There are some games when Taylor Ford looks up from the bench at the vastly open Carrier Dome and can’t believe how empty it is.

“I’m like, ‘Oh shoot,’” Ford said.

Three years into her college career, Ford is still learning to tune out what’s around her. Rows and rows of empty seats. The student sections without a single occupant. Sometimes, it’s so quiet that Ford thinks there would be benefits to playing in a smaller gym and leaving the historic Dome to Syracuse’s men’s basketball team.

The No. 23 Orange (15-5, 5-2 Atlantic Coast) women’s basketball team’s attendance isn’t just bad, it’s the worst. This season’s 649 fans per home game is the worst in the ACC. The worst of any power-conference team. And worse than most Division I programs. Syracuse has looked into different marketing avenues, including possibly a points system to get upgraded men’s tickets with the purchase of women’s tickets. However, none of SU’s efforts have showed in tangible attendance figures.

As a result, a team on the verge of national contention that’s been ranked all season and just moments away from upsetting two top-10 teams, is left playing in front of a virtually empty 35,000-person venue on a game-by-game basis.

“I’ve seen schools do a better job of promoting their team,” said Floyd Little, SU’s special assistant to the athletics director. “We could do a better job of supporting our women’s basketball team.”

Little attends every home game and travels on the road with the team. He sees the 8,859 fans Notre Dame gets per game, or the 10,368 that Tennessee draws. He’s seen the contrast of a college where women’s basketball is a staple and where it’s an afterthought.

When it comes to promoting the team, Chief Communications Officer Joe Giansante said there is a buzz about the women’s team, but not much to show for it.

He said SU Athletics is looking at how other programs around the country get fans to their women’s basketball games. The team will do 11 or 12 small marketing efforts, from a “Girls in Sports” night to inviting cheer and dance groups. It’s part of an effort to get people to “sample the product.”

“We’re looking at everything,” Giansante said. “If you put an urgency on it, it’s high.”

It’s challenging to get students to actually go to games, Otto’s Army president Sean Fernandez said. He said the student turnout isn’t where it should be, and thinks it will become a focus for the student group.

As the team’s wins continue to increase, the belief is that the attendance will follow suit. However, that has not been the case. The team averaged 1,080 fans during the 2010–11 and 2011–12 seasons combined, to just 651 since.

The players do everything they can to promote themselves. On the busses, they tell people to come out and watch. In classrooms, they let people know when the next home game is. They go into the community and post on social media.

Still, Ford said, a lot of people have no idea how the women’s team is doing.

“A lot of times people don’t know that we play,” Ford said. “Some people ask me, ‘How you girls been doing?’ And we tell them and they’re like ‘Oh, that’s really good.” And we’re like, ‘Yeah. Thanks.’”

During Syracuse’s win over Wake Forest on Jan. 15, a Carrier Dome employee near the press row was overheard saying near tipoff, “97 people came in. That’s an all-time low.”

Last season the women’s team drew 8,979 fans over the course of a 15-game season. The men’s team averaged 26,253, and totaled more than 518,000 total fans.

Prices for women’s game’s tickets start at $8.40 on Ticketmaster, and rise to $24.70 for courtside seating. However, students are allowed to attend for free with SU identification.

Ninth-year head coach Quentin Hillsman — who has built SU up from a nine-win team into a 25-win team in his first five years — said the attendance numbers are out of his team’s control. He has made his team worth the move in venue from Manley Field House to the Dome, but the attendance figures haven’t mirrored the Orange’s success.

“We can’t get into who’s showing up and who’s not showing up,” Hillsman said. “I know that when we’re in our arena and playing in the Dome, we play well.”

And Syracuse has played well at home. It’s won 65 straight nonconference home games. Over the past three seasons, the Orange has only lost two games to unranked opponents in its building.

Hillsman said winning at home feels good because he’s rewarding the loyal fans, the ones that come out to every game and have supported the program even before it won its first-ever NCAA tournament game last season.

Syracuse is a program that is on the rise, but its popularity has yet to reflect that. The city has established itself as one that is engrained in its love of basketball, but a love that doesn’t extend to both of SU’s teams.

“It is a disappointment, because when you watch the boys’ games, there’s a lot of fans. And when you see us, it’s like a few,” Ford said. “Now, we’re so used to it that we just play regardless of who’s there and who’s not there.”

Correction: In the Jan. 28 article, “Syracuse looks to improve on power conference-worst attendance numbers,” SU forward Taylor Ford’s quote was misstated. Ford said, “I’m like, ‘Oh shoot.’” The Daily Orange regrets this error.

 

Published on January 28, 2015 at 12:33 am

Contact Sam: sblum@syr.edu | @SamBlum3