Attendance Update across P5 WCBB

[triaddukefan]

I actually only ate the mustard-based BBQ until I moved to North Carolina. I really enjoyed the vinegar-based-sauce here. That said..... my friends here tried the mustard based and all of them liked it better than the vinegar based they were used to. They switched to mustard based and I switched to vinegar based. Explain that....

You need new friends.

 

[TN-Gamecock]

As I'm reading all the responses, it seems to me that Iowa and Carolina are the two leading WBB teams in terms of attendance. So it begs the question.

Which is the bigger draw, The Carolina women's team or Caitlin Clark?

It's not the IOWA team that is selling out B10 arenas. It's Clark.

 

[BigTenGuy]

. . . Which is the bigger draw, The Carolina women's team or Caitlin Clark? . . .

The answer is below, but perhaps in the eye of the beholder:

as of 2/26/24	Home Games	True Road Games	All Games
	NCAA Record 16,565*	NCAA Record 8,424^	NCAA Record 12,164*
S. Carolina 2023-24	16,381	6,473	11,562
S. Carolina notes	4 home sell outs	1/11 road sell out (LSU)
Iowa 2023-24	14,998	13,410	13,201
Iowa notes	season sold out	10/10** road sell outs
** Wisc & Neb announced sell outs, but sold < capacity b/c of general admission ticket concerns
Colonial Life Capacity	18,000
Carver-Hawkeye Capacity	14,998
*1999 TENN	Catchings /Holdsclaw
^2012 Baylor	Brittney Griner

Also, LSU is averaging 7,957 in true road game attendance (11,394 at home). In conference road games, LSU is at 8,573, S. Carolina is at 7,052.

In the Big Ten, Iowa is at 14,130 for conference road games; IU is at 8,128; OSU is at 4,659.

 

[Dillon77]

I think I saw a headline that the B1G Women's Post-Season Tournament was sold out for the first time ever....
Of course, the Caitlin Clark Traveling Circus has zounds to do with that, but one would like to think that Ohio State, Indiana and the overall brand of the conference's play is helping to draw people.

 

[BigTenGuy]

I think I saw a headline that the B1G Women's Post-Season Tournament was sold out for the first time ever....
Of course, the Caitlin Clark Traveling Circus has zounds to do with that, but one would like to think that Ohio State, Indiana and the overall brand of the conference's play is helping to draw people.

The magnitude of the increase for the Big Ten Tourney this year is crazy. Last year's championship game in the Target Center drew 9,505, and last year's tourney drew 47,923, both records for the Big Ten. Media reports say the Big Ten has sold 109,000 tickets for this year's tourney in the Target Center in Minneapolis.

 

[DefenseBB]

As I'm reading all the responses, it seems to me that Iowa and Carolina are the two leading WBB teams in terms of attendance. So it begs the question.

Which is the bigger draw, The Carolina women's team or Caitlin Clark?

It's not the IOWA team that is selling out B10 arenas. It's Clark.

Similar to "Pavlov's Dog" hearing the bell and his saliva starting, I read "Carolina" and think NORTH CAROLINA, not Little Carolina, (Thank you for that conditioning all you NC residents!) so, please use SC when referring to the Gamecocks. SC has led the NCAA in HOME attendance for the last 8 years (soon to be 9) but as @visitingcock has noted, not only will Iowa with the total attendance this year, Iowa has a change to break the ALL TIME HOME and AWAY attendance record currently held by Tennessee in 2008 with 445,925 in 38 games (averaging 11,735).

Iowa is at 329,072 for 13 home games and 10 road games and averaging 14,308. they have 2 regular season games left plus 4 potential Big 10 tournament games and then the NCAAT games.

 

[BigTenGuy]

. . . SC has led the NCAA in HOME attendance for the last 8 years (soon to be 9) but as @visitingcock has noted, not only will Iowa with the total attendance this year, Iowa has a change to break the ALL TIME HOME and AWAY attendance record currently held by Tennessee in 2008 with 445,925 in 38 games (averaging 11,735).

The NCAA always ranks home attendance by average attendance, but sometimes ranks total attendance by average, and sometimes by total number. For example, last year the NCAA ranked South Carolina first in total attendance, because they had the highest average, even though Iowa played 1 more game and had higher nominal total attendance. But in some other years, the NCAA has ranked total attendance using total nominal attendance, rather than per-game average, in which case one of the title game participants is usually ranked first.

On an average basis, Tennessee in 1999 (not 2008) is the all-time total attendance leader at 12,164. Iowa 2023-24 is currently north of 13,000 and going higher.

 

[Tngamecock]

Similar to "Pavlov's Dog" hearing the bell and his saliva starting, I read "Carolina" and think NORTH CAROLINA, not Little Carolina, (Thank you for that conditioning all you NC residents!) so, please use SC when referring to the Gamecocks. SC has led the NCAA in HOME attendance for the last 8 years (soon to be 9) but as @visitingcock has noted, not only will Iowa with the total attendance this year, Iowa has a change to break the ALL TIME HOME and AWAY attendance record currently held by Tennessee in 2008 with 445,925 in 38 games (averaging 11,735).

Iowa is at 329,072 for 13 home games and 10 road games and averaging 14,308. they have 2 regular season games left plus 4 potential Big 10 tournament games and then the NCAAT games.

And as soon as Clark leaves, they will return to irrelevance

 

[triaddukefan]

And as soon as Clark leaves, they will return to irrelevance

I was in the stands watching Iowa play in the Elite 8 in 2019. That was pre-Clark. They won't be irrelevant as long as Bluder is coaching..

I was also in the stands watching some bears feast on chicken two days earlier, but I digress.

