Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament Attendance Report

9

USI

The Great Lakes Valley Conference came into Evansville’s Ford Center with high expectations to draw the kinds of crowds that Roberts Stadium once drew when the Evansville Aces were playing in Division 2.

The ladies teams kicked it off on Thursday with four games drawing a total of 1,019 fans for an average attendance of 255 per game. The largest crowd of 372 was to see the hometown USI women advance to the Saturday round.

The men took the court on Friday with four games drawing a total of 2,187 fans for an average per game of 547 people. The USI Eagles once again drew the largest crowd with 1,100 fans watching them advance to today’s round.

The CCO would like to encourage our readers to come out and root for the USI Eagles to take home both championships.

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9 COMMENTS

  1. Thanks to the CCO for this report. I’m glad somebody else has been tracking this as well. 255 fans is only 2.7% of the Ford Center’s officially listed capacity of 9,400.

    In comparison, PAC holds 2,700 (3,200 before renovations). And of course, when USI plays, zero outside economic growth is generated as it’s just a shift from the west side to downtown.

    The fact that UE’s WOMEN’s attendance beats this just proves it’s in not only a wrong facility, but an unsustainable facility as well. And the blame goes straight to the mayor’s office who has now but us in this forced predicament.

    • They didn’t sell enough tickets to these games to pay for the Vectren bill to boil the hot dogs and pop the popcorn. More dreams of delusion from the house that Weinzapfel built. Any middle school gym in town would have been fine for this tournament. You know with 8 teams in each tournament that 255 may just be teams, cheerleaders, and coaches. I’m sure a parent or two drove in but it they were counting on heads in beds for this someone was hitting the pipe.

      • I guarantee you they will try to blame this mismanagement on the Ford Center or the conference. Or they will try to act like this current alignment is a success.

        But the fact remains is that Evansville now has facilitiess that are woefully incompatible with any kind of sports needs. And yes that sucks because yes the GLVC belongs here as do several other leagues of various sizes. But unlike Sioux Falls we do not have the proper facilities to house these events. Now we either find sponsors to subsidize a terrible set up or lose the glvc. Neither idea is good.

        It’s going to take a lot of rich boosters and caring supporters over many decades to fix the mess this mayor and several UE decision makers over the years have put us in .

        • Attendance at first session today for women’s semifinals: 170

          Attendance for second session men’s semifinals: 1,743 (USI defeated #1 seed Drury)

          USI’s victory probably saved tomorrows championships from having 200 or less attendees.

  3. UE’s attendance is also pathetic, but 1100 people to watch USI in a hometown conference tournament game? So much for that supplanting UE as Evansville’s team talk.

    • Looking at the 2012 Springfield Illinois results, looks as Evansville attendance are in line with what they had.

      Oh by the way, “Go BU!” (my son goes there)

  4. Is anybody going to say that USI needs to drop down to Division III since they don’t draw enough people at Division II?

    I’m just kidding of course. It just seems the USI people are always ripping on UE and saying they need to drop down to Division II whenever the only have 4,500 people at their home games. I think this GLVC Tournament illustrates the fact that UE should NOT drop down to Division – because USI is a very successful Division II school that can’t surpass UE in attendance. This town won’t support a Division II winner or a Division I doormat. It will only support a Division I winner.

    I like both schools. Just saying.

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