Average Attendance vs percent of Arena Capacity

[jessej]

www.reddit.com/r/CollegeBasketball/comments/chtw6h/average_attendance_vs_percent_of_arena_capacity/

vcu 100%
Dayton 96%
St Joes 87%
Richmond 79%
Rhode Island 76%
St Bon 75%
Davidson 74%
St. Louis 64%
Fordham 58%
Dukes 56%
GWU 55%
LaSalle 52%

GMU 44%

UMass 30%

 

[jessej]

Notes:

• Arena Capacities are all from Kenpom
  
  
• Attendance is from the NCAA
  
  
• Conferences included are the top 11 in Kenpom from 2019: A10, ACC, AAC, B10, B12, BE, MAC, MWC, P12, SEC, WCC (sorry if your team didn't make it, it was already cluttered with these)
  
  
• Houston, St. John's, UConn, and Villanova all have alternate home arenas so I averaged the capacity based off games played (this really helped St. John's).
  
  
• I didn't look at anyone else's schedule to see if they had any weird neutral sites that counted as home games so don't ask.
  
  
• Percentage is calculated simply from the reported average attendance / capacity
  

 

[Falco]

Time for a new stadium! 5k max capacity.

 

[GMUgemini]

Time for a new stadium! 5k max capacity.

We should just play our low interest games in the RAC. If you build a 5k arena you are still going to need EBA anyway for convocation and all the other events it hosts, otherwise you are going to lose tons of revenue as those concerts and events go elsewhere in the region.

Also, The last time we were good, 2011, we averaged 5,800 fans but we only averaged that amount because we started selling out at the end of the season when the public finally realized the team was good (we even had almost 9,000 fans show up against a bad Northeastern team that year). Why limit our capacity when we know we can get 9,000+ fans into the arena if we put a good product in the floor?

 

[Patriot8]

One thing to note: The NCAA attendance number is the paid attendance number reported by the school, not the actual in-arena number, which in almost every case is much lower.

 

[Mason32]

Kenpom still says our capacity is 10,000 which is no longer true. Also tarps!

 

[Masonfan3]

We should just play our low interest games in the RAC. If you build a 5k arena you are still going to need EBA anyway for convocation and all the other events it hosts, otherwise you are going to lose tons of revenue as those concerts and events go elsewhere in the region.

Also, The last time we were good, 2011, we averaged 5,800 fans but we only averaged that amount because we started selling out at the end of the season when the public finally realized the team was good (we even had almost 9,000 fans show up against a bad Northeastern team that year). Why limit our capacity when we know we can get 9,000+ fans into the arena if we put a good product in the floor?

For me personally I would rather have 6k fans who are loud and passionate than have a larger arena where a good percentage are sitting on their hands and not cheering. I had the luxury of sitting next to Liz Larranaga at a few games that year (2011), one of which was the Hofstra game when they had Charles Jenkins, had just beat us a few weeks prior, and we were battling in the standings. It was a big game and one that the players and coaching staff thought would draw a big crowd. I cannot tell you how pissed she was that the arena was half full and her displeasure with the lack of support. She mentioned on quite a few occasions that night that "we never know how many people will show up" and "how disappointing it is that you have two of the better teams in the CAA and a future NBA player on the court and people still don't show up."

I say all that because it is rare that we get more than 6k fans and our fan base (students included) is pretty bad/ inconsistent even when we are good. That night in 2011 we probably had around 5,500 fans at the game and it would have looked a lot better/our home court advantage would have been better if our arena was smaller. We won the game so maybe it doesn't matter...

 

[Pikapppatri8]

If you look at most modern arenas for college basketball they are around 5500-6000. I think that is the sweet spot we should shoot for in a new Pat Dome. The only other arena like ours is Cassell at VT which seats 10,500 and is mostly empty on games.

 

[The Great PATSby]

We did have the 6th highest average attendance though.

Dayton 12,957
vcu 7,637
St Louis 6,890
Rhode Island 5,797
Richmond 5,730
George Mason 4,335
St. Bon 4,274
Davidson 3,800
St. Joes 3,692
UMASS 2,792
GW 2,382
Duquesne 2,308
La Salle 2,113
Fordham 1,864

 

[GMUgemini]

For me personally I would rather have 6k fans who are loud and passionate than have a larger arena where a good percentage are sitting on their hands and not cheering. I had the luxury of sitting next to Liz Larranaga at a few games that year (2011), one of which was the Hofstra game when they had Charles Jenkins, had just beat us a few weeks prior, and we were battling in the standings. It was a big game and one that the players and coaching staff thought would draw a big crowd. I cannot tell you how pissed she was that the arena was half full and her displeasure with the lack of support. She mentioned on quite a few occasions that night that "we never know how many people will show up" and "how disappointing it is that you have two of the better teams in the CAA and a future NBA player on the court and people still don't show up."

I say all that because it is rare that we get more than 6k fans and our fan base (students included) is pretty bad/ inconsistent even when we are good. That night in 2011 we probably had around 5,500 fans at the game and it would have looked a lot better/our home court advantage would have been better if our arena was smaller. We won the game so maybe it doesn't matter...

Yeah, but it's Hofstra...how many casual Fairfax fans not connected to the university even knew Charles Jenkins was even on Hofstra? Without a marketing machine at Mason that hypes these games, even in good years, you aren't going to draw in the Fairfax community unless something special is going on.

We sold out the very next game, homecoming, against ODU.

Last season, weird oddity, we had over twice the attendance for the Duquesne game (7,300) than we did for Richmond (3,500). I know Richmond was pretty bad last season, but still, you'd expect two Virginia teams to draw better when they are so close together.

