Big East Attendance-mid season edition

[DefenseBB]

When UConn moved from the American to (back) the Big East in 2020-21 season, there was high hope that attendance for the conference would be boosted, then Coronavirus hit in March 2019, shutting down attendance at virtually all NCAA games for the 2020-21 season. With attendance back in 2022 and 2023, we have two sets of yearly attendance that gives us the insight that thus far-our hopes are RAISED!

The Big East attendance is up over the 2022 season by 28% (average 1,842 fans per game in 2023 to 1,453 fans in 2022). Deducting the UConn attendance, the Big East teams saw increase from 789 fans in 2022 to 1,003 fans per game thus far in 2023. All but Xavier have seen attendance boost in 2023. Villanova by a whopping 59% (1,722 from 1,082).

Now that doesn't mean the Big East is doing great as there are still 5 ABYSMAL programs who need to figure out how to get fans in the seats. Alphabetically:
Georgetown 677 fans (while up from 224 in 2022, their 2014-2020 ave was 644 still bad)
Providence 404 fans (366 in 2022 and 2014-2020 ave was 479)
Seton Hall 812 fans (655 in 2022 and 2014-2020 ave was 866)
St. John's 552 fans (330 in 2022 and 2014-2020 ave was 836)
Xavier 769 fans (down from 962 in 2022 and 2014-2020 ave was 1,227-more evidence time for the coach to go)

Butler is up to 890 from 784 and with a new coach, this will need further watching, however their 2014-2020 ave was only 686 so there should be optimism.
Traditionally, DePaul was #2 in attendance with a 2014-2020 ave of 2,402. Villanova and Creighton show the most improvement both in terms of 2023 to 2022 and the '23 season to the 7 year average from 2014-2020. Marquette has 1,640 fans in 2023 and is at their 2014-2020 average of 1,639 fans per season.

The fact is the Big East needs to figure out how to get more fans in the seats if it wants to have a spot at the P5 table. PC, GT and Xavier probably need to find new coaches to get better results and to do community outreach. Seton Hall and St. John's need to promote their teams more. The good news is the Big East Tournament does draw well, better than PAC-12, Big 12 and ACC Tournaments. SEC is still Queen but the Big Ten is making serious improvement.

Now how to best display this data for you....

 

[DefenseBB]

 

[DefenseBB]

The file shows the number of home games this year, what the UConn game attendance was at each opponent and what the attendance would be if UConn was excluded. To say the Big East needs the other programs to step up would be stating the obvious.

 

[oldhusky]

We generally considered the move to the Big East a move up, but in many ways, it was closer to a lateral move on attendance, and a mild upgrade on competition. Those conferences are similar on attendance minus Uconn. Witchever one has Uconn will average greater attendance.

It is certainly encouraging to see the year over year improvement, and the travel and rivalries are much better in the Big East, those were major factors, but it is hard for the Big East or any other next tier conference to match the level of the power 5 IMO.

 

[UcMiami]

We generally considered the move to the Big East a move up, but in many ways, it was closer to a lateral move on attendance, and a mild upgrade on competition. Those conferences are similar on attendance minus Uconn. Witchever one has Uconn will average greater attendance.

It is certainly encouraging to see the year over year improvement, and the travel and rivalries are much better in the Big East, those were major factors, but it is hard for the Big East or any other next tier conference to match the level of the power 5 IMO.

Part of the issue matching the P5 is also the home gym - a number of the BE teams have a very large men's home arena and a very small women's home gym.

I certainly prefer the small home gym to the empty and cavernous Carrier Dome, but Uconn can sell out at Providence and the total attendence would be 1854, Creighton 2950 (so the fire marshall may need to be notified if the numbers above are correct), Georgetown 2500, etc.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Thanks! The Coronavirus hit in March 2020.

 

[Bone Dog]

Any options besides the BE or the AAC? Not the MAAC or the Patriot, I suppose. Or the Ivy? Is the ACC desirable? Short of this last one, the BE looks like a pretty obvious choice.

 

[DefenseBB]

Ok, so the game at Providence last night, furthered UConn's effort to 6 for 6 in season high attendance at a Big East Opponent. Each of the UConn away games has created a season high for their opponent in their home games. They still have road games at Villanova, Marquette, DePaul and Georgetown. This is not quite the "circus" that Geno made so famous during Brianna Stewart's era but does continue the theme of popularity and when compared to the "home attendance" proves how much more the other teams need to do. Surprising to me is Creighton's low average attendance (1,419) especially when you consider Nebraska is averaging 5,264 per game. Val and the rest of the Big East leaders need to assess and state a plan to improve this as you know, the Big East is first and foremost, "a basketball conference".

Here is the average attendance for the opponent's home games and the UConn game.
Creighton (8 games) 1,419; UConn 2,236
Butler (11g) 890; UConn 2,414
Xavier (15g) 769,: UConn 1,812
St.John's (14g) 552; UConn 2,910
Seton Hall (9g) 812; UConn 1,296
Providence (13g) 487; UConn 1,483
UConn (7g) 10,353