Whether an empty gym or a packed house, LSU coach Nikki Fargas enjoys the passion of the fans watching the Lady Tigers.
In recent years, there haven’t been many viewers in the PMAC to spectate the Lady Tigers’ successes and failures, but that’s bound to change, Fargas said.
In the 2012-13 season, 69,438 total fans attended 18 LSU home games — an average of 3,858 spectators per game.
In the 2015-16 season, attendance dropped to 37,152 total viewers in a 13-game home season, with the average decreasing to 2,858 per game, according to attendance records.
Minimal attendance could be the outcome of the team’s performance, which faltered because of player injuries and a diminished roster.
In the four seasons since the 2012-13 year, the Tigers have posted a 3-13 Southeastern Conference record and 10-21 overall finish.
Fargas said fans understood and recognized the “heart” of the players last season, regardless of the amount of people in the stands.
They were loyal, she said.
“They’ve stuck with us when things looked not so well and we had our backs against the walls, and we had to go seven and eight down the stretch in SEC play to get into the NCAA play,” Fargas said. “Those are the type of fans I want to highlight and talk about.”
In the 2013-14 season, that number dropped to 48,854 within a 16-game home span at the PMAC with an average of 3,053 attendees per game. There wasn’t a big shift in the 2014-15 season, but the total still fell to 42,592 with a 2,839 per game average.
Assistant Marketing Director Kyle Huber said there could be multiple reasons for a drop in attendance, including the dates of games.
“With attendance, there is never one specific thing if we’re down in attendance,” Huber said. “This year we have Thursday-Sunday games. Thursday nights is a hard sell for some families when the games are either at 7 o’clock or 8 o’clock.”
Huber added that attendance can fall short due to the prevalence of livestreams and the amount of games during the winter break.
Huber said the marketing department does a lot to recruit new fans and cater to current ones. From posts on social media to advertisements around Baton Rouge, all of the promotions center around the start of the season and ticket sales, Huber said.
He said the women’s basketball team recently finished a kid’s clinic and hosted a student 3-on-3 basketball tournament in conjunction with recruiting new fans and getting students involved. That’s the focus this year, Huber said.
“You look at gymnastics, go to a gymnastics meet and it’s thousands and thousands of little kids screaming,” Huber said. “Now, for women’s basketball, it’s kind of a seasoned crowd … It’s kind of the balance of trying to keep the fans that we have and then adding new fans. Trying to get it to a kind of gymnastics standpoint because kids are the future. They’ll be fans for life.”
Huber said he believes this year will be different, especially with LSU’s slate of opponents.
On the Lady Tigers’ roster this season are No. 1 UConn on Nov. 20 — a team that has won four consecutive national championships and earned a 38-0 record through this season — and a bevy of elite in-conference opponents, such as the league’s top-ranked South Carolina Gamecocks.
A “packed PMAC” is what the marketing team and coaching staff want to see, Huber said. He meets with Fargas and the coaching staff on a weekly basis to bounce around different ideas.
“That’s always been my goal since I’ve been here with any sport,” he said. “You just kind of enhance the brand of the sport, but at the end of the day, are we getting people to the events, and how effectively are we doing that?”