Oregon pre-Sabrina averaged 1629 fans and just 2,600 fans her freshman year, but by her senior year they averaged 10k+.
Juju Watkins chose USC who averaged 1000 fans a game last year and within a year the attendance went up almost 4x and increased steadily throughout the season. Numbers will likely be much higher next year and her final 2 years.
If Strong is as good as advertised and Duke elevates as a program, she'll draw fans and Duke's attendance numbers will increase significantly over her 4 years.
I gave your post a "like" because I'm sure attendance will increase if Sarah goes to Duke. It certainly won't go down. But IMO it's about the overall team's success that drives attendance and ticket sales as well as having bona fide superstars like Caitlin Clark and Sabrina Ionescu that fans want to see!
Yet out of curiosity and for another point of reference I looked up Stanford's attendance this season - I think we'd all agree that Tara's teams have been consistently good for as many years as UConn. Yet this year they average a little more than 4000 fans per home game at Maples Pavillion that seats 7392. For a home game vs. Duke this season they had 4236 fans in an OT win and vs. then #15 USC they had 5371 fans in a loss. They almost sold out vs. then #7 UCLA with 7207 fans watching them win by double-digits.
Then I looked at UCLA where Cori Close is in her 13th season, and has had top-25 ranked teams in 9 of those years. A very good team in a top WBB conference. UCLA's average attendance this year in Pauley Pavillion is 4643 fans with an arena capacity of 13,800. They did get 13,659 fans for the game vs. then #9 USC (UCLA win).
In Lindsay Gottlieb's 3rd season at USC and with the top freshman in JuJu Watkins, they have their highest ranking in 38 years and first season as a top-25 team since the 94-95 season. Their attendance this year averaged 3856 fans in Galen Center which has a capacity of 10,258. They sold out the game with 10,657 vs. then #2 UCLA (USC win) and had 5762 fans vs. then #11 Colorado (although then #3 Colorado had 8474 fans vs. USC in Boulder). No doubt their attendance should rise over the next few seasons.
In Kara Lawson's four seasons at Duke, they been ranked in top-25 only twice, and not this season. Her recruiting has been mixed - several transfers out including her own recruits and several in; there are only 11 players on the roster this season. Attendance averages 2588 this season in Cameron Indoor Stadium which has a capacity of 9324. That's less than the 3018 average in 2021-22 when they went 17-13.
Courtney Banghart is in her fifth year and has had three top-25 seasons, although this year UNC will finish outside of that. Attendance averages 3679 in Carmichael Arena which has a capacity of 6822 after renovations. It's very important to note that the men's team no longer plays at Carmichael but at the Dean Smith Center which has a 21,750 seat capacity, and the women's don't play there at all!
In Kelsey Plum's senior year at Washington, those Huskies averaged under 4000 fans per home game in Hec Ed which has a capacity of 9268. And this was while she was going for the then NCAA scoring record.
This season Iowa leads average home attendance with 14,998, followed by South Carolina's 12,942, LSU's 11,491 and UConn's 10,255.
Coaches like to "sell" the impact of a top recruit to their program. IMO growing attendance shouldn't be an 18 year old's responsibility but the coaches' - Kara has had mixed results so far. And we know that Storrs is the basketball capital of the world!
As for academics, let's be totally honest: a player of Sarah's caliber is looking for a long and successful career in the WNBA which by the time she graduates will have expanded, and probably the collective bargaining agreement will have increased salaries as the sport grows in popularity. UConn does have an excellent honors program if that's important to her, but a UConn degree didn't inhibit top UConn WBB graduates from terrific careers after their playing days were over. If anything, that UConn pedigree is a huge asset. It goes without saying that a program that can best prepare her for that long and successful career is also very important consideration for sure. And Geno and his staff have that in buckets over Kara and Courtney.