When LSU Athletic Director Skip Bertman made the decision to fire former men’s basketball coach John Brady, he cited poor attendance as one of the factors behind the move. “Attendance, to me, is very important,” Bertman said in a Feb. 8 press conference. “[It creates] an environment that makes it easier for a team to compete. Basketball has been stagnant at about 7,000 season ticket holders … Having people in the seats is very important to me.” Once one of the toughest tickets in town in the 1980s and early 1990s, the PMAC was barely half-full throughout LSU’s first three conference games with an average paid attendance of just more than 8,000, ranking in the bottom half of the Southeastern Conference. Fans have responded since Brady’s dismissal, causing an increase in attendance the past few home games. In LSU’s five home games since Brady’s firing, paid attendance has increased more than 10 percent to nearly 9,000 per game, including crowds of more than 10,000 against then-No. 7 Tennessee and Kentucky. In Brady’s 12 home games, paid attendance only surpassed 8,000 one time. In each of Pierre’s five home games, the Tigers have surpassed that number. Mark Hill, political science senior, said he has followed LSU basketball throughout the season. Hill said he believes the team showed a lack of effort early in the conference season, dissuading him from regularly attending the games. “It got to the point to where it wasn’t worth going anymore,” Hill said. “It was probably time for a change.” Hill said interim coach Butch Pierre’s nine-game tenure has recaptured his attention. He said the upcoming coaching search will be a decisive factor in whether he will regularly attend games next season. “When they get a new, permanent coach, sure, I’ll be excited about it,” Hill said. “It will be good to start over.” LSU Assistant Ticket Manager Tim Messa said Brady’s departure has only had a small effect on the increased attendance but is not the only explanation, despite the attendance spike since the firing of Brady. “I don’t know if the increase is directly attributed to coach Pierre,” Messa said. “He may have had some effect on the sales, but in general, our better games were toward the end of the year.” Messa said the Kentucky and Tennessee games had high ticket sales and were projected to surpass 10,000 even while Brady was still the Tigers’ coach. “Those games were selling better, but they were still selling better prior to coach Brady being let go,” Messa said. “The interest in the ticket sales picked up once coach Pierre took over, but a lot of that probably has to do with the competition picking up.” With more fans in their corner, the Tigers’ play also increased. LSU won four of its past five games and closed the regular season with three straight home wins in the PMAC. Bertman said while attendance is important, the best way to fix the problem is to win. “The ultimate reason that John was fired isn’t attendance,” Bertman said. “They just didn’t win enough basketball games since the Final Four … We are going to try and get a coach that’s fan-friendly, that can unite the community, that can get them excited.”
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