In sports, there’s nothing like home field advantage, especially in the Southeastern Conference where passionate fan bases reign supreme.
Since returning to campus in 1997, the program has never had a losing season, but the sport hasn’t always been as popular as football or basketball in the Bayou area.
The original Tiger Park held a capacity of 1,000 spectators and in its first six years of existence, the program failed to average more than 560 attendees a game.
But in 2001, former LSU coach Yvette Girouard helped bring the program to new heights. From 2001-2008 the Tigers earned two trips to the Women’s College World Series and softball began to gain popularity. Fans started to come out in force, nearly filling Tiger Park for every game in 2008, with an average attendance of 866 per game.
More fans in Tiger Park translated to more wins, as the Tigers went 407-119 overall and had an astounding home record of 222-37 during that span.
With the rise in popularity, LSU upgraded its facilities so more fans would be able to cheer on the Tigers.
The current form of Tiger Park opened up its gates in 2009, featuring a capacity of 2,249 fans. The park includes 1,289 chair back seats and bench back seats. The most popular section of Tiger Park, formerly known as the “berm”, now called Tiger Park Terrace, holds 960 additional fans.
After Girouard retired in 2011, coach Beth Torina took over the program. In her short time in Baton Rouge, Torina has already reached two Women’s College World Series twice.
Even though the average attendees in Tiger Park have gone up and down during Torina’s tenure, nine of the top-10 attendance figures have come during that time, with five of them occurring last season.
Senior shortstop Bianka Bell has noticed the rise in popularity from the Tiger faithful.
“Just going out to the mall or even to dinner somewhere, people will come up to us and say how excited they are about the season and they [bought] season tickets and that they never had them before,” Bell said. “It’s really cool.”
Since Torina took over, LSU has averaged 1,200 fans per game and the team has twice broken the average attendance record in the new Tiger Park.
Last season’s team broke a record for total attendance and average, nearly 70,000
Tiger faithful came out to Tiger Park and an average of 1,625 fans came out a game and the Tigers went 38-5 at home last season.
“We definitely have the best fans in the country,” Torina said. “I think we are a tough place for visitors to come, that was proven by the attendance last year. [It] really helped propel us to the College World Series last year.”
More than 17,000 fans have come out to Tiger Park this season and an average of 1,776 per game, through 10 games. With SEC play looming, the fans could raise that average even higher.
Seven of the top-25 teams are ranked in the USA Today/NFCA poll, and three of them will be visiting Tiger Park this season.
With thousands of fans cheering the Tigers on, it definitely serves as motivation for players.
“Our fans are just so loyal,” said junior infielder Sahvanna Jaquish. “They really come out and show their support for us. The energy in Tiger Park is just electrifying.”
You can reach Josh Thornton on Twitter @JoshT_TDR