The NCAA News - News and Features

The NCAA News -- June 21, 1999

Going Up ...

Women's basketball attendance soars past eight-million mark for first time

BY RICHARD M. CAMPBELL
STAFF WRITER

The NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship hit all-time highs in both total attendance and average per game in 1999 to help push overall NCAA women's attendance past the eight-million mark for the first time in history. It also was the 15th consecutive yearly increase for women's basketball attendance.

The tournament attracted more than 300,000 total fans in 1999, due in a large part to bigger venues and attractive regional matchups. That figure also translated to a 7,159 average per game, making the women's tournament games a tougher ticket than in previous years.

With this boost from the tournament and the addition of four new teams to Division I, national attendance rose more than 600,000 as 8,010,227 spectators attended games during the 1998-99 season. Of that figure, 5,840,934 attended Division I games, the second straight season that Division I has eclipsed the five-million plateau.

The average of 1,475 spectators per game, including the tournament and neutral-site games in Division I, also was a record.

For all three divisions, a total of 29 new NCAA schools helped boost attendance past the eight-million mark. Overall attendance in the three divisions has increased every year since 1984. The NCAA began tabulating women's basketball attendance in 1982, the first year the NCAA offered championships in women's basketball.

Overall, the 940 teams in all divisions averaged 715 fans per outing, another record, while total attendance in 1999 was up 622,892 over last season. The 304 Division I teams averaged a record 1,427 per game in home attendance, while total attendance was up 459,559 from last year.

ALL-TIME
NCAA WOMEN'S
BASKETBALL ATTENDANCE

Big Ten's seventh

For the seventh consecutive year, the Big Ten Conference led Division I in per-game attendance. And for the second straight season, the Big Ten set a national record for both total attendance (656,873) and per-game average (4,530).

The Big 12 Conference moved into second place in per-game attendance at 3,737 to nudge the Southeastern Conference to third (3,393). In all, six conferences averaged more than 2,000 spectators per game and an additional four leagues averaged more than 1,000.

Seventeen conferences set new league marks in total attendance and another 12 eclipsed their best per-game averages.

The Pacific-10 Conference (2,246), The Big East Conference (2,223) and the Atlantic Coast Conference (2,065) were the only other leagues over 2,000 in per-game attendance, but 10 of the top 11 conferences posted total-attendance all-time highs.

Lady Vols tops again

For the third straight year, Tennessee led the nation in home attendance and set a record for per-game average, also for the third year in a row. The Lady Volunteers totaled 231,915 fans and averaged a record 16,565 spectators in Thompson-Boling Arena in 14 home games.

For the third year in a row, Connecticut was second with 162,939 total spectators and a 10,863 average. Purdue was third in 1998-99 with 125,857 for a 9,681 per-game mark. Tennessee also topped all 304 Division I teams in all-games attendance (counting home, road and neutral sites), attracting 413,580 total spectators.

There were 13 Division I teams that saw an increase in attendance from the previous year of more than 1,000 fans per game. Virginia Tech topped the list, upping its per-game average by 3,946 per game followed by Ohio State (3,872), Illinois (2,815), Colorado State (2,483) and New Mexico (2,460).

Divisions II and III

North Dakota State made it eight consecutive national attendance titles in Division II while Wisconsin-Eau Claire won its second crown in the 1990s in Division III.

North Dakota State averaged 2,940 spectators per game to outdistance second-place Emporia State's 1,944. North Dakota was third at 1,885, followed by South Dakota State at 1,753 and Augustana (South Dakota) at 1,667.

Wisconsin-Eau Claire captured the Division III title with a 954 average, the first time it has led the Division since 1995. In second was Scranton at 813, followed by New York University at 761 and Hendrix and St. Thomas (Minnesota), both at 700.

Among Division II leagues, the North Central Conference, with four of the top five teams, captured the top attendance honor for the ninth straight year. The North Central averaged 1,204 fans to top the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association's 945. The rest of the top five were the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference at 578, the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association at 536, and the Lone Star Conference and the South Atlantic Conference, both at 479.

