UConn Men 37th in Average National Attendance

[mjmoney23]

The facilities play a huge part in it imo. For people buying seats to individual games, you are getting the leftovers which at gampel does not include chairs and at xl puts you closer to God than the floor. Xl is also ridiculously overpriced for their concessions, especially the beer. I do think I a new arena would have the novelty to draw more fans.

 

[tcf15]

They are doing some big renovations on Gampel and I think the lighting is part of it. Most places don't even dim the lights there are retractable shades that go over them they should be able to get that done. I think that would go a ways toward pre-game excitement. A couple years ago at first night there was an awesome light show with like lasers that made the logo and spelled out UCONN and what not. I mean, my elementary school had that kinda technology in the 90s.

Lights were supposed to be replaced this off season
http://www.courant.com/sports/college/hc-uconn-gampel-repairs-0424-20150423-story.html

General idea of what they look like - lights either used to be completely on or completely off with no in between. Can see they are able to dim them here:

 

[Gurleyman]

Something changed. My feel from a distance is that in between title 2 and title 3, we had a significant drop in fan enthusiasm. Maybe we were spoiled by success, maybe ticket prices, maybe laptop gate, maybe the economic downturn hurt as we got good again in the 2009 FF.

But our fan base was batsh!t loopy from the NIT title through 2004. Just about everything sold out - parades drew 200K, people waved from overpasses when the team came back from the 99 title all along I-84, St. John's had to change their ticket policy since we would overrun their building every time. I'd have compared our fan base in that era with anyone in the country.

Don't know why we regressed. Maybe the state craved a winner so badly (Whalers got a parade for winning one playoff series) that the thirst for a FF/title was more captivating than trying to do it over and over.

 

[gampelcrazies]

General idea of what they look like - lights either used to be completely on or completely off with no in between. Can see they are able to dim them here:

They are already up? Was there two weeks ago and didn't think they were up yet. Can't wait till they fix the roof. It looked worse than it did on senior night

 

[tcf15]

They are already up? Was there two weeks ago and didn't think they were up yet. Can't wait till they fix the roof. It looked worse than it did on senior night

Yeah, finished a few weeks ago i guess:

 

[BoatShow]

Yeah, finished a few weeks ago i guess:

Looks good. One of the strangest things about Gampel (and coincidentally the XL) is how the lights are so stinking bright on the stands you can clearly make out every face from across the arena. Sounds dumb but I think the bright lights make people self conscious about how much enthusiasm they show.

 

[Confident Carl]

Actually, it wasn't a drop-off. We were 40th last year with an average of 10,134. Slight bump to 37 with a 10,687 average. Not sure, though, how much those numbers are inflated by the AAC tourney.

A little surprised that Duke was 47th with 9,314 and Notre Dame and UCLA were 59th and 60th with 7,700. High resolution Flat screen TV is also effecting attendance.

 

[HuskyBballFan]

A little surprised that Duke was 47th with 9,314 and Notre Dame and UCLA were 59th and 60th with 7,700. High resolution Flat screen TV is also effecting attendance.

Cameron Indoor Stadium's capacity is exactly 9,314.

 

[ktuck911]

In reality, once our football squad starts getting to the level where we go bowling year in and year out I'm sure attendance will increase...

Look at New Yankee Stadium on most week night games, not many folks pony up money for the behind home plate seats and it looks ugly on TV.

Diehard Yankee fan here... the new stadium is just a museum... a really expensive, and extremely nice, museum... Honestly, I like Citifield better... gives you the feeling of being in a baseball stadium, no corporate attire required...

 

[ktuck911]

Cameron Indoor Stadium's capacity is exactly 9,314.

Unfortunately, demographics is against us up here in CT... You look at Duke, in North Carolina, where there'd be a larger population, warmer climate, slower pace, more easy going folk... in CT, small land mass and everybody's on top of each other. What's worse, there's an extremely smaller percentage of folk that can even afford to support athletics programs, a more stressful environment, where the majority probably work more than one job... not a good combination for us up here.... But, if we when we'll get more support... just comes with the territory...Prove you can do before you get paid....part of it is on the success of our football program too... Got thank God for our WBB squad... They're literally our main attraction.

 

[mauconnfan]

Actually part of it was the business it became in the early 90's. Just from my perspective when they started bumping me around the CC and Gampel for those who were jumping all over the newest of bandwagons I lost interest in fighting the system. Then I had a kid and have been really happy watching the games at home although I get to 3-5 a year still. I bet there are a lot more of those fans than people think, one's who even with a donation were still never the same in seating as the corporations and "new" fans started weighing in for the best of seats.

 

[UConnSwag11]

I know we have XL and Gampel... but Gampel only holds like 10,100 people. So if we are averaging a sell out for every game there, how can we complain? Duke is #47...arena size is definitely a factor

 

[HuskyFich]

Unfortunately, demographics is against us up here in CT... You look at Duke, in North Carolina, where there'd be a larger population, warmer climate, slower pace, more easy going folk... in CT, small land mass and everybody's on top of each other. What's worse, there's an extremely smaller percentage of folk that can even afford to support athletics programs, a more stressful environment, where the majority probably work more than one job... not a good combination for us up here.... But, if we when we'll get more support... just comes with the territory...Prove you can do before you get paid....part of it is on the success of our football program too... Got thank God for our WBB squad... They're literally our main attraction.

