Syracuse ranked No. 2 in college basketball attendance last season; Kentucky No. 1

[Orangeyes]

http://www.syracuse.com/orangebaske...acuse_ranked_no_2_in_colleg.html#incart_river

 

[OttoMets]

Didn't want to give them the traffic; any recap? Wondering why they'd run an article about something that everyone knew in early March.

 

[HoustonCuse]

Didn't want to give them the traffic; any recap? Wondering why they'd run an article about something that everyone knew in early March.

Why not give them traffic? They will stop putting SUBB content out there if there isn't traffic.

Anyway - cool tidbit was that Syracuse was #1 in overall attendance (home-away-neutral) or as ESPN calls it (home-home-home away from home) with over 830,000 people in attendance at Cuse games last year. This helped significantly by the 70,000+ at the FF game.

 

[OttoMets]

Why not give them traffic? They will stop putting SUBB content out there if there isn't traffic.

Anyway - cool tidbit was that Syracuse was #1 in overall attendance (home-away-neutral) or as ESPN calls it (home-home-home away from home) with over 830,000 people in attendance at Cuse games last year. This helped significantly by the 70,000+ at the FF game.

That number is interesting because Louisville had one more shot at a 70,000+ crowd than we did (and, if memory serves, the same number of total games). So that's cool to top them.

Could be cutting off my nose to spite my face re: not reading Syracuse.com. But I don't like much of what they provide and don't want to support them by adding to their traffic.

 

[BillJay]

That number is interesting because Louisville had one more shot at a 70,000+ crowd than we did (and, if memory serves, the same number of total games). So that's cool to top them.
...

yup, both played 40 games. I was going to say that SU outdrawing UL is really amazing because the aircraft carrier game was in front of only 5100 people but UL had an equivalent game @ College of Charleston

 

[jordoo]

IU OOC and Duke, UNC in conference @ the Dome . . . . . . . . is that enough to offset UK for number 1 next season? How well will fans fill the Dome for the rest of the ACC conference schedule?

 

[anomander]

IU OOC and Duke, UNC in conference @ the Dome . . . . . . . . is that enough to offset UK for number 1 next season? How well will fans fill the Dome for the rest of the ACC conference schedule?

I am going to go ahead and say we will lead the nation in attendance this season by a pretty decent margin

 

[OttoMets]

I am going to go ahead and say we will lead the nation in attendance this season by a pretty decent margin

Bold statement. Off-hand, I don't think we've finished first since 2005. Depending on what constitutes a wide margin, we probably haven't achieved that in 19 or 20 years.

If we're good, we'll get a spike from last year (which was down from 2012). Among other things, we'll need a better student turnout (difficult to predict - very solid for at least the last three years, then plummeted this past season).

We'll also need a home opener played at a decent time, fewer games during Christmas and Thanksgiving breaks, no game played during our bowl game, good weekend opponents, convenient game times (I'm looking at you, 3:30 Monday tip for Cincinnati and 6:00 weeknight tip for DePaul), decent weather, and no two- or three-game losing streaks.

I don't see a lot to suggest much beyond the usual bump after a Final Four year. Winning will help.

But Duke/UNC can't draw much better than the usual combination of Georgetown/Louisville/UConn on a weekend. Probably more than 31,000; probably fewer than 35,000 (depending on the court reconfiguration decision).

Indiana will draw flies on a Tuesday prior to finals - no more than the 23,000 and high change for top-ten Florida two years ago.

We saw how interested the fanbase is in Notre Dame for Big Monday the day after the Superbowl earlier this year: not very. That won't change much over the course of 365 days.

Nova's always a fun matchup, but not three days after Christmas.

It's just really difficult to average 23,500+ when two-thirds of our games fall short of that number.

One reason for optimism: any increase in season ticket sales due to the novelty of the new league (or any other reason). Six of our 17 games last year drew fewer than 18,000. That's a lot; very difficult to finish #1 in attendance with numbers like that. Improve those by a thousand with better season ticket sales and that'll dilute the effect of the big crowds a lot less.

