights to not show up to games, but that's a pretty lame fanbase.

The total attendance of the Fordham game was 23k with students in the house. yesterday there were 23k with no students. How is that even remotely similar. You are really calling our fan base lame for having 23k townies at a game without students in the building? We have a top 3 fan base in the country. Anything but lame.

 

[omniorange]

We haven't gotten more than 27,000 for a weeknight game in 20 years; I don't think Georgetown will be any different. Close to 30,000 for West Virginia is more likely, but if we can't get even 24,000 for a Saturday evening Big East game last night, it's hard to be optimistic about crowds for anything other than Louisville and Connecticut.

Not expecting big numbers for Pitt tomorrow night. Probably between 24-25K. But while it's true we haven't gotten over 27K for a weeknight game in many years, the last two times we've played the Hoyas on a weeknight the attendance was 26508 and 26904. If we can get 25K for Seton Hall on a weeknight without students, assuming weather isn't a major factor, I'm expecting 28K plus for that game with students. Especially with the Hoyas likely joining us in the Top 10 by that time.

As for WVU, the article the other day said tickets for that game had already reached 25.5K. It may not reach 30K+ like everyone thinks will happen with UConn and Louisville, but it will be knocking on the door. The USF game will be the likely dud attendance wise remaining on the schedule.

Cheers,
Neil

 

[omniorange]

despite the great season on the court. Bad crowds for the OOC games are the culprit.

Assuming UK matches it's attendance numbers from last season, when it averaged 23,603 per game, Syracuse needs to average 28,820 for it's last 5 home games to match that number. Assuming the team finishes strong, we should make it close, but I don't think we will be able to catch the Cats.

SU attendance to date 275,527 (13 games)
Average attendance 21,195
Projected total attendance number to beat 448,457 (based on an average of 23,603*19 home games)
Difference 172,920
Difference divided by remaining home games (6) 28,820

We usually get a nice bump in season tickets when we have a great year, so maybe next year we can catch Kentucky again. We haven't led the country in attendance since 2005, the one year we have been #1 since 1995.

Looking at UK's attendance so far this season, they are averaging 23398 through 11 games. Now that they are into the SEC part of their schedule and #2, they'll probably average 24.2K plus from here on out.

We won't catch them this year. I'm more interested in keeping Louisville and North Carolina behind us.

Cheers,
Neil

 

[sutomcat]

Looking at UK's attendance so far this season, they are averaging 23398 through 11 games. Now that they are into the SEC part of their schedule and #2, they'll probably average 24.2K plus from here on out.

We won't catch them this year. I'm more interested in keeping Louisville and North Carolina behind us.

Cheers,
Neil

I think besting UL and UNC is pretty much a given. Don't know how Kentucky can keep getting more people into Rupp. Maybe they don't have fire laws down there...

 

[omniorange]

Don't know how Kentucky can keep getting more people into Rupp. Maybe they don't have fire laws down there...

I know. Rupp supposedly has a capacity of 23K listed, but they have already had 6 games this season that averaged slightly over 24K.

Cheers,
Neil

 

[SUintheVille]

This attendance thing should not even be a debate. SU should win every year hands down with the size of the dome and the year-to-year prominence and national recognition of the program. Say what you want about UK fans, as obnoxious as they can be, but they support that team and attend games packing Rupp no matter the opponent, no matter if school is in session or not, no matter whatever else. Why can't SU do the same? We should be blowing away the competition for attendance supremacy! Screw UK.

 

[OttoMets]

This attendance thing should not even be a debate. SU should win every year hands down with the size of the dome and the year-to-year prominence and national recognition of the program. Say what you want about UK fans, as obnoxious as they can be, but they support that team and attend games packing Rupp no matter the opponent, no matter if school is in session or not, no matter whatever else. Why can't SU do the same? We should be blowing away the competition for attendance supremacy! Screw UK.

This is really what I'm aiming at. Syracuse has higher capacity than any other school, and it's established that more fans will come to a select few of our games each year than will come to anyone else's games. We've got a team that's doing things that we might not be privileged enough to see again, and I'm surprised that more people aren't turning out to games.

 

[BonaCuse]

I havent looked at ticket prices at others with high attendance, but some thing to consider. Going to Syracuse games is by no means cheap. $43 to sit in the upper deck? $76 a ticket to sit behind the basket lower level? $20 to park your car a good 20 minute walk away? $6.50 for a beer once you get in the door? And this is all if you live in Syracuse. I am assuming SU draws a good radius from Rochester, Utica/Rome and even close to Albany and Buffalo on weekends (I actually ran into someone I knew from Buffalo at a Thruway stop coming back after the Marquette game). So throw in gas and tolls for those out of towners.

You are now talking over $250 for two people to make the trip, with gas, tolls, a ticket to the game (that is remotely decent), parking and a little bit of food and/or beverage. That's not cheap given the current economy we are in. Combined that with the fact that you can have a few friends over to your house to watch the game in HD, and save a couple of hundred bucks. I think our attendance numbers are just fine.

