SIUE brought in 21,211 fans this past season, an average of 1,625 over the course of 13 home dates. That puts them smack dab in the middle of the seven teams classified as "reclassifying Division I programs" last year. Seattle, which plays its games at KeyArena, former home of the Seattle Supersonics led the way with 2,944, which is impressive, but at the same time a little small when you think about it. North Dakota was second, drawing a shade over 2,000 fans and South Dakota came in right before SIUE with an average of 1,701 fans.
SIUE out-drew 92 other Division I teams, so while they are in the bottom third of attendance, they are not doing as poorly as some may think.
So, who has the worst fans in Division I basketball? That title goes to Chicago State, averaging 429 fans per game.
I know there is a ton to in Chicago. If you want Division I basketball, Chicago State probably isn't your first option. You can go see Loyola, DePaul, Northwestern and Northern Illinois (although who would want to see them anyways) is a short drive away in DeKalb. For an inner-city team, that's poor, though. Even Division III Wheaton College outdrew the Cougars. Whoever is in charge of marketing at Chicago State needs to be fired.
As a conference, the OVC was 19th out of 32 conferences, averaging 2,506 fans. SIUE out-drew Eastern Illinois, Jacksonville State and UT Martin, and was pretty close to everyone not named Murray State, drawing more than 6,000 fans per game and inflating the rest of the conference's numbers.
You can check out the full PDF report here.
Thoughts are welcome.
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