I think you have this backwards, in terms of demographics. Population is larger because the state itself is larger. If Connecticut was the size of NC, UConn's fan base would obviously be much larger. Warmer climate and slower pace has absolutely zero to do with basketball attendance? More easy going folk, once again, I don't see as relevant at all?

Financially speaking, CT has one of the highest per capita incomes in the country, well ahead of North Carolina. Minimum wage is almost 2 dollars higher here and the tickets for Duke and UNC games are even more pricey than UConn's due to the high demand and lack of availability (There truly aren't many fans more passionate than Duke/UNC).

As for Football and WCBB effecting attendance, we can throw the WCBB out the window immediately... I mean come * on!? That's like saying the Laker's attendance is affected by the Spark's success or vice versa. As for football, How is the attendance of Alabama, FSU, Auburn at their basketball games doing? Not ahead of UConn's....

I really hope this was a fully sarcastic comment and have wasted my time dissecting it, because otherwise what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room (on this board) is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

 

[Stainmaster]

I think you have this backwards, in terms of demographics. Population is larger because the state itself is larger. If Connecticut was the size of NC, UConn's fan base would obviously be much larger. Warmer climate and slower pace has absolutely zero to do with basketball attendance? More easy going folk, once again, I don't see as relevant at all?

Financially speaking, CT has one of the highest per capita incomes in the country, well ahead of North Carolina. Minimum wage is almost 2 dollars higher here and the tickets for Duke and UNC games are even more pricey than UConn's due to the high demand and lack of availability (There truly aren't many fans more passionate than Duke/UNC).

As for Football and WCBB effecting attendance, we can throw the WCBB out the window immediately... I mean come * on!? That's like saying the Laker's attendance is affected by the Spark's success or vice versa. As for football, How is the attendance of Alabama, FSU, Auburn at their basketball games doing? Not ahead of UConn's....

I really hope this was a fully sarcastic comment and have wasted my time dissecting it, because otherwise what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room (on this board) is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

But can you tell us how you really feel?

 

[HuskyBballFan]

I don't see these results as overly concerning when taken in the context that tcf provided. We play half our games at a place that holds 10,167, and also played once at Webster Bank Arena, which holds 9,274. On a capacity basis, our regular season results last year based on my rough calculations were:

Gampel (7 games): 96%
XL Center (7 games): 84%
Webster Bank (1 game): 98%

The XL Center results include the winter break game against Coppin State which only drew 8,260. Exclude that game and the XL Center capacity jumps up to 89%.

Granted, places like Kentucky and Creighton manage to sell out on a nightly basis regardless of opponent. We're just not on that level as a fanbase. But, in a down year, we averaged 14k fans at the XL Center against AAC opponents (SMU, Cincy, USF, Tulsa, Temple). I'm struggling to get too worked up over that.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

Granted, places like Kentucky and Creighton manage to sell out on a nightly basis regardless of opponent. We're just not on that level as a fanbase. But, in a down year, we averaged 14k fans at the XL Center against AAC opponents (SMU, Cincy, USF, Tulsa, Temple). I'm struggling to get too worked up over that.

Have to also take into account that Hartford is a 2 hour drive to NYC, which has 5 pro sports teams, Boston, which has 2, and that does not include alternate winter activates, such as skiing, which are 1 to 3 hours away depending on the destination. Lexington KY is a 3 hour drive to their nearest pro sports team (Columbus & Nashville for the NHL and Indianapolis for the NBA) and winter sports are not that big of a draw and are 5 to 6 hours away (North Carolina mountains).

 

[Pudge]

I think you have this backwards, in terms of demographics. Population is larger because the state itself is larger. If Connecticut was the size of NC, UConn's fan base would obviously be much larger. Warmer climate and slower pace has absolutely zero to do with basketball attendance? More easy going folk, once again, I don't see as relevant at all?

Financially speaking, CT has one of the highest per capita incomes in the country, well ahead of North Carolina. Minimum wage is almost 2 dollars higher here and the tickets for Duke and UNC games are even more pricey than UConn's due to the high demand and lack of availability (There truly aren't many fans more passionate than Duke/UNC).

As for Football and WCBB effecting attendance, we can throw the WCBB out the window immediately... I mean come * on!? That's like saying the Laker's attendance is affected by the Spark's success or vice versa. As for football, How is the attendance of Alabama, FSU, Auburn at their basketball games doing? Not ahead of UConn's....

I really hope this was a fully sarcastic comment and have wasted my time dissecting it, because otherwise what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room (on this board) is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

I don't want to pick on ktuck911.

However, there is a swath of Boneyard posters who just shoot demographics and thoughts out their butt. Yes, SOME of us actually do know markets and aren't worn down by this dispirited presence of All-things Connecticut must be declining.

