With basketball attendance dipping, Gregg Marshall challenges Wichita State fanbase
Wichita State played its 232nd consecutive game at Koch Arena with an announced attendance of at least 10,000 Thursday, a streak that dates back to 2004.
But anyone who was actually there for the game — or any of WSU’s six home games this season — noticed nowhere close to 10,018 fans were actually at Koch Arena. That’s because it is standard practice in college basketball to announce the attendance as the number of tickets sold and not actual tickets used.
The record will show WSU is averaging 10,064 fans for home games this season, when in reality, that actual average attendance has been 6,426 — just a 64% turnout rate — according to numbers the Eagle obtained from WSU’s ticket office.
After WSU’s 95-69 thumping of Central Arkansas, where the actual attendance was just 6,178 of the announced 10,018, WSU coach Gregg Marshall addressed the Koch Arena crowds’ size head-on.
“We have the best fans in the world, but unfortunately this is an epidemic all over the country,” Marshall said. “We’re not immune to it. What I would like to (ask) is if our fans could give their tickets to someone that would wear yellow and black and make a lot of noise, instead of putting them in a drawer and letting them sit there.”
Marshall has mentioned several times the lack of participation in the stands during the team’s pre-game starting lineup introduction video, when fans are asked to shine the lights on their cell phones. It once again caught his eye Thursday.
“If you’ve paid the money and bought the tickets, give them to someone so they can use them and actually bring a cell phone and turn on the light when they turn the lights off,” Marshall said. “It looks a little funny when there’s like 17 lights on. Let’s have everybody do that.
“And if you don’t have a cell phone, borrow mine. I’ll let you have mine for the introductions.”
There are several factors that could play into the dip in fans actually showing up to games.
The first, as Marshall alluded, is that a dip in attendance has occurred everywhere in the country, even for college basketball’s bluebloods. It also doesn’t help that WSU’s list of home games this season has been Nebraska Omaha, Texas Southern, Tennessee at Martin, Gardner-Webb, Oral Roberts and Central Arkansas. Furthermore, WSU has played three of those games on Saturday afternoons in the fall, when there is ample competition for things to do.
Another thing that could be at play is that it’s now been two-plus years since the Shockers have been a Top 25 team.
But none of that used to matter to WSU fans, who would still pack Koch Arena with at least 9,000 even for the lowest tier of home games. And as Marshall suggested, fans can always try to sell their tickets or give them away to others who can attend the games.
Even without Marshall’s pleas to WSU fans, attendance figures to spike soon. The Shockers play Oklahoma in a highly anticipated game at Intrust Bank Arena next Saturday, then host a big Saturday night game against VCU on Dec. 21.
Right around the corner, WSU hosts two more marquee games at Koch Arena less than a week apart when Mississippi comes to Wichita on Jan. 4 and the much-hyped Memphis Tigers come to town for the second conference game of the season on Jan. 9.
This story was originally published December 6, 2019 at 6:30 AM.
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