TTU Attendance for WSU

[Indy23]

Has TTU ever had really good attendance?

I'm not going to check the numbers, but I'm pretty sure they had a spike in the beginning of the Bob Knight era. That died off pretty quickly, though. The environment is one of the worst in the Big XII unless it's a rivalry game, and has been that way for as long as I've paid attention to them.

[ShockerInKC]

Bobby Knight's first season (2002) 13,743 (WSU 8,399)
2003: 9,962 (WSU 8,190)
2004 : 9,731 (WSU 10,090)
2005: 10,314 (Wichita 1 place ahead at 10,325)
2006: 7,279 (WSU 10,435)
2007: 10,010 (WSU 10,478)

http://www.ncaa.org/wps/ncaa?ContentID=1093

Capacity: 15,098

[CharlieHog]

Football does matter, in a couple of big ways.

First, a fan only has so much money to spend on athletics. Football is the #1 priority to most fans at most schools. There are very few "basketball" schools or very few fans at football schools who care more about basketball.

Second, the media domination of football prevents basketball from building excitement. WSU's athletic department can promote basketball from the summer on.

At Arkansas we had a bad year in football but there is still more football talk than basketball. Coaching changes at other schools, assistant coaching changes at our school, our recruits, recruits at other schools who have made coaching changes that we might go after, who might transfer, etc.

I think the average "football school" fan's attitude about basketball is that it doesn't start until January. Especially at places with little or no historical or recent success.

[Ksedg]

Sure football matter - but don't Texas and OU still draw well? and what about the students? Unless things have really changed - student tickets are about the best entertainment value you can find. When I was an undergrad - at that school all of you love to hate - our student ticket package was $125 - that included tickets to all home football and basketball games. I guess we kind of have that problem at WSU as well - they basically give away the tickets - and yet - the students still don't fill up their section very often.

I told my husband last night I thought it was pathetic how few people they had at the game!

[CharlieHog]

Sure football matter - but don't Texas and OU still draw well? and what about the students? Unless things have really changed - student tickets are about the best entertainment value you can find. When I was an undergrad - at that school all of you love to hate - our student ticket package was $125 - that included tickets to all home football and basketball games. I guess we kind of have that problem at WSU as well - they basically give away the tickets - and yet - the students still don't fill up their section very often.

I told my husband last night I thought it was pathetic how few people they had at the game!

Texas averaged 12,969 last year, and they have had plenty of recent success. Oklahoma drew 10,023 per game.

[Veritas]

It's amazing to me how many schools ride the coat-tails of the BCS "power conferences" (Baylor, K-State to name a few). I can understand how football MIGHT impact basketball attendance, but more successful schools don't use that as an execuse. Ohio State as an example draws pretty well in all sports as do a number of Big XII schools. The attendance at TTU for the WSU game looked pathetic on TV. No wonder the Shox came out flat in the first half. They probably thought it was a practice. In contrast, it's a little different for a team coming into Koch to play. The crowd and noise gets their attention immediately.

I was expecting more of a crowd for the TTU game.

[CharlieHog]

It's amazing to me how many schools ride the coat-tails of the BCS "power conferences" (Baylor, K-State to name a few). I can understand how football MIGHT impact basketball attendance, but more successful schools don't use that as an execuse. Ohio State as an example draws pretty well in all sports as do a number of Big XII schools. The attendance at TTU for the WSU game looked pathetic on TV. No wonder the Shox came out flat in the first half. They probably thought it was a practice. In contrast, it's a little different for a team coming into Koch to play. The crowd and noise gets their attention immediately.

I was expecting more of a crowd for the TTU game.

Ohio State has a huge number of students and alumni and has plenty of large cities within easy driving distance. Columbus itself is seven times the size of Lubbock. And Ohio State has had a lot more recent success than Texas Tech.

[CharlieHog]

Oh and "successful" programs don't need any excuses because success makes fans. Winning=fans. Pretty simple.

[Veritas]

Charlie, it's hard to justify TTUs poor attendance. They have an enrollment of about 28k and Lubbock is around 210k. It's a much larger city than Fayettville although the metro population in Fayettville is probably larger.
You're right, Ohio State is probably not a good example as Columbus is around 1.2m. However, one still sees schools in small towns such as Stillwater which is around 30k do much better in supporting their athletics.
A lot of the BCS schools are simply a paper tiger, or paper wildcat, or paper bear, etc... Riding the coat-tails of the BCS "power conferences".
You're right in that winning = fan support. It's also an argument that fan support = success & winning. Which comes first; the chicken or the egg?

[ShockerFever]

Why does TTech have such a large and expansive basketball arena if nobody ever fills it up? Even halfway?

[Indy23]

Just wait until next year--then they'll see what a REAL crowd is like. I have a hunch things will go quite differently for us at the Chuck.

It is a big deal for a BCS school to show up here, no big deal for a MVC bottom feeder to go to Lubbock.

Don't sell yourselves short. North Carolina could have shown up and nobody would have been there. Now if Texas or KU shows up, then the place gets full. It's a football school in the heart of football country. Whatayagonnado?

What's really strange is to see a place like UCLA struggle to sell basketball tickets. Their program is great and their football team blows.

[Indy23]

Why does TTech have such a large and expansive basketball arena if nobody ever fills it up? Even halfway?

It's in Texas, that's why. Everythin's bigg'r in Texas! Except the attendance.

Seriously, they do fill it when Texas and KU come to town. I also think the city of Lubbock uses it for events, too, although I could be wrong.

[SubGod22]

Why does TTech have such a large and expansive basketball arena if nobody ever fills it up? Even halfway?

It's in Texas, that's why. Everythin's bigg'r in Texas! Except the attendance.

Seriously, they do fill it when Texas and KU come to town. I also think the city of Lubbock uses it for events, too, although I could be wrong.

That's because Texas and KU fans fill it up

[C0|dB|00ded]

Why does TTech have such a large and expansive basketball arena if nobody ever fills it up? Even halfway?

It's in Texas, that's why. Everythin's bigg'r in Texas! Except the attendance.

Seriously, they do fill it when Texas and KU come to town. I also think the city of Lubbock uses it for events, too, although I could be wrong.

Why in the world would it fill up if KU came to town but be empty for UNC? Does TT have a penchant for watching borderlined top-25 teams? I'm fairly certain UNC would draw better than K-who.. lololol.

P.S.

UNC would beat K-who by 45 if they played right now... LOL.


T


...8)

[Indy23]

Charlie, it's hard to justify TTUs poor attendance. They have an enrollment of about 28k and Lubbock is around 210k. It's a much larger city than Fayettville although the metro population in Fayettville is probably larger.
You're right, Ohio State is probably not a good example as Columbus is around 1.2m. However, one still sees schools in small towns such as Stillwater which is around 30k do much better in supporting their athletics.
A lot of the BCS schools are simply a paper tiger, or paper wildcat, or paper bear, etc... Riding the coat-tails of the BCS "power conferences".
You're right in that winning = fan support. It's also an argument that fan support = success & winning. Which comes first; the chicken or the egg?

TTU is a football school in the heart of football country without a speck of basketball tradition. It's not a surprise that they don't draw squat to most of their basketball games.

It just comes down to winning tradition (that is, consistent success). If your school can manage to do this in one sport, you're doing very well and historically it was probably at the detriment of the other sports in the athletic department. If you're doing it in multiple major sports, you have a big school and there probably isn't much else to do in your area other than watch sports.