We are DOWN as a fan-base in my opinion. The Women BB excepted. We had tremendous energy and we got used to things being easy. OUR University had a fairly modest marketing presence relative to other major programs and mostly ineffective (IMHO). I do think that Football is a key. And, clearly playing tough winning competitive football is the heart of that story. Diaco can be the answer. The KO story is super. I think we will see the energy back this year.

 

[CL82]

Something changed. My feel from a distance is that in between title 2 and title 3, we had a significant drop in fan enthusiasm. Maybe we were spoiled by success, maybe ticket prices, maybe laptop gate, maybe the economic downturn hurt as we got good again in the 2009 FF.

But our fan base was batsh!t loopy from the NIT title through 2004. Just about everything sold out - parades drew 200K, people waved from overpasses when the team came back from the 99 title all along I-84, St. John's had to change their ticket policy since we would overrun their building every time. I'd have compared our fan base in that era with anyone in the country.

Don't know why we regressed. Maybe the state craved a winner so badly (Whalers got a parade for winning one playoff series) that the thirst for a FF/title was more captivating than trying to do it over and over.

Down turn in the economy, plus readily availability of broadcast games hurt, but abysmal ticket policies were the biggest offender. Tickets were pricey and loyalty wasn't rewarded. It would be great to have students along the sidelines but I doubt that it will happen while we are strapped for cash.

 

[Doheny]

On a capacity basis, our regular season results last year based on my rough calculations were:
Gampel (7 games): 96%
XL Center (7 games): 84%
Webster Bank (1 game): 98%

Those percentages are for paid attendance, not fannies in the seats. Our fan base is spread across the state. People buy packages so they have tickets for the big games, but they won't drive an hour and a half on back roads during the winter for a weeknight or "ordinary" game.

 

[CallMeBruce]

Those percentages are for paid attendance, not fannies in the seats. Our fan base is spread across the state. People buy packages so they have tickets for the big games, but they won't drive an hour and a half on back roads during the winter for a weeknight or "ordinary" game.

Where are you coming from that there's an hour and a half of back roads between you and a UConn game?

 

[NorwalkHusky]

I've said this before and I'll say it again, Perception is everything. Right now our fans are being told basically by everyone in college sports that we are in a conference, therefore apathy is up, which sucks. But look at a school like East Carolina (For football this year i think there attendance rose a lot) They are pumped to be in the AAC. I bet Tulsa and SMU had the same for basketball, granted they both had good seasons, but having the chance to play us at home for those small time schools (Sorry it's the truth) was huge. The Tulsa game I'm pretty sure all the students made some stupid t shirts making fun of UConn, but either way they are excited!

We have lost our excitement, which sucks but frankly I don't see that changing until we get out of the conference. I'm not saying are attendance will drop significantly, but the level of hype around the program will not be the same. Everyone believes what they want to believe and right now its really hard to change our narrative. We are an amazing basketball program no one can take that away from us. We just need fans to get reinvigorated with the program thats all.

 

[huskyjawz]

If Gampel were larger, the attendance would be greater. Paid attendance, that is, and students. The problem is with the eye-test. There are a lot of tickets sold, particularly in the "big-money" sections, that don't get used, especially for ordinary weeknight games.

They should let people move down to fill the empty seats at Gampel. In Hartford, you can move down to all but the very lowest seats, with no hassle from the ushers. If people come to claim their seats, then you move. That's the way The Garden was pre-renovation, and the old Yankee Stadium was, as well, and it worked fine.

In Gampel, they have an usher at every aisle to the lower section, and they won't let you down there no matter how empty it is.

Bad for the team, and bad for tv.

 

[Justin M]

The figures mean nothing as someone said earlier, it's average attendance, not average capacity. The solutions however will always be the same, move all the games to campus, all unsold tickets should be sold at student prices the day of games. It is extremely hard to get a tickets as a student, if you want to see filled seats for every game, open them to the students at a discounted price Why are we playing Coppin State at the XL Center, at least play the god awful cupcake teams at Gampel where students can walk from their dorms, because I promise you, no college kid wants to drive 30 minutes sober, pay for parking, and watch Uconn win by 40.

 

[CL82]

Got thank God for our WBB squad... They're literally our main attraction.

Yeah, I hope someday the MBB team can win a NC.

 

[BUConn10]

I actually DO believe the Women's success affects the men's attendance numbers, not that it's necessarily a bad thing though. The way I see it I have noticed the Women have their own set of dedicated fans, usually older senior citizens who follow them very closely. These fans have become accustomed to following the women around on their roadrrips and are very passionate, but I am pretty sure these womens fans do not do the same for thing for the men and vice versa for the men's fans.

This causes a pool of potential fans within the state to be split (not down the middle obviously, but the women do very well considering, well you know...) and a good portion of each team's fans will not mix to the other side. I think if there were only the men and the women's success had never happened then the men would have a bigger fanbase no doubt, maybe that's what Geno meant when he said Calhoun hated their success?