1998-99 Women's Basketball Attendance

(NCAA teams only; home attendance includes double-headers
with men in which separate attendance was taken by half time of the women's game)

	Total	Game or	1998-99 Net	Avg. PG	Change@	Change@
	Teams	Sess.	Attendance	or Sess.	In Total	in Avg.
Home Attendance, Division I	*304	*3,794	*5,415,616	*1,427	Up	459,559
Division I Tournament	--	42	*300,693	*7,159	Up	15,265
Other Division I Neutral Sites	--	125	124,625	997	Dn	15,932
DIVISION I TOTALS	*304	*3,961	*5,840,934	*1,475	Up	458,892
Home Attendance, Division II	*261	*3,011	*1,244,787	*413	Up	99,351
Home Attendance, Division III	*375	*4,030	*794,424	*197	Up	58,637
Neutral-Site Attendance,
Divisions II and III	--	131	49,232	376	Up	2,113
Division II Tournament	--	28	39,842	1,423	Up	1,530
Division III Tournament	--	44	41,008	932	Up	2,369
NATIONAL TOTALS
FOR 1998-99	*940	*11,205	*8,010,227	*715	Up	622,892

*Record. Net attendance includes some double-headers with men if attendance is counted by half time of the women's game.
@ The 1997-98 figures used for comparisons reflect 1998-99 changes in divisional lineups to provide parallel comparisons (i.e., 1998-99 lineups vs. same teams in 1997-98, whether members or not).
Note that neutral-site attendance for Divisions II and III does not include any tournaments.

1998-99 Women's Conferences

Division I

	Total	Games or	1999		Change	Change
Conference	Teams	Sessions	Attendance	Average	in Total	in Avg.
Big Ten	11	145	+656,873	+4,530	Up	52,517
Big 12	12	167	*624,096	*3,737	Up	79,015
Southeastern	12	169	*573,365	3,393	Up	21,940
Pacific-10	10	143	*321,231	2,246	Up	39,758
Big East	13	175	*389,106	*2,223	Up	11,827
Atlantic Coast	9	132	*272,621	*2,065	Up	24,615
Missouri Valley	10	126	248,647	1,973	Dn	4,859
Atlantic 10	12	152	*184,487	*1,214	Up	43,914
Colonial	9	114	*133,038	*1,167	Up	2,579
Ohio Valley	10	121	*132,033	*1,091	Up	36,948
Conference USA	12	164	*161,183	*983	Up	46,399
America East	10	117	107,153	916	Dn	22,767
Big West	11	139	*117,422	*845	Up	21,377
Big Sky#	9	117	92,578	791	Dn	17,384
Mid-American#	13	147	*113,853	775	Dn	2,580
Mid-Eastern	11	121	*93,387	*772	Up	11,070
Patriot	7	86	*52,878	615	Up	4,982
Midwestern	8	89	53,379	600	Up	7,320
Mid-Continent#	8	86	42,697	496	Dn	14,793
Ivy	8	88	*42,897	*487	Up	3,956
Metro Atlantic	10	119	*52,739	*443	Up	3,878
Southern#	10	120	*45,302	378	Up	3,740
Big South#	6	72	21,269	295	Dn	37,186
Northeast#	11	125	34,700	278	Up	792
Independents#	2	17	6,888	405	Dn	612

*Record high for that conference. +All-time national high. #Different lineups in 1998.
NOTE: Entire season total attendance includes the conference tournaments.

Division II

	Total	Games or	1999		Change	Change
Conference	Teams	Sessions	Attendance	Average	in Total	in Avg.
North Central	10	131	157,703	1,204	Dn	9
Mid-America	11	122	115,236	945	Dn	16,038
Northern Sun	8	93	53,741	578	Up	18,998
Central Intercollegiate	12	117	62,747	536	Up	16,297
Lone Star	17	192	91,904	479	Up	2,957
South Atlantic	9	83	39,720	479	Dn	11,335
Southern Intercollegiate	11	110	52,021	473	Dn	1,645
Rocky Mountain	14	168	74,624	444	Dn	7,607
Great Lakes Valley	12	147	69,952	442	Up	1,837
Great Lakes Intercollegiate	14	166	70,217	423	Up	16,388
Pacific West	8	98	40,177	410	Dn	5,040
California	11	137	49,790	363	Up	4,970
Gulf South	16	179	64,180	359	Dn	4,786
Pennsylvania	14	169	55,082	326	Up	9,870
Northeast-10	10	125	39,274	314	Up	9,854

