NCAA released official men's basketball attendance numbers on Friday and the MAC was ranked 14th with an average attendance of 2,869, down 113 from the previous season. The national avg was 4,817 in '13-'14. Compared to '03-'04 the MAC is down from a conference average of 3,790.
13,534 (#1) Big Ten
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7,546 (#8) Pac-12
-GAP-
5,599 (#9) Missouri Valley
5,588 (#10) Atlantic 10
-GAP-
3,896 (#11) CUSA
3,880 (#12) West Coast
-GAP-
2,900 (#13) Horizon
2,869 (#14) MAC
2,594 (#15) Big West
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1,250 (#32) North East
I've notated the sizable gaps in the rankings to illustrate the different plateaus the MAC will have to reach to move up the rankings. At #14 the MAC is virtually even with #13, but moving up to #12 will require an increase of 1,011, or 35%.
Due to arena capacity I don't see the MAC ever breaking the top 10 but with a return to '03-'04 levels the MAC could compete with CUSA and WCC for the #11 and #12 spots.
'13-'14 MAC Attendance
6,124 Ohio
5,002 Toledo
4,817 Nat'l Avg.
3,609 Akron
3,486 Buffalo
3,066 Ball State
2,934 Kent State
2,869 MAC Avg.
2,675 Western Michigan
1,759 Bowling Green
1,694 Central Michigan
1,201 Miami
1,012 Northern Illinois
901 Eastern Michigan
h/t:
Athens Messenger
for reference, here's the capacity of each MAC arenaa per bbstate.com-
13,080 Ohio
11,500 Ball State
10,000 Northern Illinois
8,824 Eastern Michigan
7,529 MAC Avg Capacity
7,300 Toledo
6,400 Miami
6,327 Kent State
6,100 Buffalo
5,500 Akron
5,421 Western Michigan
5,200 Central Michigan
4,700 Bowling Green
If every MAC team averages 100% capacity it will not be possible to break into the top 8. The top 8 includes all of the P5, AAC and MWC from the G5, and the Big East. Last season MAC attendance averaged 38.1% to capacity. Here's the conference sorted by % to capacity-
68.5% Toledo
65.6% Akron
57.1% Buffalo
49.3% Western Michigan
46.8% Ohio
46.4% Kent State
38.1% MAC Avg.
37.4% Bowling Green
32.6% Central Michigan
26.7% Ball State
18.8% Miami
10.2% Eastern Michigan
10.1% Northern Illinois
to break into the top 12 the MAC will have to increase its avg % to capacity to 51.5%, and to break into the top 10 74.2%.
What would you consider to be a reasonable goal for increasing conference attendance over the next 3-5 years?
50% capacity should be the near-term goal. It's embarrassing that our arenas are not even half full on average.
Hopefully our NCAA appearance will result in a bump in attendance/interest next season. Our MAC championship was largely unexpected going into the season last year.
I expect NIU to gain in attendance to be about 1,500-2,000 next year.
(06-22-2014 07:04 PM)Michael James Wrote: [ -> ]I expect NIU to gain in attendance to be about 1,500-2,000 next year.
I think Miami will see similar gains as well. Our program is on the upswing, Millett is getting renovations, and we'll have the best non-conference home schedule in some time (we're hosting Dayton). After hockey underachieved last year, there's probably some fans out there willing to hitch their wagon to the other winter sport.
(06-22-2014 08:50 PM)Love and Honor Wrote: [ -> ] (06-22-2014 07:04 PM)Michael James Wrote: [ -> ]I expect NIU to gain in attendance to be about 1,500-2,000 next year.
I think Miami will see similar gains as well. Our program is on the upswing, Millett is getting renovations, and we'll have the best non-conference home schedule in some time (we're hosting Dayton). After hockey underachieved last year, there's probably some fans out there willing to hitch their wagon to the other winter sport.
in a large city and surrounding area how does MAC C WMU not draw better?
I don't know if I'd call Kalamazoo a "large city" - its population is not even in the Top 10 in Michigan. But city size is not the good determinant of local college sports attendance anyhow.
As far as the MACC, it's more telling what happens in the following year. We weren't expected to challenge the MAC championship last season, and our early season OOC results were so-so. We didn't catch fire until mid to late season.
The way to get attendance up is to have better teams. Sure, the teams who win will do better but be offset by the teams who do worse. The problem is that MAC basketball was not very good last season and fans don't want to see mediocre hoops. Being the best in the MAC was a pretty low standard in '13-'14.
But hope springs eternal for this season. We can all hope our teams are improved.
I know at my school there is absolutely no marketing done to get the students to go to the games, anyone have any insight on what your school does to entice the students to come (or alumni for that matter)?
I would expect Toledo attendance avg to increased by 800-1000 next season.
(06-23-2014 08:41 PM)Michael James Wrote: [ -> ]I know at my school there is absolutely no marketing done to get the students to go to the games, anyone have any insight on what your school does to entice the students to come (or alumni for that matter)?
It starts from the first day kids are on campus in Athens. I think the Ozone, the student cheering section, is the largest student organization on campus, and there's a culture that treats basketball as a fun and cool entertainment option. Performing well, of course, is very important, but the school also does nice job with promotions, giveaways of food and swag, and other efforts to fill the Convo. Alumni tend to have strong ties with the school, but luring people back to remote Athens takes work. The athletic department does a series of road shows around Ohio with the AD and the head football and basketball coaches every year. Prices are reasonable. The game experience is good and very "collegiate," with a lively band and fairly good facilities (though they both need work).
(06-22-2014 07:04 PM)Michael James Wrote: [ -> ]I expect NIU to gain in attendance to be about 1,500-2,000 next year.
NIU averaged 4000 or so when I went there. I assume as well we'll take a decent jump up now that we are competitive again.
NIU needs to reach out to the students. I was an RA last year in Grant and when I would ask people if they were going to the game they either did not know there was a game or they just assumed we were going to lose and did not want to waste their time.
the 3 CIT home games Ohio hosted dropped their season attendance average down by 436.