NCAA News Archive - 2005

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Men's basketball attendance maintains 30 million pace

Jun 20, 2005 12:00:19 PM

By Gary K. Johnson
The NCAA News

For the first time in four years, men's basketball attendance did not set a record, but the numbers were close. A total of 30,568,645 college basketball fans passed through the turnstiles in 2004-05, including 25,366,317 spectators in Division I. Both marks were less than 200,000 people short of the previous year's record setting numbers. It marked the third straight year that overall attendance topped the 30 million mark.

The 2003-04 totals were boosted by larger venues at the Division I basketball championship tournament sites and a regular-season single-game crowd of 78,129 in Detroit in December 2003 for a contest between Michigan State and Kentucky. The crowd at Ford Field shattered the existing attendance mark for one game.

Using slightly smaller venues (85,477 fewer available seats), the 2005 tournament saw 689,317 fans fill non-dome arenas up to 98.8 percent capacity. Including the domes used during the tournament in Indianapolis, Syracuse and St. Louis, stadium capacity reached 96.4 percent for all tournament games combined. The total tournament attendance for the 2005 Division I Men's Basketball Championship was 689,317. The record mark for the total tournament attendance is 720,685 set in 1999.

While overall attendance essentially kept pace with last season's record numbers, there was a change at the top of the individual attendance standings. Kentucky, which had been the nation's leader in attendance since 1996, was bested this season by Syracuse, which returned to the top spot after being there from 1985 through 1995. The Orange averaged 22,978 fans over 18 games this season in the Carrier Dome while the Kentucky Wildcats attracted 22,520 fans per game in 15 home contests.

There was no such change at the conference level. For the 29th straight season, the Big Ten Conference set the standard for conference attendance with 2,255,332 fans at league games during the 2005 season for a 12,530 per-game average. Eight Big Ten teams were among the nation's top 35 in attendance, including four in the top 11. The Big Ten set the conference record mark for average attendance in 1990 at 13,449 spectators per game and the cumulative mark of 2,342,022 in 2001.

The Atlantic Coast Conference, which claimed the attendance title in the first year of conference record-keeping for Division I men's basketball attendance in 1976, finished second nationally with an average of 11,097 fans per game. The ACC's total number of 1,997,443 fans set a record for the league.

Besides the Big Ten, two other conferences topped the two million mark in attendance. The Big East Conference boasted 2,100,088 fans and the Southeastern Conference totaled 2,089,995 spectators for its home games. The SEC averaged 10,663 fans a game while the Big East enjoyed an average of 10,396.

Those four conferences were the only ones to average more than 10,000 fans per game. The Big 12 Conference rounded out the top five with 9,761 fans a game.

Besides the Big Ten, ACC, Big East and SEC, five other leagues topped the one million mark in total attendance -- the Big 12, the Mountain West Conference, the Pacific-10 Conference, Conference USA and the Missouri Valley Conference.

Other than the ACC, conferences to set personal records for total attendance in 2004-05 were the Mountain West, Missouri Valley, Colonial Athletic Association, Mid-American Conference, West Coast Conference, America East Conference and Big South Conference. Only two leagues reached personal bests in fans per game -- the Pacific-10 at 8,465 and the West Coast with 2,804.

After Syracuse and Kentucky in team attendance, national-champion North Carolina finished third with an average of 20,522 fans a game. Louisville (18,746 fans per game) and Wisconsin (17,142) rounded out the top five.

Four teams topped the 300,000 mark in total home attendance. The leader was Syracuse at 413,605, followed by Kentucky (337,796), Louisville (318,688) and North Carolina (307,840). Maryland just missed the mark with 299,391 total fans.

The team that was seen by the most fans in person, including at home, road and neutral-site games, was Illinois with its 37-2 won-lost record. The Illini finished seventh in home attendance with 245,807 fans for 15 home games. Add to that its nine road games and 15 neutral-site games, including six NCAA tournament games all within driving distance of Champaign and three Big Ten tournament games in Chicago, and the Illini were seen by a total of 711,798 fans across the country. That's the most spectators to see one team play in a season since Kentucky in 1999 with 737,738 fans in 37 games. For Illinois, the six games of the NCAA tournament alone added 196,065 fans to its season-high total.

