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Economy blamed for basketball attendance downturn

Fewer season tickets sold despite team’s 5-1 start to season

Women's basketball Dawn Staley

USC coach Dawn Staley yells out instructions in the first period during the Gamecocks game against Clemson at the Colonial Life Arena Wednesday.

Gerry Melendez/gmelendez@thestate.com /Gerry Melendez/gmelendez@thestate.com

Written by SETH EMERSON

semerson@thestate.com
Posted on 12.05.08
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USC women’s basketball ticket packages

USC will has a new ticket package for women's basketball games.

Final Four Pack. The Gamecock women's basketball team will play four teams that participated in last year's women's Final Four. The package includes home games against Connecticut, Stanford and LSU.

Also included is a road game ticket to see the Gamecocks play at the Tennessee Lady Vols.

The Final Four pack is $15.

Call (800) 472-3267 (4SC-FANS), or visit www.GamecocksOnline.com

When he was hired in April, USC men’s basketball coach Darrin Horn had an unusual clause written into his contract: For every 1,000 new season tickets that were sold, Horn would receive $50,000.

It looks like Horn will have to wait at least a year to claim that bonus.

Season-ticket sales are down from last year, the school said Thursday. A little more than 7,400 have been sold, compared to about 8,000 last year, according to USC.

Horn’s contract listed last season’s season-ticket sales at 9,322, but that figure included pass-outs to trustees, staff, car dealers and others, according to athletics department spokesman Steve Fink. This year’s figure eventually will see a similar increase, he added.

Either way, the downturn in season tickets is reflective of what — at least at the turnstiles — has been a disappointing start to the Horn era.

In an apparent effort to jump-start sales, the school on Thursday started offering a new ticket package: For $98, fans can purchase:

• one ticket for each of eight home games;

• four tickets for each of two games;

• two tickets for each of four games.

The average attendance in four games at the Colonial Life Arena this season is 8,447. The average for all games last season was 12,436, including 11,798 for nonconference games.

The lagging economy gets most of the blame from school officials.

“Darrin’s done everything he can do. The team’s playing well, they’re exciting,” athletics director Eric Hyman said last week. “But you look across the country, you look at some of those games on television now; I think (the economy) is a factor. As you start getting into the meat of your schedule, I think you’ll start to see a difference.”

LSU, the only other conference team that changed coaches, has seen an attendance increase.

The Tigers have drawn an average of 8,929 for their first six home games, all wins against a slate of nonconference opponents comparable to USC’s. That is a per-game increase of about 300 over last year’s average attendance. Comparing nonconference games only, the increase is about 1,000 per game.

So what are other possible reasons for South Carolina’s dip?

The new television deal with SportSouth could be a factor; the Gamecocks’ first four games were on television.

The schedule also has been rather weak, and it will be a while before a big-name team comes to town.

Some fans suggest there is a wait-and-see attitude with the new coaching staff. While Horn appears to have generated excitement for the future, fans could be waiting for results.

Joe Craig, a Columbia resident, is in his third year as a season-ticket holder for men’s basketball. He cited the economic downturn, increased television exposure and the performance of the team in recent years as possible reasons for the decrease in ticket sales.

“I’d like to believe that if we just win more games, especially in the SEC, that the attendance would improve, but I’m really not sure it would,” Craig said. “I, too, thought that a new coach with an exciting style of play would help get more people there, but so far it hasn’t.”

Horn, when asked recently about attendance, preferred to focus on those who have made it to games rather than those who haven’t.

“We’ve been pleased with it, in terms of the ones that are here have been into it; the atmosphere has been good,” Horn said. “I think the most important thing is the student turnout relative to the same time last year has been really good. They’ve been into the games, and we still think that’s the most crucial component, just because they’re so important to the atmosphere and energy of the arena.”

Reach Emerson at (803) 771-8676.

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