Flyers in Top 25
 

in attendance... #22

http://www.daytondailynews.com/sport...g2DD4vrycWSDK/

I'll know we've arrived as a program on a par with X, Witchita, Gonzaga when this is no longer important to our fans.
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I understand where your are going with your comment, but the attendance at the Arena and the prolific traveling group to away games will always be worn as a badge of honor. I have stopped some p5 fans in their tracks by reciting the numbers on the proud and loud Flyer Faithful. They truly are blown away by our attendance record.

I'm surprised by this sentiment. I would think that this is still important to Kentucky fans (and should be IMO).

Not sure the relationship between being a good program and not caring if people show up to watch.

My parents went to UK and massive fans of UK sports (not just BBall). They travel to Lexington at least a couple times a month to catch various events.

They are very proud of their attendance numbers. They brag more about their away attendance, but they take a great deal of pride in their home attendance as well.

I take a great deal of pride in our numbers and always will. Wins are more important, but this stuff matters.

Here is how the top 100 break out for Big East / A-10 / AAC:

Rank Institution Conference Total Avg Attendance
5 Creighton Big East 296,013 17,413
19 Marquette Big East 233,169 13,716
22 Dayton A- 10 208,291 13,018
34 Wichita St. AAC 182,558 10,739
38 Xavier Big East 164,520 10,283
42 Cincinnati AAC 177,575 9,865
44 Villanova Big East 146,591 9,773
46 Memphis AAC 173,208 9,623
52 UConn AAC 144,591 8,505
53 Provide Big East 152,867 8,493
54 Georgetn Big East 144,143 8,479
55 St. John's Big East 143,632 8,449
57 Butler Big East 133,724 8,358
62 Seton Hall Big East 111,350 7,954
66 VCU Atlantic10 122,192 7,637
76 SMU AAC 124,198 6,900
93 Richmond Atlantic10 100,188 5,893
95 Temple AAC 92,880 5,805
96 Saint Lou Atlantic10 100,675 5,593
99 Rhode Is Atlantic10 82,761 5,173

That is 9 Big East Teams, 5 A-10 teams, 6 AAC teams.

We would be 3rd in the Big East and remain 1st if in the AAC.

If UD and VCU Jumped to the AAC - that would be 8 AAC teams in the top 100 vs 3 for the A-10 - and none in the A-10 in the top 89 spots.

Attendance absolutely matters - it is what generates a lot of revenue for these schools - and that turns into investment in facilities and coaching - and that is what helps win recruits.

So yes - still absolutely care about attendance. And a quick look at that chart and I see where Dayton and VCU would be a much better fit for AAC as far as having other programs that have good fan bases.

Here in Columbus I've never heard any fan of OSU spout statistics about where they rank nationally in attendance in basketball. I've heard it mentioned about football a few times but never as something to hang your hat on. Here it's all about championships - and getting to Final Four.

There is a huge difference with the amazing sellout (and waiting list) streak UK has and what UD has going for it. I lived in Green Bay for years and they too talked with pride about how long their waiting list was. It never made anyone feel good in the 8-8 years though. If anything it might have made it sting a bit more.

I love going to a packed arena and it is an amazing thing to see how constant that has remained thru thick and thin. To me though that is on a par with the girl with the 'nice personality' or the other UD relic of being the winningest program of the 50s and 60s. If/when we arrive I suspect both of these gems will be mentioned a lot less and with a different sentiment.
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That's because Buckeye fans (and I'm a big one) rarely brag about anything in basketball. The attendance thing for football comes up ALL THE TIME. TODAY OSU fans are making a big deal about selling out 82,000 fans for the spring game.

Having strong fan support and being a prolific program go hand in hand.

How does an article about UD's attendance ranking make people want to post things like:

"we've arrived as a program when this is no longer important to our fans", or

"when we arrive I suspect this will be mentioned a lot less and with a different sentiment"

(I know... It's because I put a thumbs up on the post)

Readable Chart:

Would love to see the capacity of the venues vs the attendance. Villanova would sell 15,000 if they had the capacity.

It's not people, it's person. one guy.

Iam curious what the UD fan base could support in terms of home attendance. Dayton metro is about 800,000 fans. That doesn't take into account alumni in Columbus, Cincy Indy etc who all could easily drive on game day.

The Bradley Center has a max attendance of 18850. Milwaukee has over 2.3M people in their metro area.

Century Link has a max attendance of 18320. Omaha is a great college sports town. It's very similar to Dayton. It also has 1.3M people. M I would use those two towns as the most similar to Dayton.

Dayton and Marquette have over 8000 students and Creighton only has 4500.

I think the mere size of Omaha and Milwaukee allow them to draw more fans. If I had to guess we'd max out at 15000 fans but that's just a guess.