For all games combined, North Carolina finished second at 702,563 fans, with 202,478 of those coming during the NCAA tournament. The other Final Four teams took sixth (Louisville) and seventh (Michigan State). Kentucky, the 2004 NCAA champion, finished third at 698,287. The all-time high for all-games attendance was set by Syracuse in 1989 with 855,053 fans in 38 games that season.

Sixteen Division I teams saw an increase in attendance from the previous year of more than 1,000 fans per home game. Virginia Tech posted the top increase, attracting 9,405 spectators per game this past season, 3,063 more fans per game at the Cassell Coliseum than in 2004. It's the second straight year the Hokies have enjoyed a big attendance jump. They were sixth-best in 2004 with 2,131 additional fans per outing.

Washington attracted 2,110 more fans per game in 2005 than it did the previous season to finish second in biggest increase. Texas A&M was the only other school with a 2,000 or more increase at 2,047. The largest increase of all time was by the 1994 national champion Arkansas Razorbacks, who improved crowds 11,159 fans per game over the previous season.

Divisions II and III

Virginia State claimed its first Division II attendance crown with 48,597 fans over 14 games in 2005 (an average of 3,471 a game) to edge out Northern State, which had 3,408 fans per home contest. Although it is the first attendance title for Virginia State, the Trojans have come close in the past, including a second-place finish the previous season. Winston-Salem was the only other school to finish above 3,000 fans a game with 3,134.

In Division III, the top three finishers held their ground for the third straight year. Hope once again claimed the top spot for attendance with 2,462 spectators a game, Illinois Wesleyan was second with 2,376 and Calvin again finished third at 2,261 fans a game. It was the seventh title overall for Hope since the NCAA began tracking attendance for Divisions II and III in 1977.

The North Central Intercollegiate Athletic Conference was the top league in Division II for the 25th consecutive year with 229,745 spectators and a 2,252 average. The Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association moved closer to the top spot by more than 500 spectators a game as the league averaged 2,066 fans for every home contest. The Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association took third at 1,779. A total of seven Division II conferences averaged at least 1,000 fans per home game for the season.

The Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association topped Division III conferences with a 1,115 average per game to take its 14th consecutive attendance title. The state of Wisconsin was well-represented, with the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference finishing second and the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin third.

Coming in the July 4 issue of The NCAA News: 2004-05 women's basketball attendance results.

2004-05 Men's Basketball Attendance

	Total	Games or	2005		Change	Change
	Teams	Sessions	Attendance	Average	In Total	In Avg.
Home attendance, Division I	*326	*4,531	*23,084,594	5,095	31,648	-59
Division I tournament		*35	689,317	19,695	-27,582	-788
Other Division I neutral-site attendance		190	1,592,406	8,381	-186,217	-1,181

Division I totals *326 *4,756 25,366,317 5,334 -182,151 -109

Home attendance, Division II	^268	3,576	3,054,549	854	-53,079	-10
Home attendance, Division III	383	4,543	1,960,141	431	15,184	4
Reclassifying teams	6	66	56,818	861	--	--
Neutral-site attendance for Divisions II and III		175	111,672	638	--	--
Division II tournament neutral sites		14	11,711	837	--	--
Division III tournament neutral sites		4	7,437	1,859	--	--

National totals *983 *13,134 30,568,645 2,327 -191,865 -28

*Record high. The neutral-site attendance for Divisions II and III does not include any tournaments. The total attendance for the Division II tournament was 51,896 for a 1,442 average over 36 sessions. The total attendance for the Division III tournament was 64,289 for a 1,531 average over 42 sessions.

^Division II attendance figures do not include five NCAA Puerto Rican schools.

