Darn. Looks like the UT women have dropped to fourth in the MAC.

Dayton has no college or pro hockey, no professional basketball, no D-1 college or pro football. College hoops has no competition. They get top media coverage in the Dayton papers and on the Dayton TV stations.

Bowling Green men's basketball has been a mess for many years. (Last NCAA tournament appearance: 1968.) Plus, they are competing with a nationally-ranked hockey program. They deserve better support than they are getting at this point -- this is quite a Cinderella story unfolding in Bowling Green -- but those are the challenges.

NIU hasn't had a good BB team in along time and a couple straight years of 5 wins didn't help. The better offense and Buffalo win should help though we have a long way to go in attendance.

a generation ago niu had some pretty good teams but still some of the worst attendance in the league. nevertheless, they had a core group of 2000 mostly older alumni who showed up. those folks died off or didn't renew when the now mostly crappy teams moved into the new arena. the real NIU attendance question is football. That is more interesting.

(01-25-2019 04:12 PM)DICK Wrote:  Dayton has no college or pro hockey, no professional basketball, no D-1 college or pro football. College hoops has no competition. They get top media coverage in the Dayton papers and on the Dayton TV stations.

Reminds me of N. Dakota State in FB. "Only game in town..."

I live in the Washington, D.C. area and there is SO much going on can't keep track of it.

just think of the pro teams and all of the MBB teams like Maryland, Georgetown, George Washington, American, Howard, George Mason, etc. not counting institutions like Navy, UMBC, etc. which are nearby and of course, UVa and Va Tech for the local alums.

(01-26-2019 04:11 AM)pono Wrote:  a generation ago niu had some pretty good teams but still some of the worst attendance in the league. nevertheless, they had a core group of 2000 mostly older alumni who showed up. those folks died off or didn't renew when the now mostly crappy teams moved into the new arena. the real NIU attendance question is football. That is more interesting.

Football we already know 99.999 percent of that is from the ESPN deal. People simply cannot attend games, so they don't buy season tickets, and thus do not even attend Saturday games.

The article was based on one bad weather Tuesday night in January. January attendance is always weaker. The bigger crowds occur as more students get into it, and the rivalries and the conference races heat up. The current averages will rise. With the crowd last night of 5133, KSU’s avg. for MAC games went from 2044 to 2816. By the time the season ends, I would guess that final MAC attendance numbers will be about what they usually are. Then somebody will need to explain to me how the ESPN deal is hurting MAC attendance.

Average attendance for MAC MBB games:

2011–2970
2012–3010
2013–3064
2014–3019
2015–3276
2016–3206
2017–3139
2018–3036

(01-26-2019 12:57 PM)MaddDawgz02 Wrote:  

(01-26-2019 04:11 AM)pono Wrote:  a generation ago niu had some pretty good teams but still some of the worst attendance in the league. nevertheless, they had a core group of 2000 mostly older alumni who showed up. those folks died off or didn't renew when the now mostly crappy teams moved into the new arena. the real NIU attendance question is football. That is more interesting.

Football we already know 99.999 percent of that is from the ESPN deal.

lmao

USed to be a Wednesday Saturday league

Now is a Tuesday Friday/Saturday league for TV. Not sure what the attendance of Friday vs Saturday games are. I forget to watch on Fridays

Below are the updated averages after Saturdays games. The team that saw the biggest jump in their season average was Kent who bumped their average +238 fans per game. They were also the team who hosted the Friday game. I feel it's over exaggerated the impact Friday games have on the season whole attendance. Typically there are only 1, maybe 2, Friday games per week and those games are some of the most attractive of the entire season so fans will still attend even if it's a minor inconvenience. Kent just had their season high attendance total this past Friday. I'd expect Bowling Green to set their season high attendance total next Friday when they host Buffalo. Akron will most likely sell out the JAR the Friday after that when they host Kent.

1 Ohio........................5,185
2 Buffalo.....................4,681
3 Toledo.....................4,474
4 Ball State.................3,205
5 Akron......................2,400
6 Kent State...............2,282
7 Central Michigan.......2,058
8 Western Michigan.....1,867
9 Eastern Michigan......1,703
10 Bowling Green..........1,561
11 Miami......................1,420
12 Northern Illinois........921

This weekend was a good one for MAC attendance. people are turning out to watch UB most nights.

(01-25-2019 04:12 PM)DICK Wrote:  Dayton has no college or pro hockey, no professional basketball, no D-1 college or pro football. College hoops has no competition. They get top media coverage in the Dayton papers and on the Dayton TV stations.

All of this and then a tradition of competing in multibid basketball conferences.

Power opponents in non conference.

Helps to drive perception.

That whole Indiana, Cincinnati/Dayton, and Kentucky area is a college basketball hotbed. It makes it surprising that Miami doesn't draw better, but I'm guessing that has to do with the fact hockey splits their fan support and resources. It also surprises me there isn't an NBA team in Louisville

I think it mostly has to do with the fact that Oxford is a pain in the ass to get to from just about everywhere. UD has been packing them in since the 50's, without pause.