 

[visitingcock]

And as soon as Clark leaves, they will return to irrelevance

"Irrelevance" might be a bit harsh since they had Top Ten attendance beginning in the Gustaffson era before Clerk, but I agree that it will drop after she leaves. They will probably drop down to about 4th or 5th in home attendance next year (below SCar, UConn, LSU and maybe Iowa State). It may dwindle on down in the following years to top ten or top 20 where it was prior to Gustaffson. Depends on how competitive they remain in the Big 10. I don't think they will ever approach this level again - but who knows? Maybe they will get another star to carry them.

It will be interesting to see how long they can keep a lead in attendance over Iowa State

 

[jumpstart]

Here is another breakdown from NCAA stats.... NCAA Statistics You can do all teams home and away attendance. This one is the attendance home page. Click on the team after you get to attendance part. NCAA Statistics Hit misc and then the team.

 

[visitingcock]

Try this

http://fs.ncaa.org.s3.amazonaws.com/Docs/stats/w_basketball_RB/Attend.pdf

Once again, I am having trouble finding the NCAA wbb attendance stats for 2023-2024. Can you help?

 

[BigTenGuy]

Once again, I am having trouble finding the NCAA wbb attendance stats for 2023-2024. Can you help?

The NCAA is slow this year to publish complied 2023-24 attendance figures, and slow to update record books (will post when the NCAA attendance book is out). Perhaps they are trying to correct some errors and inconsistencies in previous year's figures and record books, but I wouldn't hold my breath. The NCAA does have attendance info by team, e.g.:

NCAA Statistics (South Carolina)
NCAA Statistics (Iowa)

Based on NCAA team data, South Carolina was # 1 in average home attendance, becoming the 2nd team ever to average 16,000+ in home attendance. South Carolina and Iowa both beat the existing record for all games total attendance. South Carolina and Iowa became the 2nd and 3rd teams to average more than 12,000 for all games.

	2023-24 Att.	(bold = beats previous record)
	Avg. Home	Avg. Road	Avg. Neutral	Avg. All Games	Total Att.
South Carolina	16,067	6,258	12,241	12,063	458,397
Iowa	14906*	13,520	13,271	14,054	548,107
	(inc. Des
	Moines game)
	Previous Rec.	Previous Rec.		Previous Rec.	Previous Rec.
	16,565	8,424		12,164	445,925
	Tenn 1999	Baylor 2012		Tenn 1999	Tenn 2008

 

[BigTenGuy]

Once again, I am having trouble finding the NCAA wbb attendance stats for 2023-2024. Can you help?

The NCAA website now has 2023-24 attendance info, but might be a work in progress (e.g. the table of contents page still refers to the 2022-23 season as of today). Also, I haven't seen any articles that usually track the release of this attendance information.

http://fs.ncaa.org.s3.amazonaws.com/Docs/stats/w_basketball_RB/Attend.pdf

 

[visitingcock]

The NCAA website now has 2023-24 attendance info, but might be a work in progress (e.g. the table of contents page still refers to the 2022-23 season as of today). Also, I haven't seen any articles that usually track the release of this attendance information.

http://fs.ncaa.org.s3.amazonaws.com/Docs/stats/w_basketball_RB/Attend.pdf

Thanks. Not a lot of surprises but a few.. Colorado with the biggest increase in home attendance by 3852 per game. U$C & Juju up by 3,350. I expect to see the troggans jump again this year.

No surprise: top year ever for overall attendance. 6 teams with 10,000+ avg home attendance. SCar still led everybody in home attendance. Iowa clearly led in all games attendance.

Next year will be interesting. SCar has home games against UConn, LSU, Texas, Oklahoma, Duke so should be another good year for us. U$C at Stoors will easily sell out.

U$C vs UCLA a few times will be interesting as will be SCar at UCLA. How will Cali fans react to big time wbb on their home floors?

Do Hartford games count as home games for UConn - or- do only Stoors games count?

 

[Zanzman]

Thanks. Not a lot of surprises but a few.. Colorado with the biggest increase in home attendance by 3852 per game. U$C & Juju up by 3,350. I expect to see the troggans jump again this year.

No surprise: top year ever for overall attendance. 6 teams with 10,000+ avg home attendance. SCar still led everybody in home attendance. Iowa clearly led in all games attendance.

Next year will be interesting. SCar has home games against UConn, LSU, Texas, Oklahoma, Duke so should be another good year for us. U$C at Stoors will easily sell out.

U$C vs UCLA a few times will be interesting as will be SCar at UCLA. How will Cali fans react to big time wbb on their home floors?

Do Hartford games count as home games for UConn - or- do only Stoors games count?

Storrs and Hartford are considered home games

 

[cockhrnleghrn]

Thanks. Not a lot of surprises but a few.. Colorado with the biggest increase in home attendance by 3852 per game. U$C & Juju up by 3,350. I expect to see the troggans jump again this year.

No surprise: top year ever for overall attendance. 6 teams with 10,000+ avg home attendance. SCar still led everybody in home attendance. Iowa clearly led in all games attendance.

Next year will be interesting. SCar has home games against UConn, LSU, Texas, Oklahoma, Duke so should be another good year for us. U$C at Stoors will easily sell out.

U$C vs UCLA a few times will be interesting as will be SCar at UCLA. How will Cali fans react to big time wbb on their home floors?

Do Hartford games count as home games for UConn - or- do only Stoors games count?

Pro markets seldom have top attendance in any college sport.

 

[BigTenGuy]

. . . U$C vs UCLA a few times will be interesting as will be SCar at UCLA. How will Cali fans react to big time wbb on their home floors? . . .

JuJu on the road in the BIG will be interesting. As the next BIG thing, can she fill road arenas/impact road attendance?