OT: Women's gymnastics attendance

[WestsideWaltz]

Katelyn Ohashi's viral FX routine might have had something to do with it, but UCLA traveled to Stanford and drew 6,000 fans to Maples. It doubled their previous gymnastics attendance record and in addition, it was the first time they charged for tickets. The crowd was also double what the mens basketball team drew the previous night. The week before, UCLA drew 10,000 fans to Pauley Pavilion. Last night, Alabama drew 13,823 fans to a meet against LSU. They have regularly been drawing over 10,000 for the past few years. Utah and South Carolina have also been averaging over 10,000 fans.

I don't know if this is a trend or a fad but it's hard not to notice the huge amounts of young girls in the audiences loving the competition, athletics and atmosphere.

 

[bennyskid]

Reserved seating for Saturday's UCLA@OSU is sold out already. OSU averages around 4k, so this isn't a huge surprise.

Womens college gymnastics decided some time ago that audience appeal was a good thing. Floor exercises, in particular, often have fan-friendly elements. Utah gymnasts, for example, work in a "U" gesture into every floor routine. Oregon State gymnasts sometimes get an "O-S-U" cheer into theirs. Dance elements can include the "reverse worm" and sorts of popping and locking and all that stuff that the kewl kids do. Ohashi's routine is not particularly unusual - it is just very, very good.

And it doesn't end with that at Oregon State. Here, right after the meet the girls hold a "dance party" and invite all the little kids to dance around on the floor mat with them. It's adorable - a hundred-plus little kids bouncing around with the gymnasts - and often the other team joins in.

In sum - they have made it fan- and family-friendly. There might be some lessons here for WBB. For example, at OSU WBB, after every game is the "Eight-Minute Mingle", where the players stay on the court to talk to fans, take selfies, and sign autographs. The title is misleading - I've seen players stay out there a lot longer than eight minutes, soaking up the well-wishes from the fans. You know that sort of thing has to build attendance.

 

[WestsideWaltz]

At Stanford, after Ohashi did her floor routine, she went over to a group of young girl gymnasts and high fived all of them. They were thrilled. Those girls will come back. There was a big photo op afterwards with the young gymnasts and the Stanford and UCLA teams. If Stanford was trying to build an audience for their program, I don't think they could have done better than that meet.

I believe four of the top five average attended events in womens sports are for gymnastics with only South Carolina wbb in the mix. South Carolina gymnastics is also in the top five which says something about that universities ability to draw for womens sports. Even in notoriously hard to draw Southern California market, UCLA womens gymnastics is the second biggest draw at Pauley, the first being mens basketball. They might actually overtake mbb this season because of the disaster that program currently is in.

 

[augustaTC]

After watching the routine, all I can say is "Ouch".

 

[j66kicker]

After watching the routine, all I can say is "Ouch".

She doesn't seem to have any pain - only joy. Love the way the rest of the team sort of does the routine along with her. And the high fives all around at the end. Very refreshing change from the pained and serious faces of the little girl Olympic-class gymnasts (Ohasi stepped down from elite status because it was no fun, and she was getting body shamed within the cult as she started to grow up more). Here's one of her many perfect 10 floor routines...

 

[eebmg]

Very Creative

 

[Philly Kid]

I had a deal with the women's basketball team in our HS. The men's gymnastics team would go to their games, if they would come to our meets. Worked out well, we both did not play to an empty gym