Syracuse tops Kentucky in attendance (basketball)
 

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(I am not one)


Syracuse tops Kentucky in attendance

Associated Press
Posted: 1 hour ago



INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Syracuse has ended Kentucky's nine-year run as the leader in men's basketball attendance.

The Orange averaged 22,978 a game in the Carrier Dome last season, beating Kentucky's average attendance of 22,520. NCAA champion North Carolina was third at 20,522 and Louisville was fourth at 18,746, according to figures released in this week's NCAA News.
Syracuse was the leader from 1985 to 1995, while Kentucky led the nation in average attendance since 1996.

Attendance for all NCAA men's games was just more than 30.5 million for the 2004-05 season. Of that, nearly 25.4 million attended Division I games, and both figures were within 200,000 of the season records set the previous year. It also was the third straight year that overall attendance topped 30 million.

Forty-three schools - all in Division I - averaged at least 10,000 fans last season. Eight of them were in the Big Ten, making it the top conference for the 29th straight season.

The top Division II schools were Virginia State (3,471) and Northern State (3,408), while the leaders for Division III were Hope (2,462) and Illinois Wesleyan (2,376). Division I Virginia Tech had the biggest increase from the previous year, rising from 6,342 per game in 2003-04 to 9,405 last season.

The leader in total attendance - home, road and neutral courts - was Illinois, with 711,798. North Carolina was second at 702,563, followed by Kentucky at 698,287 and Syracuse at 613,724.

The Atlantic Coast Conference set a record with almost 2 million fans, but its average of 11,097 was second to the Big Ten's 12,530. The SEC was third at 10,663, and the Big East was fourth at 10,396.

Re: Syracuse tops Kentucky in attendance (basketball)
 

I am not a fan of any of these schools in the article. However... I wonder who has more empty seats on the average for home basketball games, Syracuse or Kentucky?

Re: Syracuse tops Kentucky in attendance (basketball)
 

The Carrier Dome hides about 25,000 seats because they also use it for football.....

OTOH - I am shocked (or slightly amused) in the era of "big arenas" with "corporate sponsors" & "Luxury Suites" that UK has not succombed to that pressure and build a "new" Rupp Arena that seats about 25,000 and has those amentities put in there....

Re: Syracuse tops Kentucky in attendance (basketball)
 

No doubt about that, Heath. IMO there is a certain limit to respectable seating for a hoops game. I hope UK has that in mind with Rupp and why they have stayed there.

Re: Syracuse tops Kentucky in attendance (basketball)
 

One more item to throw out (and probably infuriate the Hoosiers on the board) -

The state of .... errr... Commonwealth of Kentucky averages 40,000 people watching home basketball games between UK & U of L .... Yikes...

Re: Syracuse tops Kentucky in attendance (basketball)
 

With the Carrier Dome also being home to Syracuse football, their total seating capacity (mid-40's?) is far larger than Rupp Arena (approx. 23,000). Thus, if I had to guess, I would believe that Syracuse would have far more empty seats during basketball games than seen during games at Rupp.

Lately, most of the domes will reconfigure seating with curtains, etc...in order to keep so many empties from showing on TV. For this same reason, I know that Rupp has the ability to reconfigure seating (to around 10,000) for smaller-named concerts that are expected to bring less attendance.

Granted, while UK basketball seats have lately been easier to find than in recent years, it is still BY FAR the toughest ticket in the state. On the other hand, the UK home football games..... :help:

Re: Syracuse tops Kentucky in attendance (basketball)
 

Yeah, UK probably won't do that, either. Somewhat on topic, I remember hearing Rick Pitino is trying to get UL a new arena, I wonder where that's ging. I know there was a snag in that a few years back when the city of Louisville was a finalist along with Memphis to get the Grizzlies when they were relocating in the NBA from Vancouver. I seem to remember hearing stuff about Pitino "not wanting to share the arena and glory" with the NBA team. Of course, who knows, that could have been conjured by us "crazy" 'Cat fans. :D

Re: Syracuse tops Kentucky in attendance (basketball)
 

Commonwealth Stadium is one of the most beautiful venues to watch college football....and I never understand why UK can't get football players....

Re: Syracuse tops Kentucky in attendance (basketball)
 

Louisville apparently hasn't given up hope on getting a franchise. You're right, Pitino did day that U of L would want first choice of dates with a new arena. From what I can tell, he isn't really in the forefont with this round of talks. There's a committee or something that will decide, and there have been public forums to discuss and debate it.

