zibby
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SU never plays away from home...just like everybody else
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realorange
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Yeah, I had to laugh when Crean was saying they were playing a neutral court game in Indianapolis. :rolling:
Cheriehoop
Moderator/ 2019-20 Iggy Winner Reg Season Rcd
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Just noticed that Pitt despite their relatively new facility really stayed away in droves. They averaged 8801 this season (capacity 12,508) down over 2000 from 2011 with over 24,000 full-time students. They really stayed away with the poor year they had.
The NCAA reported that Duke had average attendance in 2010, 2011 and 2012 of 9,314 every year. So with all the talk about their declining attendance did they sell every single seat as season tickets the last 3 years but just not show up? ?
The NCAA reported that Duke had average attendance in 2010, 2011 and 2012 of 9,314 every year. So with all the talk about their declining attendance did they sell every single seat as season tickets the last 3 years but just not show up? ?
Knicks411
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I think I remember reading a lot of it was students; so maybe they buy the season tickets and don't show to all of the games?
sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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SU's average attendance rose by 1306 in 2011, the 12th biggest increase in Division I.
With the normal bump having a stellar season has on season ticket sales, I expect that Syracuse will overtake UK's advantage in average attendance of 103 and Syracuse will again take it's rightful place as the attendance leader in college basketball next season.
Creighton finished 6th in the nation in attendance? Wow, nice achievement for them.
I'm not sure if I missed something in the PDF but I just wanted to make sure, you're basing your statement on the number of home games we played (19) versus the other blue bloods?
I don't think it's that we play more home games than others; I think the perception is that we don't play good non conference teams unless it's at home, MSG, or neutral site. We played one true road game this year (at NC State), zero in 10-11, zero in 09-10, one in 08-09 (at Memphis). However, we do have some good "neutral site" wins like KU (in KC) and Florida (in Tampa). Conversely, UK played at Indiana this past year, at UNC in 10-11. Duke played at Ohio State and Temple this past year.
I think the perception comes from the fact that we don't [traditionally] play non-conference road games and the pre-season tournaments we are normally playing in don't have the highest caliber teams but that's necessarily our fault. We can't all play in Maui.
In general, I think our strength of schedule indicates we play a lot a decent RPI teams from the mid majors but we lack that once a year "big ticket" matchup...unless it comes from a tournament (e.g. Michigan State in MSG). But I'm not sure how that document you linked debunked the "SU doesn't play outside the state of NY" perception.
It should be noted that the attendance jump was in absolute terms. Rupp arena has a capacity of 24000. They can't increase their attendance any more but their per game average shows they sell out every game (regardless of who they play). SU averages 23.6K but our "capacity" is more like 33K for bball so we're way behind in attendance/capacity. Overtaking UK in annual attendance would be a nice selling point to recruits but it's not really the truth. It helps to play in a football stadium. If Michigan State moved from Breslin (capacity of 14.6K) to Ford Field, I'm sure they'd top the attendance list. If Duke or KU ever upgraded their arenas (which I hope they don't; I loved The Phog), the top of that list would look different.
orange2win
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You missed nothing. The original post is in error. Statement is not valid.
SU had the largest home attendance in the nation this year. We were #1. If you qualify that statement and say the measurement is by average attendance at games, then we come in second. The NCAA article does make that distinction - so the measure should be TOTAL ATTENDANCE and we beat everyone.
Also noteworthy that the BE tourney pulled in more fans than any other conference. I wonder if that will change after we leave.
Based on these attendance records, Pitt clearly does not have strong fan loyalty. I hope they hold what they have after the move.
sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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I don't think you understand attendance at all. The big capacity of the Dome actually hurts season ticket sales for Syracuse, just as it encourages season ticket sales at Rupp.
If the Dome held say 27K, and that was it, I submit that Syracuse would lead the nation in average attendance every season. You would have to buy a season ticket to ensure you could attend every game, and all those early season home games against bad opponents would thus be sell outs (or at least would have attendance above 24K).
I like how disagreement immediately means that I "don't understand attendance at all." I concede that the large capacity of the dome may influence season ticket sales. Currently, if you want to go to a game, a ticket is always available and you don't necessarily need season tickets. I've emailed the athletic departments for SU and UK for the number of non-student season ticket holders from last season. If I get replies, I'll post the numbers. They might provide further insight.
1. You state that our non-conference home games are dragging down our attendance. Our non-conference home attendance was 20,159/game (vs 23,618 total), which is about 15% less than the season average. Is that difference more or less than you suspected (UK's is 2% less than average for non-conference attendance)? Perhaps season ticket holders would boost the non-conference attendance closer towards the season average. However, that assumes that season ticket holders attend all games when it is much more likely that they DON'T attend non-conference games. If it weren't for season ticket holders trying to get rid of seats, Stubhub wouldn't be in business - and Stubhub does not sell every ticket posted.
2. Our total attendance beat Kentucky's by 21,758. Kentucky played one less home game and averages 23,721/game. If they played an extra game even with 8% under-attendance, they'd have taken the total and average attendance crowns.
3. Our Standard deviation in per game attendance is 4863 while Kentucky's is 998. Our per game attendance is almost 5 times more variable that Kentucky's. They sell out every game (regardless of opponent) while our attendance has 5x more fluctuation, presumably because of opponent. Kentucky's attendance per game is practically at capacity so they can't accommodate the variation on the plus side of their average. We can, however, because of SU's excess capacity. My point is that the extra large attendances (33k) against L'ville and UConn allowed us to gain in attendance vs UK, which skews the statistic. We brought in 10K more fans in each of those games than UK can even fit in Rupp. It's a little misleading. I argued that playing in a football stadium gave us an advantage. Am I wrong?
My points are based on the numbers. Your rebuttal is based on the hypothetical situation that IF the carrier dome was smaller - we'd win in attendance. Unfortunately, it isn't. But I don't "understand attendance" so my dissension must be wrong and struck down. All I was saying was that taking the numbers at face value is not an accurate representation of attendance.
