Attendance

[ollienanyes]

6 pm start: there was an act that started a 7:30 (Jersey Boys?) going on the same evening; I think the 6 pm starts are to coordinate the entrance into the Civic Center. There was a previous game with a 6 pm start earlier this year.

[Tommy]

Does anyone know what the attendance average has been for the last decade (or more) by year? I'd be curious how this team is faring right now comparatively.
As far as the 6pm start time goes, I like it because I can still get home at a decent hour after the game, but it no doubt has an adverse effect on attendance, though being a Tuesday game, I'm sure that had as much to do with the low attendance as the start time (let's not kid ourselves). That being said, I imagine the 6pm start time probably keeps the younger crowd from coming out (that's not based on data, that's just my gut feel).

Any way you look at it, we all would love to see Carver arena back to the 9,000+ crowds, but clearly that's going to take some time. The old guard really did a number on the program.

[Mikovio]

Bradley's record book is on its website, and it lists results/attendance of every game:

https://bradleybraves.com/documents/2016/10/3//Bradley_Basketball_Records.pdf?id=4407

Through 3 homes games attendance is best since 2015-16 (Wardle's first season). I think 7pm start times are better because it allows couples to get off work at 5 and go out to eat before the game but I can see young families liking 6pm because young kids go to bed earlier. Overall it's probably more beneficial to schedule more 7pm's.

[Da Coach]

Does anyone know what the attendance average has been for the last decade (or more) by year? I'd be curious how this team is faring right now comparatively....

Below is the average attendance each year since 1978, along with how Bradley's home attendance ranked nationally, and the yearly changes.
The attendance will pick up as we get farther into the season, but as of now, the average attendance this season is the lowest it has ever been since Bradley moved from the Peoria Armory to the Fieldhouse in 1949, and it keeps heading downward!
Yes, Bradley still lead the MVC in attendance last season, but there are some worrying trends that should not be ignored.

A couple findings that are notable- there was a massive drop in attendance during the Geno Ford years and shortly after (from 2011-2015). It started with the final Jim Les season when the administration overruled multiple doctors and would not let Taylor Brown play, and they lied to the Maniscalco family and told them Jim Les would not be fired after the season if Sam would redshirt. That lead to a 12-20 season after 4 straight 20+ win seasons, and a drop in attendance. But the real damage came with 4 horrendous seasons under Geno Ford where home schedules became among the worst in Division 1, the team went 46-86, finished dead last twice in 4 years, and set all-time records for losses and lowest winning percentages in history.
That brought it from a consistent 9,000+ range where it had been for decades, down to the 5,000+ range.

The other surprising finding is that everyone claimed that if Bradley just starts winning again, the fans would come back. They were wrong.
Despite the revival of Bradley basketball, 2 straight 20-win seasons, an MVC Championship, an NCAA team last year, and a team this season picked higher than it has been picked in decades, the attendance continues to drop. That is why I think Bradley should be doing everything possible to market the team and try to increase attendance, instead of ever-changing and variable start times that hurt attendance.

Year_rank_Gms_total_avg_change
2020..........3..15,742..5,247 down 182 (all games at Carver)
2019........16..86,871..5,429 down 270 (all games at Carver)
2018 .......15..85,489..5,699 up 212 (all games at Carver)
2017 #96 15 82,318 5,487 down 466 (all games at Carver)
2016 #91 15 89,299 5,953 up 227 (all games at Carver)
2015 #94 16 91,614 5,726 down 882 (Carver average 5827)
2014 #74 17 112,335 6,608 up 51 (Carver average 6,984)
2013 #79 18 118,024 6,557 down 1,083
2012 #68 16 122,245 7,640 down 807
2011 #56 16 135,148 8,447 down 892
2010 #52 15 140,079 9,339 up 229
2009 #55 18 163,981 9,110 down 490
2008 #52 19 183,392 9,600 down 128
2007 #53 17 165,376 9,728 up 508
2006 #54 14 129,086 9,220 down 117
2005 #51 15 140,065 9,337 up 159
2004 #52 15 137,667 9,178 down 173
2003 #47 14 130,907 9,351 up 279
2002 #47 13 117,935 9,072 down 50
2001 #51 15 136,683 9,112 down 1,066
2000 #41 14 142,495 10,178 up 646
1999 #44 15 142,980 9,532 down 237
1998 #41 13 127,001 9,769 up 144
1997 #41 14 134,755 9,625 down 47
1996 #44 13 125,733 9,672 up 151
1995 #47 14 133,288 9,521 up 707
1994 #46 16 140,700 8,794 up 1,523
1993 #67 13 94,523 7,271 up 278
1992 #78 13 90,904 6,993 down 391
1991 #70 13 95,995 7,384 down 357
1990 #65 13 100,632 7,741 down 1,177
1989 #51 13 115,939 8,918 down 1,098
1988 #36 16 160,263 10,016 up 1,307
1987 #41 14 121,922 8,709 down 199
1986 #37 14 124,712 8,908 up 1,366
1985 #60 15 113,124 7,542 up 350
1984 #62 15 107,881 7,192 down 1,821
1983 #38 16 144,209 9,013 up 1,730
1982 #56 17 123,810 7,283 down 33
1981 #55 14 102,430 7,316 up 63
1980 #59 16 116,050 7,253 up 503
1979 #64 14 94,500 6,750 down 113
1978 #56 16 109,800 6,863

