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Men's Basketball Attendance


Old Titan

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This might sound like "asking for a friend" snark, but it's a sincere question:  does anyone know for a fact how the "sponsored" complimentary tickets that've been so popular this season figure (if at all) into the Mabee Center attendance numbers for men's basketball?  See social media posts touting both below...

 

 

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I don’t know how the sponsored ticket giveaways work. It’s an interesting question.
 

I always assumed the company makes a donation, or pays a sponsorship fee, in exchange for ORU giving away tickets in their name. If that’s how it works, then ORU is effectively selling those tickets to the sponsor, but certainly nowhere near the cost per ticket that they would get if the tickets were sold individually. I guess technically if those tickets are sold (even at a steep discount) then they count towards the attendance figures. I assume nobody counts attendance as the actual number of people in the building. 
 

There’s a lot of assumptions there, so I’m probably wrong on all that, but it would make sense to me if that’s how it worked. Hopefully someone will chime in that actually knows how it works.

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Best Attendance in Tulsa....gotta love that dig......:circle-logoi:

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1 hour ago, Idig32 said:

I don’t know how the sponsored ticket giveaways work. It’s an interesting question.
 

I always assumed the company makes a donation, or pays a sponsorship fee, in exchange for ORU giving away tickets in their name. If that’s how it works, then ORU is effectively selling those tickets to the sponsor, but certainly nowhere near the cost per ticket that they would get if the tickets were sold individually. I guess technically if those tickets are sold (even at a steep discount) then they count towards the attendance figures. I assume nobody counts attendance as the actual number of people in the building. 
 

There’s a lot of assumptions there, so I’m probably wrong on all that, but it would make sense to me if that’s how it worked. Hopefully someone will chime in that actually knows how it works.

I think all your assumptions are accurate, but I'm not sure either.  As you pointed out, I see nothing ethically wrong with including sponsor giveaway tickets in the attendance total if the sponsor paid something for them.

I seem to recall "back in the day" that ORU Athletics was responsible for sales tax even on free tickets, which is why so many ticket promotions were either deeply-discounted (but not free) or "buy-one-get-one-free".  If sales tax is still an issue, then perhaps the sponsorship on these recent free ticket promos goes to defray/cover/exceed that expense.

The more I think about it, the more this seems like a question for numbers guy @Bogus Smith  🤓

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I was curious about Summit League attendance and looked at games since the conference season started and came up with the following figures (average attendance):

Oral Roberts:     5,121

South Dakota State:    2,691

South Dakota:    2,191

North Dakota State:   1,953

Omaha:       1,688

North Dakota:    1,540

St. Thomas:     1,428

Kansas City:     1,016

Denver:      809

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42 minutes ago, ORUTerry said:

I was curious about Summit League attendance and looked at games since the conference season started and came up with the following figures (average attendance):

Oral Roberts:     5,121

South Dakota State:    2,691

South Dakota:    2,191

North Dakota State:   1,953

Omaha:       1,688

North Dakota:    1,540

St. Thomas:     1,428

Kansas City:     1,016

Denver:      809

Imagine a future where the two largest cities in the league start turning out to support their namesake colleges...

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Interesting stats:

Kansas City's largest attendance was when they played ORU on Dec 29:  1,337  (how many of these were ORU fans?)

Denver has had some weak attendance figures - including 198 on Jan 13 against SDSU, in their last two home game they reported 1,278 against SD and 1,183 against Omaha). They drew 752 against ORU.

Our reported crowds:

Jan 6 (Weber State):  5,557 - no students

Jan 11 (South Dakota):  3,517 - no students

Jan 13 (St. Thomas):  4,652 - no students

Jan 25 (Omaha):  4,963

Jan 27 (SDSU):  6,914

 

The only teams that approached our attendance:

South Dakota vs SDSU on Jan 20:  3,892

SDSU vs. North Dakota on Dec 31:  3,029

SDSU vs. Omaha on Jan 18:  2,831

SDSU vs. Montana St. on Jan. 6:  2,167

NDSU vs. ORU on Jan 20:  2,017

 

 

 

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If I did my math correctly, SDSU WBB averages 1,681 a game which represents 62.5% of the MBB average.  That has to be one of the best ratios in Division 1 doesn't it?  I sampled a few programs.  No surprise UCONN women's attendance compares very favorably at 85.7%.  Two success women's programs in Texas have a lower ratio that SDSU.  Texas comes in at 57% and Baylor is right around SDSU at 62%.  

I didn't run our numbers 😳

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6 minutes ago, Otis 83 said:

If I did my math correctly, SDSU WBB averages 1,681 a game which represents 62.5% of the MBB average.  That has to be one of the best ratios in Division 1 doesn't it?  I sampled a few programs.  No surprise UCONN women's attendance compares very favorably at 85.7%.  Two success women's programs in Texas have a lower ratio that SDSU.  Texas comes in at 57% and Baylor is right around SDSU at 62%.  

I didn't run our numbers 😳

 

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Jethro also learned his gozintas.  1 gozinta 2 2 times.  2 gozinta 4 2 times.  2 gozinta 6 3 times.

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I found some hard numbers that you can potentially use for reference. I think most schools announce total tickets distributed (not sure if that math works out, below).
This is WVU data from 2017-18

Capture.gif

Matt Brown, of Extra Points (newsletter), has a FOIA database and that's where I found this.  There are a bunch of files with ticket scan info, but most of them don't seem to indicate which school they came from. 
If you're interested: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ZpkAm5YUNQVJ5JmTllS8ey8T3uM3L0FC?lfhs=2

Edited by nodak651
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On 2/2/2024 at 1:34 PM, Old Titan said:

I think all your assumptions are accurate, but I'm not sure either.  As you pointed out, I see nothing ethically wrong with including sponsor giveaway tickets in the attendance total if the sponsor paid something for them.

I seem to recall "back in the day" that ORU Athletics was responsible for sales tax even on free tickets, which is why so many ticket promotions were either deeply-discounted (but not free) or "buy-one-get-one-free".  If sales tax is still an issue, then perhaps the sponsorship on these recent free ticket promos goes to defray/cover/exceed that expense.

The more I think about it, the more this seems like a question for numbers guy @Bogus Smith  🤓

Been away a few days while celebrating a birthday with my fam.

Tickets that are complementary are not subject to sales tax; however, most other tickets will be taxed by the state/local authorities.  I agree with OT that there is nothing ethically wrong with the giveaway tickets as they make the environment enticing for future purchasers.  Truly, the basketball environment is much better in the past three seasons than I have seen in the past three decades.  It certainly doesn't compare to the 70's and early 80's, but for this generation it is great!

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