UConn-Houston game attendance

[pvdoggy]

Grand total of 1569 (and it definitely looks like that on TV), even with free admission for students.

 

[msf22b]

A real bummer.

 

[pvdoggy]

That's the largest attendance of the season!
The Louisville's game had about 1200.

 

[Woof 101]

Grand total of 1569 (and it definitely looks like that on TV), even with free admission for students.

Wow, it is well documented that people are leaving Conneticut in droves but who would have thought 1,500 of them would have landed in the Houston area? I am sure they were congenial to the 69 family members of the Houston players in attendance.

 

[pvdoggy]

On the other hand, the attendance of the men's game between UH and UCF right before the women's game
had an attendance of 7028 (capacity is only 8400), and students do not get in for free for the men's game,
and neither men's teams are that good (although UH did beat UConn earlier in the year).

 

[UConnNick]

On the other hand, the attendance of the men's game between UH and UCF right before the women's game
had an attendance of 7028 (capacity is only 8400), and students do not get in for free for the men's game,
and neither men's teams are that good (although UH did beat UConn earlier in the year).

I was in attendance, and can guarantee you that both of the attendance figures are of 'the announced' category. There's no way there were that many people at either game. Perhaps that many tickets were sold, but not that many showed up. I'd guess about 2/3 to 3/4 of the women's crowd were UCONN fans. UCONN has a lot of alumni living in metro Houston, probably over 500. I also ran into quite a few folks who have been UCONN women's fans, without necessarily having any connection to the school. They said they've been rooting for the women's team since they were kids, even though they grew up in other parts of the country.

Welcome to women's BB in the rest of the country. The vast majority of women's teams play in empty arenas.

 

[Phil]

I was at both games, and I am more stunned by the men's number.

The place looked almost empty. I walked in just after halftime. I sat ear the back, but went down to the front to scope out where I would be sitting for the women's game, and I saw empty seats in the first few rows. My guess is that less than a quarter of the seats were occupied.
I can think of two reasons for the disparity. One of that virtually all teams report tickets sold, and I'll guess there are thousands of season ticket holders, many of whom didn't happen to show up for this game (which was a great game, BTW).

The second is that it was Cheerleader day, and there were hundreds of cheerleaders (mostly middle school if you were wondering), most of whom were chatting in the hallways, not in the arena. I looked up the attendance, guessing it might be 3000, and was stunned to see 7000. That's the report, but no way were the arena even half full.

Of course, the same rule (counting season ticket holders) counts for the women, but if I'm a Houston season ticket holder and going to miss some games, this is not the one I'm missing.

Yes there were quite a few Connecticut transplants to the Houston area in the crowd, I got to chat with a few.

Plus, as Nick points out, there are some local UConn fans. I met one, Charika, who has been following UConn for years, but unable to go to a game. She wore all blue, and purchased one of the courtside seats.

 

[alexrgct]

Whose ball??? COOGS BALL!!!

 

[Paul1969]

I really wanted to go but since I'm in Austin and had no friends who would go with me I decided to save my Energy for the SMU game on Tuesday!

 

[UcMiami]

Houston is also just having a miserable year after having been fairly decent in recent years - the loss of the coach at the start of the year was so strange. Has there been any more news as to his reasons for departure?

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

My point about folks who think UConn is going to "grow" attendance for games at opponent schools.

For the UConn game? sure, between transplanted UConn fans, folks that just want to see UConn, and marketing gimmicks that schools use for that game.

After seeing their team slobberknocked by UConn, wanting to come back as a season ticket holder. Not so much.

 

[easttexastrash]

I live less than 10 miles from SMU. I'm looking forward to seeing UCONN play.

 

[alexrgct]

UH is known as Cougar High, which, with all due respect, lowers my expectations in terms of student attendance (which could be a shot in the arm for attendance at WBB games otherwise).

 

[UConnNick]

I was at both games, and I am more stunned by the men's number.

