#IUBB Leads Big Ten In Attendance, Sixth Nationally
6/18/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
June 18, 2014
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - The Indiana University men's basketball program finished the 2013-14 season ranked sixth in the country and first in the Big Ten in overall attendance, averaging a 17,359 fans in 18 home games. Assembly Hall has an official seating capacity of 17,472.
The Hoosiers also led the Big Ten, which paced all conferences in attendance (13,534) for the 38th straight season, in average attendance for the second straight year.
IU finished 16th in the country in 2009 and has never finished below 17th since 1972. From 1972-1998, IU ranked in the top 10 in 25 of 27 years and led the nation in attendance in 1976 after finishing second in 1974 and 1975.
During the 2013-14 campaign, the Big Ten welcomed 2,896,322 patrons, the 22nd straight year the conference eclipsed the two-million mark. In addition, the Big Ten Men's Basketball Tournament welcomed 111,427 fans over six sessions at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, an average of 18,571 fans per session and the largest total attendance in Indianapolis. Each of the last two tournaments have been sold out, including a conference record of more than 124,000 fans at the United Center in 2013.
For regular season and postseason home games only, the conference saw an increase in average attendance for the fifth consecutive year with 13,389 patrons per contest, the highest average since at least the 1999-2000 season. The Big Ten's average attendance ranks third since at least 1971-72, trailing only the 1989-90 (13,455) and 1999-2000 (13,443) campaigns. In addition, for the first time since 2000-01 and 2001-02, the Big Ten drew an average of at least 13,000 fans per home game in back-to-back seasons. During Big Ten play, the conference eclipsed 1.5 million fans (1,513,266) for the first time in conference history, and averaged more than 14,000 fans per conference home game (14,012) for just the third time since at least the 1962-63 season.