Attendance at Fifth Third Arena for Cincinnati’s home games against non-conference opponents in 2014 was up 17% from the previous year. UC drew 7,304 fans through ten games this season, a marked spike from the 6,222 they drew in 2013.
Attendance is also up slightly from 2012 and the Bearcats haven’t even hosted the Xavier Musketeers yet this season. That game was sold out in a matter of minutes. When those 13,176 add to the total, those increases only balloon to 28% and 9% respectively.
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There are a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, the slate of opponents UC convinced to visit Fifth Third this season is far better on the whole than in 2013. Ranked San Diego State and VCU, teams that drew over 9,000 people to The Shoe, are simply more intriguing than NC State and Nebraska. The latter pair might come from Power 5 conferences but the Aztecs and Rams are easily the better programs, and UC fans knew this.
Also, Cincinnati’s games with NC State and Nebraska were at 5 pm on a Tuesday and noon on a Saturday following Christmas. Not exactly the easiest matchups for fans to make, especially those with families or students.
Meanwhile, this year, San Diego State tipped off at 9 pm on a Thursday and VCU the following Saturday before Christmas when students had a better chance of being on campus. It’s a seemingly insignificant change but the major television networks slotting Cincinnati’s most intriguing home games at more fan-friendly times certainly helps attendance.
But the biggest factor is probably the makeup of the roster this season.
They’ve been built to break the mold offensively and hyped as an exciting, young team. Most of them are new, and we’ve been frustrated by the growing pains that naturally accompany such a group, but it was hard for fans to not see the resume of Gary Clark and Farad Cobb and not want to come out to see them with their own eyes. Plus, for the freshman Clark, he’s been a vine machine and is easily the most talked about newbie this year.
Overall it’s encouraging that Cincinnati has not only improved the strength and attractiveness of their non-conference schedule but fans are responding to the improvement. As has been mentioned, attendance overall dropped by 7% from 2012 to 2013 not because of the transition from the Big East to the AAC but because of those non-conference games.
It’s been proven fans will come out in droves to see UConn, Memphis, and SMU, which drew over 10,000 a couple of weeks back. Heck, even 7,500 came out to watch the Bearcats decimate the lowly East Carolina Pirates. To see a boost at the ticket office for the non-AAC slate bodes well for attendance overall this year. Cincinnati is averaging about 7,600 midway through the 2014-15 season and that should only rise as the Bearcats make their way through their conference slate.
Surpassing the 9,253 mark UC set in 2012-13, the highest in the Mick Cronin era, isn’t out of the realm of possibility. Even a five-figure average attendance is possible if Cincinnati sells out every home game the rest of the way. Xavier is already taken care of and UC is doing their darnedest to get fans to Temple next Saturday night. Hopefully a nice run by this team in the coming months draws close to sell out crowds to Fifth Third Arena.