Average Home Attendance

[MASONscott]

According to espn attendance numbers, there were about 500 more people at the vcu game than were there Saturday for the game with SLU. My impression, from section 102, was that many "new" people were Mason fans. While there was a fair number of folks in vcu gear, there weren't hordes of them and, although they cheered for their team, they weren't particularly obnoxious.

Agree. They did bus fans up and certainly had a presence.

However, I've been a season ticket holder for nearly two decades, and I thought this was the least amount of vcu fans at the Patriot Ctr/EBA in that timeframe.

 

[mkaufman1]

Agree. They did bus fans up and certainly had a presence.

However, I've been a season ticket holder for nearly two decades, and I thought this was the least amount of vcu fans at the Patriot Ctr/EBA in that timeframe.

It certainly didn't seem like there was as many vcu fans in attendance from TV. Between the weather and their mediocre year, I suspect folks have stopped showing up for them a bit. This is not the invasion that we used to have in circa 2015.

 

[MasonFanatic]

Agree. They did bus fans up and certainly had a presence.

However, I've been a season ticket holder for nearly two decades, and I thought this was the least amount of vcu fans at the Patriot Ctr/EBA in that timeframe.

I agree with this. They had a noticeable presence, but nothing like some past years.

 

[FlPatriot]

This is a business…just sell tickets and win. The rest takes care of itself.

 

[Where's the party?]

Definitely not the usual number of slugs up from Richmond at this game. That said, how the heck did they manage to take over half the student seats next to the band? We definitely should not have them piled up anywhere near where the TV can see them. One of the little pr$#$ stood in the portal behind our seats and was telling his buddy "Let's scream like crazy if they score here" towards the end of the game. Right after I was commenting to the wife "at least they aren't all over creaming like usual". Thank God they missed, and we rebounded.

 

[TweederGMU]

My buddy from vcu made the trip up and sat over behind their bench.... he got his tickets from Zeb Jackson's allotment. I talked to him after the game when it cleared out and he had a good time and respected our environment.. was his first time up in years. The vcu fans who sat over by the band were some of the Peppas band. Doc Nix is friends with their band leader who is back. They took a bus or van up with some of their band and Doc gave them tickets over by our band.

What probably no one else saw after the game was all the Peppas band and their band director walked down to the court and cheered and sang along with our band while they played some songs. Was actually pretty cool to see.

Yes... we all hate vcu but their is some respect for us from their fanbase and their band.

 

[BandWagon18]

Doc Nix is friends with their band leader who is back. They took a bus or van up with some of their band and Doc gave them tickets over by our band.

What probably no one else saw after the game was all the Peppas band and their band director walked down to the court and cheered and sang along with our band while they played some songs. Was actually pretty cool to see.

Yes... we all hate vcu but their is some respect for us from their fanbase and their band.

It’s true. The mutual respect between the bands goes back years, to the point that the music frat brothers from both bands hang out when the Peppas and the Green Machine are together.

 

[jessej]

My buddy from vcu made the trip up and sat over behind their bench.... he got his tickets from Zeb Jackson's allotment. I talked to him after the game when it cleared out and he had a good time and respected our environment.. was his first time up in years. The vcu fans who sat over by the band were some of the Peppas band. Doc Nix is friends with their band leader who is back. They took a bus or van up with some of their band and Doc gave them tickets over by our band.

What probably no one else saw after the game was all the Peppas band and their band director walked down to the court and cheered and sang along with our band while they played some songs. Was actually pretty cool to see.

Yes... we all hate vcu but their is some respect for us from their fanbase and their band.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1744915501355053524

View: https://twitter.com/gmugreenmachine/status/1744915501355053524

 

[Old Man]

It’s true. The mutual respect between the bands goes back years, to the point that the music frat brothers from both bands hang out when the Peppas and the Green Machine are together.

For those that are relatively new to the boards, back in the day ...

Every year during the CAA tournament at the Big Brown Turd, aka The Richmond Coliseum, there use to be a "Battle of the Pep Bands" which feature the Green Machine, the Peppas, and whichever other pep bands wanted to participate. Pretty cool.

 

[Pablo]

Interesting that the announced attendance for the vcu game was exactly 4,000 - https://gomason.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats/2023-24/vcu/boxscore/12639

Team	1	2	Total	Records
vcu	30	24	54	9-7,1-2 Atlantic 10
George Mason	27	23	50	13-3,2-1 Atlantic 10

DATE:01/09/24
TIME: 7:00 PM
ATTENDANCE: 4000
SITE: EagleBank Arena, Fairfax

 

[MasonByMarriage]

Same as lots of others have said - definitely far less of their fans in the arena this time around. I had two in front of me but usually have a ton over my shoulder in 117, so I was glad to not have to listen to them. One thing I will say - it's been a long time since I've actually seen so much of the arena get on their feet late in the game. Even with the limited attendance (and honestly, it WAS a Tuesday on a crappy weather evening) the energy in the arena has been getting better. Baby steps...