The big debate right now is where to build the new arena, which as of now would be for U of L. Some want it at the present site of Freedom Hall, which is the state fairgrounds, three miles or so from downtown. Others want it on campus, while others want it downtown. The fairgrounds is by far the best for traffic and parking, but downtown is probably where it should go. If they put it on campus, the NBA will never come.

I don't even like or watch the NBA, but I'd love to see a team come, to heal the wounds of the Colonels getting screwed by their ABA brethren when they moved to the NBA in 1976.

Re: Syracuse tops Kentucky in attendance (basketball)
 

Thanks a lot for the info, macro. Yeah, like many Kentuckians, and others alike, I'm a die-hard college hoops fan and I don't care so much for the NBA. I was intrigued by the idea of Louisville getting the Grizzlies franchise, or perhaps one in the future, but I know some UK fans (and I may or may not be related to some of the ones I'm paraphrasing) who still wouldn't cheer the NBA team if it was named 'Louisville'. If it was named 'Kentucky', though based out of Louisville, that would be fine though. :D

In all seriousness, I do think that is enough of an issue that a prospective team relocating or expanding into Louisville would HAVE to be branded 'Kentucky' for the complete backing of the potential fanbase. UofL fans can fall back on it being named after the state, while the UK fans like those I spoke of can cheer them on with that name without compromising their anti-Louisville sentiments, though that's the only city in the state a professional franchise could reside in.

Re: Syracuse tops Kentucky in attendance (basketball)
 

I don't care for the city of Louisville's claim to be one of the top five [I think] cities in all of America in terms of population, so that coupled with my UK fandom wouldn't allow me to cheer an NBA team called Louisville anything.

Re: Syracuse tops Kentucky in attendance (basketball)
 

Check out who's No. 18 on the list -- just one reason why The Sporting News picked UD fans as America's best college basketball fans last year. As Dan Patrick is fond of saying, "You simply do not go into UD Arena and expect to come out with a win."

Nice company for the Flyers in that Top 20 list. Where's eggs-avier?

NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL ATTENDANCE TOP 20

No. School Average (03-04 rank)
1. Syracuse 22,978 (2)
2. Kentucky 22,520 (1)
3. North Carolina 20,522 (3)
4. Louisville 18,746 (4)
5. Wisconsin 17,142 (6)
6. Maryland 16,632 (5)
7. Illinois 16,387 (9)
8. Kansas 16,300 (8)
9. Arkansas 15,788 (13)
10. Michigan State 14,759 (14)
11. Indiana 14,702 (7)
12. Arizona 14,557 (17)
13. North Carolina State 14,464 (16)
14. New Mexico 14,308 (15)
15. Connecticut 13,771 (20)
16. Ohio State 13,715 (18)
17. Wake Forest 13,082 (22)
18. DAYTON 12,569 (25)
19. Oklahoma State 12,241 (26)
20. Tennessee 12,225 (21)

Re: Syracuse tops Kentucky in attendance (basketball)
 

If you DO ever figure it out, please call the UK Athletic Association. Mostly, it's because the coaches aren't really pressured to land the big recruits like they should be. What's the incentive? The AD raises ticket prices every year, they sellout tons of home games and then they promptly go 3-8....The UK football fans are FAR more forgiving (and forgetting) than the basketball fans. No matter what kind of a garbage team they run out there, you will still always see most seats filled in Commonwealth Stadium on Saturday afternoons in the Fall.

The UK coaches enter through a revolving door; thus, they are always behind the proverbial 8-Ball when it comes to recruiting. By the way, probation is always a stickler in recruiting as well. Nowadays, UK can't even be a finalist for the major in-state recruits...so you can just forget about the hotbed states like FL, OH, PN and TX. For years, they have always tried this angle in their recruiting:

"Come to UK, where--as a true freshman--you can start for a SEC program !"

What they don't tell them, is that you can expect to pummelled for four quarters every week the scoreboard doesn't read: "Vanderbilt"

Re: Syracuse tops Kentucky in attendance (basketball)
 

I think it's because of the school's geographic location. They really can't recruit in the SEC against schools in Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama, South Carolina and even Tennesee. Lexington is more Midwest than Southeast and the weather can't compete with Gainesville, Tuscaloosa or Baton Rouge.

And UK can't recruit in Big10 territory because the school isn't in a Big10 state. No way is a kid going to listen to a UK sales pitch when OSU, Michigan, Iowa, Penn State and Purdue are also calling.

It's just my theory but I think UK is too far north and removed from the rest of the SEC to be competitive in recruiting in that conference. And it's not in the Big10 so it has virtually no exposure north of the Ohio River.

Basketball, however, is a whole different ballgame (literally). Now as to why UK can't recruit against Louisville in football? I have no idea.