CARDS WBB Drawing 8926 per game
That number was boosted by the 14862 that hit the seats Sunday for the Kentucky visit. Before UK, the Cards had drawn over 8,000 twice...for Ball State and WKU.
Louisville's 8926 is fourth highest currently in NCAA WBB attendance. Here's the top six so far:
South Carolina 9964
Iowa St. 9336
Tennessee 9219
LOUISVILLE 8926
Notre Dame 8750
Connecticut 7123
The numbers are a bit surprising. South Carolina did not make the top five last year in attendance. Dawn Staley (or is it A'ja Wilson?) has sparked a newfound level of support for the Gamecocks. That'll only increase when SC starts battling conference foes like Tennessee, Kentucky and Georgia.Iowa St. finished second last year and holds second so far this year. Al Greener, the affable UofL pep band director and Iowa native, explained to me the large draw for a program that seldom sees the top 25 rankings.
Girls basketball on the high school level is immensely popular in the Hawkeye state. It often outdraws the boys' games and this spills over to supporting the three major university women's basketball teams. The other major universities in Iowa don't do too badly either. Iowa averages 4342 per home game, Northern Iowa draws 2172 a contest and Creighton brings in 1113 per tilt.
Tennessee is third currently with 9219 hitting the seats for home contests. This is a bit down so far from the 11038 that led the nation last year. Those numbers will undoubtedly rise when Holly's Volunteers start SEC play.At fifth is Notre Dame, barely trailing the Cards with 8760. They recently faced Maryland in Fort Wayne on the IPFW campus and drew almost 10,000 at the neutral site. The ACC schedule will keep the Joyce Center seats filled. Attendance is slightly up from last year's 8694.
Connecticut bears mentioning as well. Geno's Huskies have two arenas they frequent...on campus in Storrs and the XL Center in Hartford. They seat 7123 so far when they're the home team. The AAC schedule probably won't add much to those numbers. UConn brought in 8313 last year.
Will the Cards be able to consistently draw 8,000 the rest of
The ACC schedule should pack the red and black wearers in.
Georgia Tech, NC State, Virginia, Miami, Syracuse, Pitt, UNC, and Boston College will all visit Denny Crum Court. Four during the week night games and four Sunday contests.
Having Duke and Notre Dame at home would help boost the numbers...but these are road trips for Walz's troops.
What does Louisville need to do to lead the nation in women's basketball attendance? Besides suiting up Shoni and Angel again? Here's one man's opinion:Our student attendance for WBB is lacking. Maybe a cheap or free attendance with ID in a good section would get the collegians off campus and in the YUM! Promotional draws like free t-shirts, hoodies, discounted food prices and drawings or contests for the undergrads with quality prizes couldn't hurt. Free bus shuttles to and from campus. A mid-court shot chance with maybe a car or free year's tuition on the line. Opening one of the "rooms" inside the YUM! for a college pre-game tailgate party?
8926 isn't bad. 300+ D1 schools would die for their women's basketball programs to be doing so well. Let's get some more rowdy college kids in the KFC YUM! Center, though...to create an even more deafening greeting for the Cardinals' opponents. paulie
I'm not sure there is much "natural demand" for attending WBB games even on the U of L campus but I like the mid-court shot promo idea with the winner getting some tuition assistance. They could have a tourney of sorts with winners from shorter distances getting lesser amounts during each home game and work it up to some sort of "playoff" towards the end of the season where maybe the winner would get a full year of tuition or something else of higher value. If the students can come to games really cheap or free and have a potential upside with the halftime contest that could work. The only problem is you might lose them after halftime when they want to study or hit the bars.
ReplyDeleteIt has been done at other schools and I don't know if it has improved their attendance but you see the winners' shots periodically on Sports Center.
Some other ideas might be fan three point shooting contests or HORSE contests. Crazier things have worked over the years.
I'm making the 80 mile trip from Sacramento to Berkeley Ca to see our hoopers battle Cal on the 21st!
ReplyDeleteI would like to see our spirit squads work on some additional "chants" for the crowd. Love our C*A*R*D*S but as witnessed at one of the later volleyball games the "Let's Go Duke" was extremely loud. UofL fans countered with "Let's Go Cards" but surely we can either do that sooner, louder or better. I know this is not really the theme of Paulie's posting today but we do our Cards cheer then get quiet. When Yum says "get loud" how about some coordination?
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