[Mikovio]

You can't compare the attendance the first 3 games here vs a full season's worth of games in other seasons. There's no doubt this season's number is going up once we play ISU, SIU, Loyola etc.

[Lights down]

.... and yet, despite low attendance, that goofy Noise Meter rises into the red area! What a joke! Old attendance noise was deafening! We always thought that crowd noise created a three point home advantage.

[JMG 76]

I have several issues with the way things have been going the past few years....

1) who made the decision to remove the stands behind the basket on the Bradley bench end? Looks horrible and may be hurting our shooting with nothing in the background!!!!!

2) the music and video for the starting lineup sucks! The crowd and players should be getting amped up at this point not falling asleep!

3) The in game promotions are a joke. What happened to someone shooting 3 shots from half court to give away season tickets?

4) why not bring the veterans out in the first half to get the crowd going? It seams to be the only time the crowd makes any noise! Maybe do it each half.

5) Why not try and get more high school groups or sports teams in to help fill in the seats?

6) does anyone try to get the Bradley students interested in the games? I remember when Jim Les was around, a lot more students attended. When Molinari was the there we had great student turnout.

Something needs to be done differently!!!!!!

[molar50]

I sit near the visitor's bench. Last night in the first half, four women students moved from the student section (behind the backboard near the band) to occupy seats 4 rows behind the bench. Promptly, a civic center usher came down and instructed the young ladies to vacate those seats and return to the student section. Those seats remained empty. I understand the usher is doing his job as instructed, but it doesn't look or feel right to me.

[Go_Braves]

Regarding the 6 pm Central Time weekday starts and the drop in attendance..

First - isn't the 6 pm weekday starts a "bigger than just Bradley issue" ?
I looked at other MVC team schedules (ISU, SIU, UNI) just as a quick sample and they too have 6 pm weekday starts.
Isn't this a MVC and ESPN and other tv network issues and it is these time slots that are being determined by these tv networks?
And a brief small sampling of other basketball conferences also seem to have the same weekday time start issue.
In addition to college basketball - I now live in Colorado and my daughters are CSU alums and CSU fans loudly complain about the late Friday night and Saturday night football games (as one example) as one example where the schools accept these time slots due to available tv coverage. How ESPN (and all the ESPN networks) and other sports networks divide their available coverage time slots I have no idea. But again - isn't the overall time start issue bigger than just Bradley and shouldn't all MVC schools discuss this matter with the MVC administration ?

As for attendance. If everyone is sharing that one reason for the light attendance is due to weekday start times. Does anyone know if other MVC basketball programs attendance are also suffering due to the same reasons ?

Bradley is still "smarting" from the J. Glasser and G. Ford era. As shown by Da Coach - average attendance for Geno's first year (2011) was 8,447 and final year (2015) was 5,726 - and Bradley has yet to recover. I do not know but has many of the season ticket owners for 2010 never renewed their season tickets. And I have no way to monitor the number of students attending each game - but I can only assume that it is also down. What ever happened to the fun times for students like "Molinari's Army" or wearing hair pieces like Dick Versace ? What would be a hoot (for example) is if all the attending students wore "black rim" glasses like Coach Wardle along with "red shoes" - or if the student came up with their own methods to have a great time.

I will admit that I am sadly disturb that after an incredible finish to last season the overall attendance (students and fans) is no where near what I would have hoped for so far this season. I attended Bradley during an era when for many games it was difficult to get a seat in the student section. Heck for many games it was difficult to get any seat in Robertson Memorial Stadium.

