The difference between Basketball attendance and Football attendance

[Albert Einswine]

Arkansas has always been a football state and the UofA is a football school.  Before the advent of Bud Walton Arena we had a 9,500 seat arena in Barnhill.

Filling up Barnhill, no problem.  That suited our core basketball fan group just fine.

Along comes 1990 and 2 things of great significance happen. 

First, football goes in the crapper and remains there (1995 being the exception) for 7 straight seasons.

Second, Nolan Richardson takes the Hogs to the Denver Final Four and proceeds to make consecutive deep runs in the NCAA tourney.

These two situations collided to create the perfect storm for basketball attendance.  Desperation by beleaguered football fans causes them to go crazy for winning basketball. 

Frank builds the Bud and attendance skyrockets.  We win the National Championship and a runner-up in back to back seasons.  Football still sucks.

Cut to 1998.  Football makes a rebound with Houston Nutt and basketball is in decline with an ever increasingly paranoid, loose cannon Nolan Richardson.

The football fans turned basketball fans begin to abandon basketball and concentrate solely on football, which after all is King.

The newly expanded and renovated Razorback Stadium is a crown jewel that attracts even more football fans.  Football is after all King.

In the final analysis, basketball attendance has returned to its historical core fan attendance base with the addition of some natural growth.  If someone comes in and reignites the bball program the football fans will return to the games for a nice diversion while they await the coming football season.

Until that happens, basketball attendance is about where it should be.

[311Hog]

This is exactly the crux of the whole "attendence" arguement.

UofA is a football school, the big boom and thus the creation of Bud Walton to cash in on the big boom is due to the above factors.  Honestly i preferred Barnhill.

[JustWinHog]

I disagree completely. The Razorback basketball program is one of the Top 10 programs of all time. Our arena is a Top 10 arena. There is no excuse for anything less than top 20 every year and 90% capacity at the Bud. Arkansas is not a football or basketball school. Arkansas is Razorback school and fans will support any of the major sports who perform.

Lastly, our basketball program was storied long before Bud Walton Arena. The Triplets and Eddie Sutton changed everything, Not Nolan. Barnhill arena was and still would be the greatest environment for college basketball anywhere in the world. There will never be greater venue for college basketball.

[hogsanity]

I disagree completely. The Razorback basketball program is one of the Top 10 programs of all time. Our arena is a Top 10 arena. There is no excuse for anything less than top 20 every year and 90% capacity at the Bud. Arkansas is not a football or basketball school. Arkansas is Razorback school and fans will support any of the major sports who perform.

Lastly, our basketball program was storied long before Bud Walton Arena. The Triplets and Eddie Sutton changed everything, Not Nolan. Barnhill arena was and still would be the greatest environment for college basketball anywhere in the world. There will never be greater venue for college basketball.

Much of what built the Hog BB tradition was the friendly confines of BARNHILL.  It is asking alot to have 16K+ for every home BB game. 

[Albert Einswine]

I disagree completely. The Razorback basketball program is one of the Top 10 programs of all time. Our arena is a Top 10 arena. There is no excuse for anything less than top 20 every year and 90% capacity at the Bud. Arkansas is not a football or basketball school. Arkansas is Razorback school and fans will support any of the major sports who perform.

Lastly, our basketball program was storied long before Bud Walton Arena. The Triplets and Eddie Sutton changed everything, Not Nolan. Barnhill arena was and still would be the greatest environment for college basketball anywhere in the world. There will never be greater venue for college basketball.

Apparently you didn't read the part where I addressed core basketball fans.  Hell yes we have great basketball history!  We are a top 10 all time basketball program, I agree.

Our core basketball fan group does not comprise 22,000 souls.

[okiehawg]

I disagree completely. The Razorback basketball program is one of the Top 10 programs of all time. Our arena is a Top 10 arena. There is no excuse for anything less than top 20 every year and 90% capacity at the Bud. Arkansas is not a football or basketball school. Arkansas is Razorback school and fans will support any of the major sports who perform.

Lastly, our basketball program was storied long before Bud Walton Arena. The Triplets and Eddie Sutton changed everything, Not Nolan. Barnhill arena was and still would be the greatest environment for college basketball anywhere in the world. There will never be greater venue for college basketball.

Apparently you didn't read the part where I addressed core basketball fans.  Hell yes we have great basketball history!  We are a top 10 all time basketball program, I agree.

Our core basketball fan group does not comprise 22,000 souls.

I think population in the area has something to do with it as well.  We don't have millions of people sitting around waiting to go to every Razorback home game as some schools do.  I think that is one of the factors that goes along with filling up the stadium two times a week when we have home games.

[WhenPigsFly]

Also, attending the football games is an event, with the tailgating and all the peripheral activities.   My wife doesn't really like the football games, but she loves GOING to the games.

[JoePaul03]

I am disappointed that attendance has lagged from what it once was, but check out this link...scroll down and you'll see we're #9 on this list, which is pretty impressive.

http://www.ncaa.org/stats/m_basketball/attendance/2005_basketball_attend.pdf

You just can't compare football and basketball attendance; they're completely different. If there only 7 or 8 chances to watch the basketball team play in Bud Walton all year, and all those games were on weekends, then there would undoubtedly be more people at games.