 

[OttoMets]

IU OOC and Duke, UNC in conference @ the Dome . . . . . . . . is that enough to offset UK for number 1 next season? How well will fans fill the Dome for the rest of the ACC conference schedule?

Lately it seems that our good attendance years have come when Kentucky's been up, and vice versa (we had a golden opportunity in 2013 with fan interest down in Lexington, but we had a lot of low turnouts, too, and missed by ~500 fans).

If they're as good as advertised (and I have my doubts), Kentucky could bounce back above 24,000 (rare for them as of late; they didn't average that during their championship season). That'd raise the bar a bit for us.

 

[anomander]

Bold statement. Off-hand, I don't think we've finished first since 2005. Depending on what constitutes a wide margin, we probably haven't achieved that in 19 or 20 years.

If we're good, we'll get a spike from last year (which was down from 2012). Among other things, we'll need a better student turnout (difficult to predict - very solid for at least the last three years, then plummeted this past season).

We'll also need a home opener played at a decent time, fewer games during Christmas and Thanksgiving breaks, no game played during our bowl game, good weekend opponents, convenient game times (I'm looking at you, 3:30 Monday tip for Cincinnati and 6:00 weeknight tip for DePaul), decent weather, and no two- or three-game losing streaks.

I don't see a lot to suggest much beyond the usual bump after a Final Four year. Winning will help.

But Duke/UNC can't draw much better than the usual combination of Georgetown/Louisville/UConn on a weekend. Probably more than 31,000; probably fewer than 35,000 (depending on the court reconfiguration decision).

Indiana will draw flies on a Tuesday prior to finals - no more than the 23,000 and high change for top-ten Florida two years ago.

We saw how interested the fanbase is in Notre Dame for Big Monday the day after the Superbowl earlier this year: not very. That won't change much over the course of 365 days.

Nova's always a fun matchup, but not three days after Christmas.

It's just really difficult to average 23,500+ when two-thirds of our games fall short of that number.

One reason for optimism: any increase in season ticket sales due to the novelty of the new league (or any other reason). Six of our 17 games last year drew fewer than 18,000. That's a lot; very difficult to finish #1 in attendance with numbers like that. Improve those by a thousand with better season ticket sales and that'll dilute the effect of the big crowds a lot less.

I was basing that off a few things, some you already mentioned.

-Like you said there is the usual uptick coming off a Final 4
-Novelty of joining the ACC. I'd expect slightly better attendance for the Maryland, GT, NCST, and FSU's of the world when compared to Cincinatti, Seton Hall, Providence, Rutgers etc
-Far better non conference games. Indiana, Nova
- Less lower tier non conference games since we have 3 tournament games, plus Indiana and Nova.
-I fully expect us to be very good this season
-Finally we do need to get some help with the scheduling. When and what time these games will be played will make a difference.

With that said our student section is AWFUL. They need to step it up. If they would show up this wouldn't even be a question

 

[OttoMets]

I was basing that off a few things, some you already mentioned.

-Like you said there is the usual uptick coming off a Final 4
-Novelty of joining the ACC. I'd expect slightly better attendance for the Maryland, GT, NCST, and FSU's of the world when compared to Cincinatti, Seton Hall, Providence, Rutgers etc
-Far better non conference games. Indiana, Nova
- Less lower tier non conference games since we have 3 tournament games, plus Indiana and Nova.
-I fully expect us to be very good this season
-Finally we do need to get some help with the scheduling. When and what time these games will be played will make a difference.

With that said our student section is AWFUL. They need to step it up. If they would show up this wouldn't even be a question

Nova would be great (drew 27,000 on a Christmas break Saturday only seven months ago). Shame that the 28th was the best place to fit it in. Tough date. Though we did draw 25,000+ for Seton Hall on that date in 2012. Hopefully people turn out (and there's no bowl game conflict, as there was on the 29th this year).

Scheduling is so important - day of the week often trumps opponent. It'll be really difficult to get good crowd on a Tuesday night; in recent years, only Georgetown has consistently drawn above-average crowds for midweek games. And that's in February. So I hope people want to come see Indiana, but it doesn't seem likely. Florida in 2012 is a decent comp.