GO BRAVES !!!

[Da Coach]

You can't compare the attendance the first 3 games here vs a full season's worth of games in other seasons. There's no doubt this season's number is going up once we play ISU, SIU, Loyola etc.

Yes, of course. I mentioned that. And the BU ticket people used that as an excuse last year when there was criticism of the low attendance in early games. And what happened? The 2018-19 year-end average attendance, despite a terrific season, end up the lowest in Bradley history since the team moved into the larger capacity Fieldhouse in 1949! Check the numbers above- the average attendance was 5,429. That is lower than any season on record! Yet believe it or not, there were Bradley people bragging about the attendance early last season.

There should still be concern with the low attendance numbers and the enormous number of no-shows and empty seats in the lower bowl, espcially with the success of Bradley over the last 2 seasons, and the high expectations this season.
Until the last few years, attendance numbers of 5000 or even 6000 or less were unheard of.
I just picked a couple old games as an example- a home game on Nov. 16, 2010 against Northern Illinois. This was an early-season game against a lower opponent, similar to our last couple games. Yet the attendance was 7,646.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sit.../17/723313.pdf

Here is a game on Nov. 24, 2010 against Eastern Illinois with attendance of 8,004-
https://bradleybraves.com/documents/.../25/724991.pdf

And then there is the famous "Snow Game" against Creighton on Feb. 1, 2011. Because of a massive snowfall, the game was moved up to 3:00 pm at late notice. Hardly anyone made it to the game (about 300 people were there). Yet the official attendance for that game was 8,009!

https://bradleybraves.com/news/2011/2/2/205088189.aspx

That is significant because it shows that season ticket sales must have been around 8,000 that year, just 9 seasons ago. And as I have mentioned before, Ken Kavanagh told me that season ticket sales peaked in 2009 at about 9,000.
Yet now we are seeing attendances of 4,600-4,800 indicating that season ticket sales are now about 4,000 or slightly above. I doubt you will find another D1 team with such a large percentage drop, approximately 50%, in the season ticket base in such a relatively short time span.

Last night's attendance was 4,813. We are seeing thousands fewer fans, despite the tremendous success of the program the last few years- 20 wins for the last 2 seasons, the first MVC Tournament Championship since 1988, the first NCAA appearance since 2006, and the first time in memory that Bradley has been picked as high as 2nd in the MVC. How many Division I schools have seen a 50% drop in attendance in the last 9-10 years?

[Mikovio]

While I definitely 100% agree more can be done (I think reaching out to more area schools/groups is a good idea) and agree the Glasser/Geno disaster cost a lot of fans, attendance is down about everywhere you look. You see a whole lot more empty seats at U of I and ISU games than in decades past too. I think it's harder to get fans to come to games with more entertainment options, plus you can stream every game from the comfort of your home with ESPN3/+.

[Mikovio]

Also Josiah was a top notch emcee who is with the WWE now and we were lucky to have him. I dunno if anyone on campus or even the area could fill his shoes but they should keep looking.

[Dub]

.... and yet, despite low attendance, that goofy Noise Meter rises into the red area! What a joke! Old attendance noise was deafening! We always thought that crowd noise created a three point home advantage.

That meter must be out of calibration.

[Tommy]

Thanks for the attendance info. That's really interesting stuff.

I will say, looking at the attendance info, I can't imagine Geno's last year was as high as is shown and it makes me wonder if attendance is and has always been calculated the same way. I remember coming to those games and you could practically count the people in the stands, and I'm not gonna lie, I found myself not feeling well on more than one game night that last year. I really doubt it would be out of the realm of possibility that old JG was fudging the attendance numbers back then, but I guess it's not fair to say without some solid proof.

All in all, if we keep winning the fans will start coming back. A consecutive trip to the NCAA should at least boost the student attendance you'd think, right?

[PeterWade]

I understand announced attendance are tickets sold. I'm no crowd estimator by profession, but it looked like 1500 people tops. It is getting pathetic. That was one of the smallest crowds I've ever been a part of.

I hate to say this, and always hated the idea, but the Renaissance Coliseum might be the way to go....

At least it could have real crowd noise instead of pumped in noise, and I think it would be an actual real home court advantage..... just my 2 cents.

I dont think the crowd is ever coming back.