Saturday's light crowd against Georgetown should be ringing some alarm bells
The crowd before tip-off between Syracuse and Georgetown on Saturday, December 14. | Photo by Dominic Chiappone
Syracuse Orange basketball fans have long been regarded as some of the best in the nation, braving the oft-frigid conditions to pack the Dome. But they’ve been blessed with the incentive of watching winning teams over the past half-century - something that’s lately become less of a certainty.
The program is currently in a three-year NCAA Tournament drought, and the start of this campaign does not bode well for it to be broken in March. Between that and the ever-rising cost of tickets, there are far fewer reasons for the casual fan to make the trip.
Which leads to Saturday’s game against Georgetown, the 100th meeting between the programs. Even in down years for one side or the other, the rivalry would usually attract some of the largest crowds the host team would see in a given year. That wasn’t the case this time.
SU had a paid attendance of 17,187 on Saturday. While many programs would gladly take that number, there’s only one that plays in a facility capable of holding over 30k for basketball - and who prides itself in reaching that mark yearly.
Historically speaking, this was a shockingly low turnout:
The crowd of 17,187 was the third-worst attended SU-Georgetown game in Dome history. It's No. 2 if you throw out the COVID year no one could attend. Worst attended game was a Big East Tournament game with Georgetown on March 6, 1981 (17,101) at the Dome.
— Brent Axe (@BrentAxeMedia) December 15, 2024
There have only been two times where the average SU attendance was lower than that Georgetown figure. That first season in the Dome featured the lowest (16,440) in the facility’s history. The second worst was 2001-02 (17,023).
Overall numbers for this season aren’t at a crisis point yet - an average of 18,226 through six home games is still impressive - but early indications for ACC play don't look promising. The Orange will still be without J.J. Starling for a bit, and they're in serious danger of exiting the non-conference portion of the calendar sitting at .500, so interest isn't likely to improve much.
While the ticket office can't control the on court product, they do control the... well, tickets. 'Cuse made the rather strange decision to hold off on releasing single game options for ACC games until this month, and as of this being published, the Duke and UNC games are still unavailable. Translation - those games are not going to sell well, unless there’s a large visitor presence.
As I've said repeatedly on this site, the goal should always be to get as many fans through the revolving Dome doors as possible, but SU just keeps getting in its own way. There was a chance to build off a 20-win season in Adrian Autry’s first year and really pitch seeing five-star Donnie Freeman and the transfer class.
Instead, many of those brand new seats will either be empty or filled with people wearing different shades of blue.