2004-05 Men's Attendance Team Leaders

Division I

	G	Attendance	Average
1. Syracuse	18	413,605	22,978
2. Kentucky	15	337,796	22,520
3. North Carolina	15	307,840	20,522
4. Louisville	17	318,688	18,746
5. Wisconsin	16	274,272	17,142
6. Maryland	18	299,391	16,632
7. Illinois	15	245,807	16,387
8. Kansas	16	260,800	16,300
9. Arkansas	16	252,608	15,788
10. Michigan St.	15	221,385	14,759
11. Indiana	16	235,245	14,702
12. Arizona	16	232,926	14,557
13. North Carolina St.	17	245,898	14,464
14. New Mexico	19	271,864	14,308
15. Connecticut	17	234,109	13,771
16. Ohio St.	17	233,169	13,715
17. Wake Forest	16	209,321	13,082
18. Dayton	16	201,114	12,569
19. Oklahoma St.	14	171,375	12,241
20. Tennessee	16	195,609	12,225
21. Marquette	21	251,274	11,965
22. Iowa	16	190,413	11,900
23. Fresno St.	16	189,368	11,835
24. Purdue	15	175,219	11,681
25. Oklahoma	15	173,566	11,571
26. UNLV	16	182,140	11,383
27. Cincinnati	18	203,489	11,304
28. Michigan	18	201,873	11,215
29. Creighton	16	179,335	11,208
30. Iowa St.	16	179,343	11,208
31. Texas	16	178,211	11,138
32. Alabama	15	164,373	10,958
33. Utah	16	172,425	10,776
34. Brigham Young	14	148,860	10,632
35. Minnesota	17	179,636	10,566
36. Pittsburgh	17	179,598	10,564
37. UTEP	18	187,298	10,405
38. Florida	16	165,600	10,350
39. Wichita St.	16	165,206	10,325
40. Texas Tech	15	154,710	10,314
41. Notre Dame	18	184,319	10,239
42. South Carolina	19	192,816	10,148
43. Vanderbilt	19	191,678	10,088
44. Xavier	18	178,259	9,903
45. Washington	15	148,201	9,880
46. Missouri	19	185,694	9,773
47. Providence	17	164,235	9,660
48. Memphis	23	220,500	9,586
49. LSU	15	141,139	9,409
50. Virginia Tech	16	150,490	9,405

All games (home, road, neutral)

1. Illinois 711,798

2. North Carolina 702,563

3. Kentucky 698,287

4. Syracuse 613,724

5. Wisconsin 581,105

6. Louisville 568,949

7. Michigan St. 506,632

8. North Carolina St. 494,668

9. Arizona 478,148

10. Maryland 475,751

11. Kansas 470,066

12. Oklahoma St. 433,068

13. Duke 430,188

14. Indiana 426,325

15. Connecticut 421,371

Division II

	G/S	Attendance	Avg.
1. Virginia St.	14	48,597	3,471
2. Northern St.	16	54,529	3,408
3. Winston-Salem	13	40,752	3,134
4. Central Mo. St.	14	41,506	2,964
5. St. Cloud St.	13	37,254	2,865
6. Washburn	17	48,175	2,833
7. North Dakota	15	41,870	2,791
8. Ky. Wesleyan	15	39,300	2,620
9. South Dakota	16	41,251	2,578
10. Augustana (S.D.)	15	37,572	2,504

Division III

	G/S	Attendance	Avg.
1. Hope	13	32,007	2,462
2. Ill. Wesleyan	13	30,900	2,376
3. Calvin	10	22,615	2,261
4. Wis.-Stevens Point		18	34,713	1,928
5. Otterbein	13	21,047	1,619
6. Wooster	16	25,023	1,563
7. Gust. Adolphus	15	21,715	1,447
8. Wis.-Stout	10	14,416	1,441
9. Capital	12	15,787	1,315
10. Maryville (Tenn.)	15	18,606	1,240

Largest average increase from previous year

		2005	2004	Change
	G	Avg.	Avg.	in Avg.
1. Virginia Tech	16	9,405	6,342	3,063
2. Washington	15	9,880	7,770	2,110
3. Texas A&M	20	8,147	6,100	2,047
4. Miami (Fla.)	17	4,626	2,796	1,830
5. Oregon St.	14	7,017	5,345	1,672
6. Oklahoma St.	14	12,241	10,625	1,616
7. Tennessee St.	12	4,893	3,286	1,607
8. West Virginia	14	8,510	7,071	1,439
9. Houston	14	4,245	2,884	1,361
10. Alabama	15	10,958	9,683	1,275

2004-05 Men's Conference Attendance