Division III

	Total	Games or	1999		Change	Change
Conference	Teams	Sessions	Attendance	Average	in Total	in Avg.
American Southwest	8	79	28,471	360	Dn	1,606
Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic	9	107	36,763	344	Up	3,815
University Athletic	9	117	39,038	334	Up	12,587
Michigan Intercollegiate	9	100	30,290	303	Up	3,619
Iowa Intercollegiate	11	122	34,422	282	Dn	8,511
Ohio Athletic	10	126	35,175	279	Dn	2,855
Middle Atlantic	16	155	42,025	271	Dn	1,265
Midwest	10	100	25,308	253	Up	8,002
Southern Collegiate	10	108	26,634	247	Up	3,203
Capital	8	97	23,447	242	Up	3,190
New England Small College	11	130	31,313	241	Up	3,511
North Coast Athletic	9	105	25,068	239	Up	4,647
Northwest	7	82	18,832	230	--	--
Old Dominion Athletic	11	122	26,685	219	Dn	2,614
Minnesota Intercollegiate	12	126	27,360	217	Dn	4,402

1998-99 Attendance team leaders

Division I

		G	Attend.	Avg.
1	Tennessee	14	231,915	16,565
2.	Connecticut	15	162,939	10,863
3.	Purdue	13	125,857	9,681
4.	Texas Tech	14	112,716	8,051
5.	Southwest Missouri State	15	114,192	7,613
6.	Ohio State	13	98,639	7,588
7.	Wisconsin	18	136,182	7,566
8.	New Mexico	18	134,452	7,470
9.	Illinois	11	81,473	7,407
10.	Texas	15	100,674	6,712
11.	Iowa State	15	91,727	6,115
12.	Penn State	11	62,224	5,657
13.	Virginia Tech	15	78,312	5,221
14.	Oregon	15	75,629	5,042
15.	Nebraska	14	70,005	5,000
16.	Colorado State	17	80,999	4,765
17.	Vanderbilt	14	65,046	4,646
18.	Louisiana Tech	13	58,715	4,517
19.	Old Dominion	14	61,036	4,360
20.	Arkansas	19	77,001	4,053
21.	Stanford	14	56,627	4,045
22.	Iowa	13	52,097	4,007
23.	Rutgers	19	68,084	3,583
24.	Drake	14	48,380	3,456
25.	Virginia	15	51,368	3,425
26.	Maine	12	39,481	3,290
27.	Colorado	16	51,274	3,205
28.	Georgia	14	43,998	3,143
29.	Baylor	16	49,885	3,118
30.	Kansas State	14	43,296	3,093
31.	Notre Dame	13	38,949	2,996
32.	UCLA	16	46,625	2,914
33.	Washington	15	40,326	2,688
34.	Duke	16	42,879	2,680
35.	North Carolina State	13	34,285	2,637
36.	Tennessee Tech	13	34,248	2,634
37.	Kansas	12	30,903	2,575
38.	Western Kentucky	12	29,164	2,430
39.	Arizona	14	34,012	2,429
40.	North Carolina	18	43,703	2,428
41.	Boston College	13	31,008	2,385
42.	Clemson	16	37,179	2,324
43.	Montana	15	32,554	2,170
44.	UC Santa Barbara	13	27,692	2,130
45.	Hawaii	19	40,399	2,126
46.	Alabama	10	20,396	2,040
47.	Florida	15	30,114	2,008
48.	Toledo	14	28,047	2,003
49.	Louisville	13	25,147	1,934
50.	Memphis	17	31,684	1,864
51.	Oklahoma State	12	22,223	1,852
52.	Kentucky	10	18,443	1,844
53.	Michigan State	14	25,755	1,840
54.	TCU	15	27,189	1,813
55.	Hampton	9	16,295	1,811
56.	Alcorn State	11	19,889	1,808
57.	Minnesota	11	19,845	1,804
58.	Stephen F. Austin	13	23,058	1,774
59.	Georgia Tech	15	24,853	1,657
60.	Arizona State	14	23,027	1,645
61.	Southeast Missouri State	14	22,946	1,639
62.	LSU	16	26,118	1,632
63.	Vermont	15	23,727	1,582
64.	Arkansas State	16	25,244	1,578
65.	Oklahoma	13	20,257	1,558
66.	Northeast Louisiana	3	4,625	1,542
67.	Richmond	14	20,858	1,490
68.	Mississippi Valley	12	17,859	1,488
69.	Boise State	13	19,299	1,485
70.	Auburn	15	22,234	1,482
71.	DePaul	14	20,486	1,463
71.	Marquette	12	17,555	1,463
73.	Southern University	13	18,751	1,442
74.	St. Joseph's	12	17,062	1,422
75.	Northwestern	12	16,752	1,396
76.	Illinois State	9	12,462	1,385
77.	Indiana	16	21,444	1,340
78.	Tennessee-Martin	15	20,077	1,338
79.	Middle Tennessee State	13	17,178	1,321
80.	Holy Cross	15	19,512	1,301
81.	Maryland	15	19,401	1,293
82.	Texas A&M	13	16,734	1,287
83.	Alabama State	15	19,187	1,279
84.	Michigan	13	16,605	1,277
85.	South Carolina	16	20,320	1,270
86.	Tulane	15	18,868	1,258
87.	Oregon State	14	17,536	1,253
88.	Grambling	11	13,586	1,235
89.	Wisconsin-Milwaukee	11	13,463	1,224
90.	Kent	11	13,421	1,220
91.	James Madison	11	13,300	1,209
92.	Tulsa	12	14,319	1,193
93.	St. Mary's (California)	15	17,709	1,181
94.	Indiana State	12	14,010	1,168
95.	George Washington	13	15,060	1,158
96.	Northern Iowa	13	15,009	1,155
97.	Dayton	14	15,778	1,127
98.	Providence	12	13,395	1,116
99.	Wichita State	14	15,523	1,109
100.	Missouri	13	14,402	1,108