The place looked almost empty. I walked in just after halftime. I sat ear the back, but went down to the front to scope out where I would be sitting for the women's game, and I saw empty seats in the first few rows. My guess is that less than a quarter of the seats were occupied.
I can think of two reasons for the disparity. One of that virtually all teams report tickets sold, and I'll guess there are thousands of season ticket holders, many of whom didn't happen to show up for this game (which was a great game, BTW).

The second is that it was Cheerleader day, and there were hundreds of cheerleaders (mostly middle school if you were wondering), most of whom were chatting in the hallways, not in the arena. I looked up the attendance, guessing it might be 3000, and was stunned to see 7000. That's the report, but no way were the arena even half full.

Of course, the same rule (counting season ticket holders) counts for the women, but if I'm a Houston season ticket holder and going to miss some games, this is not the one I'm missing.

Yes there were quite a few Connecticut transplants to the Houston area in the crowd, I got to chat with a few.

Plus, as Nick points out, there are some local UConn fans. I met one, Charika, who has been following UConn for years, but unable to go to a game. She wore all blue, and purchased one of the courtside seats.

I think you may have been sitting right in front of me, Phil.

For many years I had UH season tickets for football and men's BB. Houston was once a perennial national power in both sports in the old SWC, before the former AD at Texas, DeLoss Dodds, personally banished Houston into permanent mid-major conference purgatory. They've never recovered from that. Texas was extremely afraid of legitimizing Houston because they had a habit of losing to the Cougars in football.

Prior to the late 1990's, Hofheinz seated 10,600, but when Drexler was the coach they put in those 'luxury suites' that now rim the arena, reducing seating capacity to 8,500. During the Phi Slama Jama era when we had season tickets, it was one of the toughest college BB tickets to get anywhere in the country.

Right now, I'd guess UH has a hard core of maybe 2,000 season ticket holders for men's games, and maybe a few hundred for women's games, if that many.

I'm not suggesting in any way that it can happen to UCONN because we have far more committed alumni and fanbase, but being in a mid major conference over a long stretch of time can lead to what's happened at UH. The other problem is it's primarily a commuter school, as are most of the schools in the AAC. Most students live off campus and have no long term allegiance to the school. They go to school, go home at night, and when they graduate they're gone forever.

Still, Houston is a sleeping giant. They will have a brand spanking new football stadium this coming fall, designed by the same architectural firm (Ellerbe Becket) that designed Rentschler Field. They are making strides, but the progress is painfully slow.

 

[alexrgct]

UH football made real progress with Case Keenum at QB and Kevin Sumlin as HC, but graduation of players and coaching defections are unavoidable.

 

[Phil]

Whose ball??? COOGS BALL!!!

I loved that call. We need something like that.

 

[DobbsRover2]

Houston is also just having a miserable year after having been fairly decent in recent years - the loss of the coach at the start of the year was so strange. Has there been any more news as to his reasons for departure?

Nothing after the news that Buchanan resigned for personal reasons and to devote more time to the family, which can mean anything today in sports, from burn out to having an ill family member. No point in speculating.

His team went 16-0 in CUSA three years ago, so the Cougars have had some decent times, but the even years (2012 and 2014) have been really dreadful. They have a fairly young team with only Campbell among the top players being a senior, though it was Campbell who was their top player on Saturday. But maybe a rebound next year under a new coach.

 

[huskybill]

I loved that call. We need something like that.

We can't even get our fans to yell "Don't let them play!" so how can we get them to yell "Coogs Ball?" Maybe "Coors for all!"

 

[DobbsRover2]

We can't even get our fans to yell "Don't let them play!" so how can we get them to yell "Coogs Ball?" Maybe "Coors for all!"

I don't know about the games, but maybe we could start some cheers on the BY like the U...C...O...N...N indented thread title list of yore, only just cramming them all into a cheers thread. One possibility to honor one our esteemed BY members of amazing stature:

"Who's Bill? Husky Bill!"

 

[Phil]

This is a photo of the men's game. Capacity of the arena is 8500. The reported attendance is 7000. Note the time and score - this is a late blowout where people have left. Does this place look over 80% full?