The AU Women’s Basketball team’s success on the court during the season did not transfer to large volumes of student support in the stands. The Eagles, who recently secured the Patriot League regular season conference title for the third time in program history, are experiencing only marginally higher attendance than previous years.
Low attendance at home games is not limited just to the women’s basketball team, however. AU women’s sports teams in general do not receive large fan support. AU’s Field Hockey team averaged 241 fans, the Women’s soccer team averaged 188 spectators and the Women’s Volleyball team, which won Patriot League regular season and tournament titles for the fourth time in the last five years, averaged 462 fans, according to attendance records on aueagles.com.
Low attendance at women’s sporting events is a national trend that is a pressing issue not just at AU but across the country, AU Athletic Director Billy Walker said.
“I'm going to continue to keep this issue in my focus as an emphasis item,” Walker said. “We have such fantastic women's sports here at AU, we just need to keep marketing them and expanding the fan base beyond the dedicated fans we have currently.”
In the Women’s Basketball team’s 12 regular season games at Bender Arena this season, the Eagles average attendance was 493, according to figures from aueagles.com. While these numbers are an increase from the 350 fans the Eagles averaged in the 2013-14 season, AU ranked seventh out of the 10 Patriot League schools in average home attendance, according to attendance statistics on patriotleague.org.
“We don’t really get many fans. I don’t think its really picked up over the years,” senior guard Jen Dumiak said in an interview with the Eagle on Nov. 12, 2014. “I don’t see people supporting women’s teams as much [as the men’s teams].”
The AU Blue Crew, the student support group for AU Athletics, has attempted to generate large crowds for the athletic teams, but Phil Bender Day, one of the largest AU Blue Crew events designated for each AU athletic team, only brought 436 fans for the women's basketball game against Navy on Jan. 27.
Conversely, Phil Bender Day for the Men’s Basketball team against Army on Jan. 26 generated a crowd of 1,658.
AU’s highest attendance came from their home game against Princeton University on Nov. 23, but the high population was due in part to a visit from First Lady Michelle Obama.
First Lady Obama attended the game to watch her niece, freshman Leslie Robinson, play for the Tigers, and 1,627 other spectators crowded into Bender Arena for the matchup. Most of the AU students in attendance, however, headed for the exits after getting a glimpse of the First Lady and snapping a few pictures. When the outlier of the Princeton game is removed from the average attendance computation, the Eagles average attendance of 385 would place them with the second-lowest home attendance average in the Patriot League.
“I feel like it [student and fan support] has [gotten better] but it hasn’t at the same time. It depends on the game and we all know that sometimes it’s not going to happen, they [students] are all not going to show up,” senior guard Shaquilla Curtis said.
Figure 1: Women’s Basketball Attendance Histogram with Outlier (Left) and Without Outlier (Right)
(Caption: The women’s basketball game attendance spiked when the Eagles played Princeton University. VINCENT SALANDRO/THEEAGLE)
Traditionally, women’s basketball games are less attended than men’s basketball games at college campuses, with the average attendance of 2013-14 Division I Men’s games of 4,817 far exceeding the 2013-14 Division I Women’s average of 1,526. Even at AU, not traditionally considered a student body invested in sports, the 2014-15 average home attendance for men’s basketball is 1,484, almost 1,000 people higher than the women, despite the men having a 15-15 record and sitting in a tie for sixth in the Patriot League.
Walker says that the an important target from the marketing department to increase attendance for AU sporting events in general, not just women’s events, is attracting younger fans. Events like National Girls and Women in Sports Day help bring younger fans to the AU campus with hands-on clinics with the student-athletes.
“I want to continue our emphasis on attracting youth groups and developing ideas to create more fans in those age groups,” Walker said. “That way, they grow up as Eagles fans and it becomes a way of life for them--it's also a great way for us to give back to our community.”
Three hundred and nineteen fans attended the Eagles’ first Patriot League tournament game against Lafayette College on March 6, and attendance increased as AU moved through the tournament. Over 1,000 fans filled Bender Arena on March 14 when the Eagles made history by winning the 2015 Patriot League Championship over Lehigh University. The fan support grew throughout the week, but spring break prevented many AU students from supporting their team.
“Unfortunately the Patriot League Tournament is during spring break, which is just a bad time, I think, to have the tournament, especially at home because your student body is not here,” head coach Megan Gebbia said.
Since the 2011-2012 season, AU has hosted four Women’s Basketball Patriot League Tournament games with an average attendance of 290, well below their regular season average over the past four seasons of 352, according to aueagles.com.
The Patriot League also does not boast high attendance figures for men’s or women’s basketball, ranking 31st and 25th out of 32 Division I conferences in attendance in 2013-14, according to NCAA released statistics.
The disproportionate attendance of male sporting events, particularly basketball, comes despite the fact that many institutions have more female students than male students. AU, for example, has a 60.7-39.3 female-male ratio, which reflects the national average of 59.3-40.7 for private institutions, according to forbes.com.
“I think it’s [student and fan support] an improvement from this year to last year,” Gebbia said. “I hope they [students and fans] enjoy what they see from our team and hopefully maybe attract more fans as we go but I’d love to see more support down the road.”
