South Carolina tops women’s basketball attendance for 3rd straight season; Washington has largest home attendance increase

Source: NCAA.

Top 50 DI Attendance Leaders || Full 2016-17 Attendance Report (PDF)

The NCAA released its annual women’s basketball attendance report for all three divisions today. Total attendance eclipsed 11 million fans for the tenth straight year. Overall, attendance dropped by 20,922 from the previous season, 11,366,943 to 11,346,021.

South Carolina led in home attendance for the third straight season. In 2016-17, the Gamecocks averaged 12,277 fans per home game, a drop from 14,364 in 2015-16.

South Carolina hosted the highest attended regular season game in its Colonial Life Arena sellout 18,000 against Kentucky on Feb. 16, 2017. The Gamecocks also played in the overall highest attended game of the season in the NCAA National Championship game at American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas, which had 19,229 fans. In addition, Colonial Life Arena hosted six of the nation’s top 10 attended games in 2016-17 and 12 of the top 20 outings.

Tennessee was second in home attendance averaging 9,184 fans per home game, a drop from 10, 412 in the previous season when the Lady Vols were also second in the rankings.

Iowa State was third for the second straight year with 9, 106 fans per home game, a drop from 9,833 the previous season.

The remaining top ten in home game attendance: Connecticut (8,888), Louisville (8,256), Notre Dame (8,104), Mississippi State (6,641), Michigan State (6,011), Purdue (5,940) and Baylor (5,934).

Washington had the largest home attendance increase from the previous year averaging 4,080 fans per game, an increase of 2,200 from the previous season. Central Florida was second in attendance increase. UCF gained 1,727 more fans for an average of 2,399 attendees per game in 2016-17. Mississippi State was third with an increase of 1,479 fans to average 6,641 attendees per game this past season.

The SEC lead all conferences in attendance for the third straight season with 966,639 fans total and 4,221 per game. The figure was a decrease from 2015-16 when the conference had over a million attendees (1,108,511) and averaged 4,758 fans per game. The Big 12 was second and the remaining top five were the Big Ten, the Atlantic Coast and the Pac-12.

Five conferences had an all-time high in attendance: the Horizon League, the Ivy League, the MAC, the Pac-12 and the SoCon.

Among Division II schools, Northern State led the way with 37,835 fans over the season and an average of 2,910 attendees per home game. The remaining top five: Fort Hays State, Augustana (SD), Emporia State and Drury.

The leaders in attendance among Division II conferences were the MIAA, the Northern Sun, the CIAA, the Lone Star and the GAC.

Hope College led the pack among Division III schools for home attendance for the ninth year in a row and 11^th time overall. The school averaged 1,132 fans over 14 home games. Schools that rounded out the top five in Division III: Puget Sound, Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Dubuque and Thomas Moore.

The leaders in attendance among Division III conferences were the IIAC, the WIAC, Michigan Intercollegiate, the MAC Commonwealth, and the Ohio AC.