TarletonStateTexan
Water Engineer
Posts: 28
Joined: Dec 2019
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I Root For: Tarleton State
Location: Lone Star State
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RE: Winners and losers of 1/14/21 WAC Expansion
(01-17-2021 03:12 PM)Itinerant Texan Wrote: (01-17-2021 02:12 PM)NMSUPistolPete Wrote: (01-17-2021 01:09 PM)Todor Wrote: For reference, the average home attendance in D1 is about 4,600. Also for comparison, GCU and NMSU would be 5th and 6th in the Mountain West in attendance for the last year I saw totals.
3516 for the old WAC
2332 for SUU in BSC
1993 SLC schools
1869 Dixie-Tarleton in D2
A real east west divide.
3510 West
1760 East
The places I see potential for attendance increases- Possibly at Seattle when/if they play in Climate Pledge. Every program has games against certain teams that draw much higher than average attendance. With Seattle's small capacity, they don't have the opportunity to capitalize on those chances. Other promo nights with giveaways, free parking, t shirts etc also boost those nights a little but Seattle can't really try to draw big crowds as it stands. Even a few nights in Climate Pledge should help a lot.
I think Dixie, SUU and UVU are going to have a significant percent increases, particularly UVU. I think lots of Salt Lake kids would make a weekend at home trip for an away game, and lots of them are from SLC. And Dixie and SUU should have a significant boost in games against one another. Having 3 programs in state is going to raise all of their profiles locally and I expect big increases quickly.
The main reason for the increase will be the fact that Utahans LOVE basketball. Beyond the Y and the U, Weber pretty much always leads the BSC in attendance. Well over double the 2nd place BSC attendance school recently. A few years ago Weber State had the 12th highest attendance average among schools in the western United States. They also finished with a higher attendance average than seven Pac-12 schools, seven Mountain West schools and nine West Coast schools. I expect our Utah 3 to increase ever single year for the foreseeable future. Dixie was near the top of D2 attendance every year. Basketball is just a Utah thing so we're lucky to have them.
CBU should continue to grow their followers. They're still young and continued winning will boost them. NMSU is so far off their record crowd of over 14,800. That was the same year we beat national champion UNLV in a Big West classic. We've got a ways to go in attendance.
Actually NMSU highest attendance game was played against UNM (14,845) in the 1990-91 season; the year after NMSU upset eventual National Champions UNLV in the 1989-90 season. That 1990 game against UNLV didn't even make the Top 25 attendance mark in NMSU history. After the UNM game in December 1990, the Las Cruces Fire Marshall stepped in and would not allow NMSU to ever sell that many standing room only tickets ever again. So, NMSU will never break its top attendance mark unless the school expands the arena or builds a new one. When originally built the PAC had a capacity of 13,222. But the increase in number of fire exit doors reduced the capacity to 13,071. And, after the 2005 renovation of the Pan Am Center, the arena was downsized from 13,071 to 12,515 losing over 500 seats in capacity. Plus the concourse which had full view of the court (good for stand room tickets sale) has been relocated under the upper level stands removing the sight lines to the court. So, with the current configuration of the PAC, Aggie basketball will be hard pressed to crack the NMSU's Top 25 attendance threshold ever again.
Rank / Date / Opponent / Result / Attendance
1. 12/15/90... New Mexico... W... 72-64... 14,845
2. 11/29/90... UTEP... W... 70-55... 13,787
3. 1/23/86... UNLV... L... 88-79... 13,709
4. 12/3/83... UTEP... L... 60-59... 13,691
5. 2/1/79... Indiana State... L... 91-89... 13,684
6 12/2/78... UTEP... L... 54-52... 13,319
7. 1/24/70... UTEP... W... 90-77... 13,227
8. 1/29/69... New Mexico... L... 86-66... 13,222
9. 2/22/90... San Jose State... W... 101-70... 13,182
10. 12/10/86... UTEP... L... 61-58... 13,159
11. 2/21/83... Wichita State... L... 72-70... 13,127
12. 2/28/70... Utah State... W... 104-92... 13,111
13. 12/1/94... UTEP... W... 89-83... 13,085
14. 1/25/92... UNLV... L... 74-67... 13,071
15. 12/3/93... UTEP... W... 72-64... 13,071
16. 12/20/93... New Mexico... W... 63-62... 13,071
17. 12/16/69... New Mexico... W... 91-73... 13,058
18. 12/2/89... New Mexico... W... 60-55... 13,040
19. 12/27/84... UTEP... W... 66-63... 13,027
20. 12/9/94... New Mexico... W... 74-65... 13,012
21. 12/3/77... New Mexico... L... 94-87... 13,011
22. 2/25/91... UNLV... L... 86-74... 13,007
23. 3/1/93... UNLV... W... 90-88... 13,007
24. 2/21/87... UNLV... L... 80-69... 13,002
25. 2/10/18... Grand Canyon... W... 74-70... 12,989
Just some NMSU history.
This is why I hope Tarleton doesn't overdo it when they build the new arena. 5,000 to 7,500 capacity will do just fine. Less and less attendance with the advent of streaming interwebs. Max decibel level will never be achieved in a half-empty arena. That CBU arena is nice and right-sized.
I highly doubt Texan Basketball's (potential) attendance figures are the driving factor behind the proposed arena's size and seating capability. The arena will be multipurpose, from what I understand, and used for freshman convocation, commencement and other large campus gatherings. If past incoming freshmen classes are any indicator—all have been record-breaking enrollments in recent years—it's obvious to everyone that Tarleton has outgrown Wisdom Gym and is the reason the university has had to hold as many as five or six separate graduation ceremonies over a weekend, and also limit the number of tickets graduates receive for their guests to attend. But, yes. I agree. I hope it's not too big and will seem "half-full" on game days.
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