The Texas men's and women's basketball teams both played at the Frank Erwin Center Jan. 26, and the difference between the two games went beyond gender and outcomes.
The women defeated Missouri 67-37 that afternoon in front of 5,555 fans. The victory, which vaulted the Longhorns back into the Associated Press Top 25 poll, came in front on the largest crowd the team had drawn up to that point.
Later that night, the men's basketball team faced Texas Tech in the same building in front of a sellout crowd.
The women average a mere 5,059 fans per game, good enough for fifth in the Big 12. The Sooners lead the conference with 9,576.
That means the lower level of the 16,755-seat Erwin Center, home to both Texas basketball teams, is sparsely filled for women's games, the upper deck occupied only by cameramen.
The staggering disparity between the teams' fan attendance is due, in part, to a lack of students at the women's games.
"When 20 students show up - that's huge," said Teri Pierce, Texas' assistant athletics director of marketing. "When you're talking about almost no student attendance, that's a big deal."
For Pierce and Texas coach Gail Goestenkors, the overriding factor affecting student attendance is the culture surrounding the women's game.
"Students tend to like the ESPN highlights. They want to see SportsCenter," Goestenkors said. "I think it takes someone with really good basketball knowledge for teamwork and passing to appreciate the
women's game."
The 15-year veteran coach stressed the need for excitement in order to draw more fans, something she has been working on since coming to Texas this year by installing an offense that focuses around the rim instead of the three-point line.
Goestenkors comes from perennial basketball powerhouse Duke, where she molded the dying Blue Devils into Final Four contenders.
She said that the fan support in Durham, N.C., was far larger than what she's found in
Austin.
"At Duke we had the Cameron Crazies so we had a lot of students come out and impact our games," Goestenkors said. "The crowds have been great that we do get here, but we don't see many students."
The Longhorns used to pack the house. From 1985 to 1991 the Longhorns led the nation in average home attendance, according to the team's media guide.
For the 2003-2004 season, the team drew an average of 7,191 fans - the eighth-highest total since the program moved into the Erwin Center in 1977 - but attendance has steadily declined in the subsequent three years, bottoming out at 5,044 fans per game last year.
The 2003-2004 season followed Texas' trip to the Final Four and stimulated fan support, Pierce said. But the last two years have seen the
Longhorns fall from prominence, failing to make the NCAA
Tournament.
With the team's mediocre play came lower student attendance. Pierce said the program is working with student organizations like the Longhorn Hellraisers and Texas Exes student chapter to raise awareness on campus.
"Students will literally walk miles to go to a football game," Pierce said. "But if it's basketball, it's a different story for some reason."
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