I just cannot believe reasons for the lack of attendance at some of the leading games last night. NIU 1148(10,000)their best season in 25 years;
Kent 3035(6237)always at the top of conference; and Akron 3069(5500) at the top of conference last 10 years.
Other games CMU 2139(5300) fighting for the division lead; and Miami 1706(9200) at the bottom for at least 5 years.

Our EMU game OHIO 6212(13,000) one knows our record for the last 5 years.

This is why BGSU built a new arena w capacity 4800. It's the mid major wave of the future. People are watching web streamings and tv broadcasts. Gonzaga's new arena is capacity 6200.

Would love to see us carve abt 2000 seats out of the Convo.

I totally agree Jeff. There's no need for more than 10k or so in there anymore, unless for some reason Commencement ceremonies require it. I was hoping that when they put in new seats that perhaps this would have been addressed. One change I like is that the dark seats don't show the empty seats up high on TV nearly as easy. This same idea is why I've thought it would just be easier to put the 'new' scoreboards everyone asks for up high - to eliminate seldom sat in seats high up behind the baskets.


An important thing to note when it comes to mid-week attendance: It's like this at a large number of D1 schools. For example, I watched UNLV-Air force last night for 10-15 minutes. The game was at Air Force, and the crowd looked very sparse. If I were guessing it was less than 2000 in a building that looked like 9-10k.





Based on what we've been told in several threads on here about High School basketball also being on Tuesdays, I'd say you're right.

Official attendance last night was 6212. I guess that means paid. Clearly fewer than 4000 were there.

It has hurt my attendance, but not because of HS basketball. I support the Friday night ESPNU broadcasts though, and understand why they moved the games to Tue to accommodate.

I just settled in getting ready to watch the Ohio women's game and decided to flip on Iowa at Penn State for a few minutes. Penn State has the upper deck curtained off and the lower bowl is maybe 60% full. Maybe 6,000 in the place and they are hosting the #4 team in the country. Weeknight games in smallish markets are challenging. Not to mention it being a 6 pm tip.

Low weeknight attendance for us is nothing new...been that way for as long as I can remember. I don't think it's any lower than usual this year. Midweek games right before Saturdays (like last night) draw even worse, since everyone is just looking ahead.

I'd venture to guess that a majority of season ticket holders purchase with the intention of just going to the Saturday games (maybe 1-2 midweeks if they can). It's the exact same thing we see at football. Saturday "butts in seats" attendance is easily 2-3 times bigger than midweek for both sports.

That said, the difference between football and basketball is that we can largely control the number of Saturday games in basketball. I'd love to see 4-5 Saturday OOC games, in addition to the MAC games.

I would like to think attendance is down because we are competing with high school basketball on Tuesday nights, but I would not be telling the truth. As other posters have noted, the fact of the matter is in our technology age there are tons of options, not the least of which are those of us with families, who either have young children or children competing in sports. This inhibits our chances to get down to Athens as much as we like.

However, the elephant in the room is that maybe sports has been more of a social interaction component in our society than some of us true sports have dared to believe.

Those of us old enough to remember the state high school basketball tournament in the 1970s. There were tons of small town radio stations broadcasting the games as evidenced by their stations banners on display, even though most of those stations didn't have a team left in the tournament. Go today and watch a high school basketball or football game and look how many people are milling around in the hallway. If it is a football game how many people are socializing in the stands or around the grounds with only the slightest knowledge of what is occurring in the field of play. This is life in 2016 I guess.

I also believe March Madness brings out all kinds of people who want to socialize during the conference and early March Madness tournament games. Look at college football, ESPN's GameDay brings huge crowds to campuses full of people who have little interest in the game.

In a nutshell, I don't have a problem with people who just want to socialize, nothing wrong with people who want to eat and drink with friends while a game is going on. However, we shouldn't be shocked when attendance just isn't what it used to be. Our culture is changing and we are seeing the difference between those who like sports for it's competitive nature, and those who see it as a vehicle to socialize.

I've heard that we give away/sell several packages of seats to companies around the area. It seems possible that these are in the lower bowl and are not being regularly filled by the companies. I think if you want more condensed seating maybe those packages need to be changed. I was more disappointed with the student turnout on Tuesday. It was really low.

Would love to see some sort of seat covers or signage that blocks the upper part of the Convo and makes it feel smaller.

I'm hoping for a great end of this season and an attendance rebound next season as more folks understand how good the team is. There was zero buzz around town for this season.

With the cost of four platinum seats going up to $2000 next year, letting people just amble down there isn't going to happen.

You forgot the Wendy's drive-thru.

It's not just a MAC problem, and part of it is cost, and value.