Are we home and home with Maryland? I agree that that would be a good draw (if it's a weekend, at least). Those others, meh. ~27,000 on a Saturday afternoon; ~22,000 on a weeknight. No more appeal than the New Big East schools to the average fan.

This will be easier to do when we have a full schedule, but I'd imagine that 24,111 will take the attendance title (that's Kentucky's average from 2010, the only time this century someone has topped 24,000). Running down the list, can we make 19 home dates reach that number?

I do have high hopes that we'll be good and think that we get a bump because of that. But you're right - got to schedule smarter. If that 12 November game against Fordham is the opener, that's not so good (it's a Tuesday). If they find someone for the 8th, 9th, or 10th, we'll have a nice shot at opening with 22,000 (much better than the 17,000 for our Thanksgiving-week opener last year).

 

[pfister1]

I added arena capacity figures alongside the attendance averages reported in that article. Noone in the ACC sells out all of their games with the exception of Duke and they are in a bandbox. Obviously Syracuse's situation is a bit of an oddity as they don't even try to sell the recently established capacity for each game.

2 - Syracuse, 22,439 Cap. 35,012
4 - North Carolina, 19,350 Cap. 21,750
12 - NC State, 16,299 Cap. 19,557
25 - Maryland, 12,489 Cap. 17,950
40 - Pittsburgh, 10,227 Cap. 12,508
44 - Wake Forest, 9,614 Cap. 14,407
46 - Virginia, 9,403 Cap. 14,593
47 - Duke, 9,314 Cap. 9,314
54 - Notre Dame, 8,242 Cap. 9,149
61 - Clemson, 7,743 Cap. 10,000
68 - Florida State, 7,537 Cap. 13,800
69 - Georgia Tech, 7,365 Cap. 8,600
88 - Virginia Tech, 6,202 Cap. 9,847
97 - Miami, 5,814 Cap. 7,972

BC ? Cap. 8,606

 

[anomander]

Nova would be great (drew 27,000 on a Christmas break Saturday only seven months ago). Shame that the 28th was the best place to fit it in. Tough date. Though we did draw 25,000+ for Seton Hall on that date in 2012. Hopefully people turn out (and there's no bowl game conflict, as there was on the 29th this year).

Scheduling is so important - day of the week often trumps opponent. It'll be really difficult to get good crowd on a Tuesday night; in recent years, only Georgetown has consistently drawn above-average crowds for midweek games. And that's in February. So I hope people want to come see Indiana, but it doesn't seem likely. Florida in 2012 is a decent comp.

Are we home and home with Maryland? I agree that that would be a good draw (if it's a weekend, at least). Those others, meh. ~27,000 on a Saturday afternoon; ~22,000 on a weeknight. No more appeal than the New Big East schools to the average fan.

This will be easier to do when we have a full schedule, but I'd imagine that 24,111 will take the attendance title (that's Kentucky's average from 2010, the only time this century someone has topped 24,000). Running down the list, can we make 19 home dates reach that number?

I do have high hopes that we'll be good and think that we get a bump because of that. But you're right - got to schedule smarter. If that 12 November game against Fordham is the opener, that's not so good (it's a Tuesday). If they find someone for the 8th, 9th, or 10th, we'll have a nice shot at opening with 22,000 (much better than the 17,000 for our Thanksgiving-week opener last year).

I was really hoping the Nova game would be scheduled in February. I used to love when we always had a marquee non conference game right in the middle of conference play. It was always a weekend game, and a big time draw. I want to say we did this against Kentucky a couple times, Michigan, , FSU, Bama, UCLA. I remember these games always being very well attended.

 

[OttoMets]

I was really hoping the Nova game would be scheduled in February. I used to love when we always had a marquee non conference game right in the middle of conference play. It was always a weekend game, and a big time draw. I want to say we did this against Kentucky a couple times, Michigan, , FSU, Bama, UCLA. I remember these games always being very well attended.

Ditto, thought this was especially likely with the odd number of teams in the league - everyone should have an open weekend.