 

[mkaufman1]

4600 for the game yesterday. Hoping for about 6500 for Homecoming. Or higher.

 

[Pablo]

Average home attendance this season increased by 9.4% (338 fans per game):

2004-05: 3,938
2005-06: 4,533
2006-07: 6,834
2007-08: 6,494
2008-09: 6,295
2009-10: 5,837
2010-11: 5,896
2011-12: 5,161
2012-13: 4,562
2013-14: 4,916
2014-15: 4,082
2015-16: 4,300
2016-17: 4,234
2017-18: 4,087
2018-19: 4,335
2019-20: 4,037
2020-21: N/A
2021-22: 3,558
2022-23: 3,584
2023-24: 3,922

 

[tblack33]

Average home attendance this season increased by 9.4% (338 fans per game):

2004-05: 3,938
2005-06: 4,533
2006-07: 6,834
2007-08: 6,494
2008-09: 6,295
2009-10: 5,837
2010-11: 5,896
2011-12: 5,161
2012-13: 4,562
2013-14: 4,916
2014-15: 4,082
2015-16: 4,300
2016-17: 4,234
2017-18: 4,087
2018-19: 4,335
2019-20: 4,037
2020-21: N/A
2021-22: 3,558
2022-23: 3,584
2023-24: 3,922

It def got better at the end of the season with the promos they ran, kudos to the ticket office for putting asses in seats. Uninteresting OOC games and not putting HC in the fall seems like it’ll hinder attendance for the foreseeable future.

 

[jessej]

It def got better at the end of the season with the promos they ran, kudos to the ticket office for putting asses in seats. Uninteresting OOC games and not putting HC in the fall seems like it’ll hinder attendance for the foreseeable future.

i was thinking something similar

what is the OOC attendance, and by team, and by say, Ken Pom Rating

i attended 10 home regular season home games and the first exhibition game
i chose the games i thought would be good/interesting
the most for me in a while

 

[mkaufman1]

It def got better at the end of the season with the promos they ran, kudos to the ticket office for putting asses in seats. Uninteresting OOC games and not putting HC in the fall seems like it’ll hinder attendance for the foreseeable future.

There were over 5k for the last few home games, and that was without a decent quantity of students from what I was told. So really nice pull there. I know they are trying to do everything to get folks to show up.

 

[GMU1983]

We could use some of this: https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2024/03/20/free-throw-distractions-ncaa-basketball/

 

[Pablo]

George Mason is currently 7th in average home attendance in the A-10: https://atlantic10.com/stats.aspx?path=mbball&year=2024

Attendance​

Index	Team	G	Total ATT.	Home ATT.	Home AVG/G
1	Dayton	10	101049	93849	13,407.0
2	vcu	10	46557	43734	7,289.0
3	Richmond	9	28765	14213	4,737.0
4	Saint Louis	9	30210	27910	4,651.0
5	Rhode Island	9	29782	29485	4,212.0
6	St. Bonaventure	10	26874	19328	3,865.0
7	George Mason	10	30611	18334	2,619.0
8	UMass	10	29998	12976	2,595.0
9	Loyola Chicago	8	19995	17523	2,503.0
10	Saint Joseph's	9	42366	11689	2,337.0
11	Davidson	8	14654	9204	2,301.0
12	Duquesne	9	15846	8471	2,117.0
13	George Washington	10	19287	8543	1,708.0
14	La Salle	10	22129	5386	1,346.0
15	Fordham	11	15533	7141	1,190.0

 

[hoopsjunkie75]

Maybe it would help if tickets were priced a little lower. We sell single game tickets (minus promos) from $15-$50 per seat.

The $15 seats are godawful; stuck in the corners of the stadium. To get decent seats, you need to shell out too much for many families to be interested, especially with the amount of events going on daily in the DMV region.

I see people on the boards saying "tell your friends", blah blah blah.... A casual fan is simply not going to pay that amount, also knowing what food/drinks go for in sports venues.

If they do get in to see a game, they are met with empty seats in the 'good' sections (with Naziesque ushers keeping you out of those empty seats), uninspired fans in the arena, less giveaways every year (Chick-Fil-A cows, popcorn, movie tickets, pizza scream, t-shirt gun, etc), and no real draw to make them want to return. Do we even have a furry mascot roaming around the arena anymore? I don't think I've seen him/it in a while.

Yes, a team that consistently wins from year to year does/will help, but that is a slow process and will be difficult to achieve without having an invested fan base (chicken and egg scenario).

This team needs to do whatever they can to get fans in to seats today, to build for a brighter tomorrow. Large blocks of tickets need to be given away to each game, and more needs to be done to entertain the masses when/if they do show up on game day to keep them coming back. Then you can start charging those people once they are hooked and have a vested interest.

Now, I do not personally know how to make this happen, however, Mason has a school of marketing, have its students market! -- [Pipe dream seeing that we can't get the art and design school to design a logo].

 

[FlPatriot]

Beat Duke, then you’ll get an extra 1000 within the next few games. Folks love winners…it’s winning stupid.