 

[Masonfan3]

Yeah, but it's Hofstra...how many casual Fairfax fans not connected to the university even knew Charles Jenkins was even on Hofstra? Without a marketing machine at Mason that hypes these games, even in good years, you aren't going to draw in the Fairfax community unless something special is going on.

We sold out the very next game, homecoming, against ODU.

Last season, weird oddity, we had over twice the attendance for the Duquesne game (7,300) than we did for Richmond (3,500). I know Richmond was pretty bad last season, but still, you'd expect two Virginia teams to draw better when they are so close together.

That is my point, the casual Fairfax fan is pretty much our fan base at 90% of the games. We sold out the ODU game because it was Homecoming, which we sell out most years. The Duquesne game was also Homecoming when alumni come back and people are allowed to drink/tailgate.

 

[Herndon]

Yeah, a smaller arena with the same amount of fans would be preferable, but I get it. The Patriot Center lets them do concerts and stuff and make money.

 

[mason89]

Since the basketball capacity is actually 7,860 and last year's avg attendance was 4,335, then our fill rate is a little over 55%.

 

[sleeperpick]

we have a very apathetic fanbase and are the 10th best show in the area on most weeknights much less weekends... heck the Center for the Arts can get their sellout around 1500 some nights and that is for a shitty Shakespeare play.

These numbers are off as stated but it still proves many points about our fanbase and location. Underachieving makes some of the most loyal fans consider not renewing season tix or attending games when something else might be going on that night that is more entertaining.

 

[sleeperpick]

And we can barely afford to renovate an existing building to dedicate a basketball practice facility... all these hopes and dreams of building a 5k capacity stadium should go away like the thoughts of having a D1 football team

 

[FreeGunston12]

Yeah, but it's Hofstra...how many casual Fairfax fans not connected to the university even knew Charles Jenkins was even on Hofstra? Without a marketing machine at Mason that hypes these games, even in good years, you aren't going to draw in the Fairfax community unless something special is going on.

We sold out the very next game, homecoming, against ODU.

Last season, weird oddity, we had over twice the attendance for the Duquesne game (7,300) than we did for Richmond (3,500). I know Richmond was pretty bad last season, but still, you'd expect two Virginia teams to draw better when they are so close together.

That’s the thing, isn’t it? The “Mason community” (students, alumni, etc) should be filling the arena. We shouldn’t have to rely on the casual Fairfax community basketball fan. Mason does a terrible job of serving it’s own.

 

[sleeperpick]

We should just play our low interest games in the RAC.

I am not trying to be a dink or mean.... But this is a horrible idea... Green Coat society members and Patriot Club members would never allow this...

 

[FreeGunston12]

Two ideas:
1- have a designated tailgate area for every game. Provide space heaters or something for colder games. Who cares if you have to pay a couple extra security guards or police to oversee. If you build it, they will come. They’ll bring their own cornhole sets, drinks, other lawn games of choice, etc. Just provide the space.

2- put a TV on damn near every hall in every building and broadcast Mason news, hype videos, game recaps, advertising 24/7. Have a clock counting down to the next game.

 

[GMUgemini]

I am not trying to be a dink or mean.... But this is a horrible idea... Green Coat society members and Patriot Club members would never allow this...

Georgetown has and does do this sometimes. I remember ODU playing Georgetown at McDonough before (ODU won that game). I mean, seriously, we're talking about 1 or 2 games a year at most -- like, say, Southern and Morgan State from last year as examples of games that were horribly attended and no one cared. We played our CBI game in the RAC against Santa Clara (I know it was because the Patriot Center wasn't available), but everyone seemed to think the intimate atmosphere was great and thought Mason should do it again. Why not utilize that to your advantage against an opponent you know no one is going to care about (this is if you care about the atmosphere at games; if you don't, it doesn't really matter if you have 2,500 fans in a 10,000 seat arena).

I also think some of it is we lose too many home games (need to defend the home court better), some of it is still a lack of history with our conference mates (epic battles that draw interest from fans -- again, defend our home court against the better teams in the conference).

We need to build up our history with our closer conference mates: GW, Richmond, St. Joes, La Salle, and start beating vcu at home again. That should help.

Also agree Mason has never done a good job marketing the team on campus or in the community (Fairfax, Prince William, and Loudoun County). They need to really go for a maximalist strategy. Pay for some damn air time, too, and get Paulsen a coach's show -- anything to try to grab some mindshare. Winning will cure a lot, but marketing this team consistently needs to be a priority.

 

[sleeperpick]

Georgetown has and does do this sometimes. I remember ODU playing Georgetown at McDonough before (ODU won that game). I mean, seriously, we're talking about 1 or 2 games a year at most -- like, say, Southern and Morgan State from last year as examples of games that were horribly attended and no one cared. We played our CBI game in the RAC against Santa Clara (I know it was because the Patriot Center wasn't available), but everyone seemed to think the intimate atmosphere was great and thought Mason should do it again. Why not utilize that to your advantage against an opponent you know no one is going to care about (this is if you care about the atmosphere at games; if you don't, it doesn't really matter if you have 2,500 fans in a 10,000 seat arena).

isn't the McDonough center over 1000 more in capacity than the RAC? I am seeing 2500 for McDonough and 1550 for RAC.. and yes the 800 people that showed up for the Santa Clara game probably liked it but I wonder how many of the people who actually donate showed up... I didn't see many of the 100 75 or older Green Coat members there... Half of them only care about the delicious Brion's Grille buffet before the game... And while that may suck we definitely don't want them to stop paying their 10k per year or this program could turn into Fordham (which both of us don't want). Southern and Morgan St may have been empty but we have more season tix holders than the capacity of the RAC I would imagine. Who do you tell they can't come to the games if they already paid for it?