 

[OttoMets]

I havent looked at ticket prices at others with high attendance, but some thing to consider. Going to Syracuse games is by no means cheap. $43 to sit in the upper deck? $76 a ticket to sit behind the basket lower level? $20 to park your car a good 20 minute walk away? $6.50 for a beer once you get in the door? And this is all if you live in Syracuse. I am assuming SU draws a good radius from Rochester, Utica/Rome and even close to Albany and Buffalo on weekends (I actually ran into someone I knew from Buffalo at a Thruway stop coming back after the Marquette game). So throw in gas and tolls for those out of towners.

You are now talking over $250 for two people to make the trip, with gas, tolls, a ticket to the game (that is remotely decent), parking and a little bit of food and/or beverage. That's not cheap given the current economy we are in. Combined that with the fact that you can have a few friends over to your house to watch the game in HD, and save a couple of hundred bucks. I think our attendance numbers are just fine.

The thrust of your argument - that a trip to the Dome might not be inexpensive - is legitimate. But it's not helped by the exaggeration; beers are $6 (not $6.50), there are thousands of upper-deck seats for $38 (though I agree that the $82 upper preferred seats aren't a great deal), and I don't know where anyone's parking for $20 and walking 20 minutes to the Dome. Where would that be? Downtown, in its dirt-cheap garages and lots?

And it ignores the point. The Providence game that 23,000 people saw wasn't any more or less expensive than the Seton Hall game that 25,000 people saw.

 

[Marsh01]

The ONLY problem with the Dome is the traffic. The past 2 games have been absolute nightmares to get out of the lots. Not enough cops directing traffic, streets closed, 3 lots emptying into one street. We sat in our car after the Marquette game for 45 minutes. Didnt move an inch. Providence was 35 minutes. Normally we get out but for some reason it has been awful the past couple of games.

And BTW it makes no difference if you leave early, stay late, etc. The best way is to park a 10-15 minute walk and not in one of the close lots (that I park in). You get right out no problem.

With that said I still love going. I can't however cant disagree with people to want to stay home, warm, cheaper beer and watch the game in HD.

 

[Orangeyes]

One big reason that Kentucky has an edge is they are the 63rd largest city in the USA with a population of 295,803 whereas Syracuse is the 170th largest city with a population of 145,170. That's a difference of 150,633 folks, over twice the the size of our city.

The metropolitan statistical areas are a little more comparable but Kentucky has the edge there too having 25000 more people.

Another thing you have to take into account is that the University of Kentucky has an enrollment of 27, 171 students combine that with grad students it's 34,000. What does SU have 16,000 with grad students?

 

[BonaCuse]

The thrust of your argument - that a trip to the Dome might not be inexpensive - is legitimate. But it's not helped by the exaggeration; beers are $6 (not $6.50), there are thousands of upper-deck seats for $38 (though I agree that the $82 upper preferred seats aren't a great deal), and I don't know where anyone's parking for $20 and walking 20 minutes to the Dome. Where would that be? Downtown, in its dirt-cheap garages and lots?

And it ignores the point. The Providence game that 23,000 people saw wasn't any more or less expensive than the Seton Hall game that 25,000 people saw.

Sorry, I was off by $0.50 on the beers. Upper Tank seats are $38, you are right. Tack on the Ticketmaster fees and you are at $43 a ticket. Trust me; I just "added them to my cart" for the Marquette game and then thought "there is no way I am paying $43 a ticket to sit in the third deck" and "removed them from my cart."

I paid $20 to park in the lot behind Marshal street. Sorry I didnt time it exactly, but what is the walk from that lot to the Dome entrance? That has to be over 15 minutes I would think.

Next time I attend a game, I will be sure to keep my receipts and bring a stop watch for you.

 

[OttoMets]

The ONLY problem with the Dome is the traffic. The past 2 games have been absolute nightmares to get out of the lots. Not enough cops directing traffic, streets closed, 3 lots emptying into one street. We sat in our car after the Marquette game for 45 minutes. Didnt move an inch. Providence was 35 minutes. Normally we get out but for some reason it has been awful the past couple of games.

And BTW it makes no difference if you leave early, stay late, etc. The best way is to park a 10-15 minute walk and not in one of the close lots (that I park in). You get right out no problem.

With that said I still love going. I can't however cant disagree with people to want to stay home, warm, cheaper beer and watch the game in HD.

The location of the main Dome parking couldn't be worse; the site is landlocked on two sides, blocked by I-81 and the railroad viaduct on another, and served by only two city streets (Almond and Irving) on the open end. Suburban mis-design in an urban area.

I can see that leaving that location is regularly frustrating, and getting up there doesn't look much easier. We were downtown the day of the Marquette game and took a different route to the Dome - Irving was backed up from East Fayette to Van Buren, and we walked from East Genesee to the Dome at least twice as quickly as the people sitting in cars got up there.

Driving and parking on the western edge of campus is probably the most inconvenient way to get to the games. That'd test the patience of the most diehard SU fan.

 

[310Pigpen]

Ottomets do you attend games regularly?