All games (home, road, neutral)

1.	Tennessee	413,580
2.	Purdue	366,483
3.	Connecticut	253,795
4.	Texas Tech	198,947
5.	Wisconsin	186,179
6.	Ohio State	185,382
7.	Duke	176,682
8.	Iowa State	174,521
9.	New Mexico	157,138
10.	Southwest Missouri State	156,051
11.	Penn State	153,906
12.	Georgia	149,034
13.	Illinois	147,103
14.	Texas	145,870
15.	Oregon	130,912

Largest women's average attendance increase from previous year (Division I)

			1999	1998	Change
		G	Avg.	Avg.	in Avg.
1.	Virginia Tech	15	5,221	1,275	3,946
2.	Ohio State	13	7,588	3,716	3,872
3.	Illinois	11	7,407	4,592	2,815
4.	Colorado State	17	4,765	2,282	2,483
5.	New Mexico	18	7,470	5,010	2,460
6.	Iowa State	15	6,115	3,775	2,340
7.	Purdue	13	9,681	7,641	2,040
8.	Tennessee	14	16,565	14,969	1,596
9.	Nebraska	14	5,000	3,452	1,548
10.	Alcorn State	11	1,808	529	1,279

Division II

		G/S	Attendance	Avg.
1.	North Dakota State	16	47,043	2,940
2.	Emporia State	11	21,384	1,944
3.	North Dakota	5	9,427	1,885
4.	South Dakota State	13	22,794	1,753
5.	Augustana (South Dakota)	14	23,331	1,667
6.	Missouri Western State	14	20,523	1,466
7.	Northern State	13	17,000	1,308
8.	UC Davis	14	18,027	1,288
9.	Nebraska-Kearney	14	17,508	1,251
10.	Southern Indiana	15	18,000	1,200
11.	Pittsburg State	14	16,108	1,151
12.	Abilene Christian	15	17,025	1,135
13.	Washburn	13	14,375	1,106
14.	Mesa State	10	10,940	1,094
15.	St. Cloud State	14	15,128	1,081

Division III

		G/S	Attendance	Avg.
1.	Wisconsin-Eau Claire	13	12,400	954
2.	Scranton	12	9,750	813
3.	New York University	15	11,414	761
4.	Hendrix	10	7,000	700
4.	St. Thomas (Minnesota)	11	7,700	700
6.	Washington (Missouri)	12	7,590	633
7.	Defiance	14	8,819	630
8.	Fisk	12	6,800	567
9.	Mississippi College	16	8,795	550
10.	Williams	14	7,650	546
11.	College of New Jersey	6	3,169	528
12.	Beloit	9	4,743	527
13.	Hardin-Simmons	15	7,530	502
14.	Wisconsin-Oshkosh	14	7,019	501
15.	Bridgewater (Massachusetts)	4	2,000	500