With the MAAC Regular Season at the midpoint, what really stands out is the lack of home attendance and interest at St. Peter's. So far in their 7 home games (3-4) they have averaged just 318 fans in Jersey City. In 2011 when they won the MAAC Championship and the NCAA bid, they still only averaged 886 fans at home. Tonight SPU will play their MAAC in state "rivalry game" with Rider at 7:00 pm on ESPN3.
MAAC Attendance (1/31/14): Team - Games - Total - Average Canisius 8-12554 - 1569 Fairfield 9-16985 - 1887 Iona 9-15559 - 1729 Manhattan 8-15647 - 1956 Marist 9-11130 - 1237 Monmouth 11-17210 - 1565 Quinnipiac 9-15672 - 1741 Rider 7-9529 - 1361 Saint Peter's 7-2225 - 318 Siena 9-57851 - 6428
If you take out the CT6 game (5,060) with Sacred Heart, the Stags are averaging just 1,490 so far at the WBA.
With the MAAC Regular Season at the midpoint, what really stands out is the lack of home attendance and interest at St. Peter's. So far in 7 home games (3-4) they have averaged just 318 fans in Jersey City. Tonight Peter's will play their MAAC in state "rivalry game" with Rider at 7:00 pm on ESPN3.
MAAC Attendance (1/30/14): Team - Games - Total - Average Canisius 8-12554 - 1569 Fairfield 9-16985 - 1887 (includes 5,060 CT6 game) Iona 9-15559 - 1729 Manhattan 8-15647 - 1956 Marist 9-11130 - 1237 Monmouth 11-17210 - 1565 Quinnipiac 9-15672 - 1741 Rider 7-9529 - 1361 Saint Peter's 7-2225 - 318 Siena 9-57851 - 6428
Well considering at one time a few years ago it was FREE to attend a game at the Yanitelli Center, this doesn't surprise me at all. Actually what is more surprising to me is the count at some of the arenas with the best teams in the league. Most particularly Iona should be doing much better given their record this season plus their back to back appearances in the NCAA Tounament. And with a good team and one of the most fun players to watch in the country you would think Canisuis could do better on a nightly basis. Same with Quinnipiac with a contender for first place and their nice, modern new gym, right?
Unfortunately it is still MAAC Basketball that is being played and that doesn't seem to generate a lot of interest to the non-diehard college basketball/alumni/student fans no matter how good the team is unless you are Siena playing in the Albany/Capital District market. If you take out the CT6 game (5,060) with Sacred Heart, the Stags are averaging just 1,490 so far this season at the WBA. The locals and the walk ups don't care as they will save their money until UConn comes back to a sold out WBA.
I would guess that Iona will sell out (2,611) their Hynes Athletic Center tonight for their "rivalry game" with Manhattan but they haven't done so this season with their previous ESPNU, SNY or important MAAC games.
A-10 Fordham (8-12)(1-6) is doing just a little better at home (6-4) averaging 2,201 with 5 home games left on their schedule. However, no longer playing Xavier, Temple, Charlotte and Butler at their RHG is not helping.
Lets put it this way, if we had the Post-season Success that Iona or Siena had we would be averaging 4,000 fans a game. Even when we play games that battle for 1st place in the MAAC we average about 3,500.
Last Edit: Jan 31, 2014 13:13:13 GMT -5 by JoeStag
Watching the Canisus at Qunnipiac game last night on SNY and the place was empty. Both Monmouth and Quinnipiac both have beautiful on campus arenas and they cannot fill them up. The support from their students is also poor.Just goes to prove that an on campus arena does not automatically equate to ticket sales. You need to win consistently and the the right size on-campus arena for FFLD would be around 3,000 no more.
Quinnipiac is (7-2) at home in their first MAAC season. The box score for Quinnipiac's 86-74 loss at home last night to Canisius has 2,503 but it did not look like that on SNY.
Post by nashvillestag on Jan 31, 2014 13:45:06 GMT -5
Funny thing about games at Quinnipiac. There always seem to be a lot of patches of empty seats within the areas where supposedly all the seats have been sold. I remember specifically the first game ever played there which I had the opportunity to attend, where all 3,400 or so seats were sold, but yet there certainly weren't fannies in all of them by any means. Maybe rich, corporate types purchase but really don't have the passion to show? Actually the prices are reasonable to anyone so I really don't know the answer. But it is a strange phenomenon.
Drives me nuts that people blame our predicament on the lack of a campus arena. Fix the quality of coaching and the team. Just be competitive.
The way we start games lately, we seem capable, but then something happens late in the game ...the coach and/or the team lets up and tries to coast to victory.
