MBB: Northwest Conference

[LogShow]

I'm not saying we pull those numbers every single game, but I think the "empty gym" days are over, at least while LC is winning and admissions keeps bringing in more "preppy" students who will, in general, care more about sports than your average LC hippie.

lol, I thought that was just a setreotype opposing schools had of LC...reminds me of that Southpark episode

[Pio20]

I'm not saying we pull those numbers every single game, but I think the "empty gym" days are over, at least while LC is winning and admissions keeps bringing in more "preppy" students who will, in general, care more about sports than your average LC hippie.

lol, I thought that was just a setreotype opposing schools had of LC...reminds me of that Southpark episode

Oh no, it is definitely true, but there has been a big push towards recruiting more mainstream students. If you're interested, there is an article about it here: http://piolog.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=232%3Ashrooms-incident-sends-students-tripping-over-the-college-administration&Itemid=40

[LogShow]

NWHoops, have you been to a UPS/WW game in Tacoma yet?  Hopefully most of the student body will be back this weekend for the game, so you can see what a great Logger crowd is like.  I went back to go look at some attendence numbers...

In 05-06 UPS hosted the conference championship game and drew a crowd of 1,975 (don't think that counted students free admission)
their NCAA 1st round game attendence was 2,237 against Oxy.

Last year when WW came to town at the end of the season there were 2,278 in attendence.

[pineconefan]

From the entirely-too-much-time-on-my-hands department:

Average NWC attendance since 2000 (based on what's available on NWCsports.com):
1.  Whitworth - 959
2.  Willamette - 852
3.  Linfield - 773
4.  Puget Sound - 705
5.  Pacific Lutheran - 694
6.  George Fox - 631
7.  Lewis & Clark - 445
8.  Pacific - 402
9.  Whitman - 178

Highest Yearly Attendance figures by school -
George Fox: 1145 in 2004-05
Lewis & Clark: 584 in 199-2000
Linfield: 1005 in 1999-2000
Pacific: 605 in 2003-04
Pacific Lutheran: 1022 in 2003-04
Puget Sound: 1141 in 2005-06
Whitman: 238 in 2004-05
Whitworth: 1205 in 2003-04
Willamette: 1219 in 2003-04

Lowest Yearly Attendance figures by school -
George Fox: 341 in 2007-08
Lewis & Clark: 317 in 2004-05
Linfield: 515 in 2005-06
Pacific: 100 in 1999-2000
Pacific Lutheran: 450 in 2000-01
Puget Sound: 236 in 1999-2000
Whitman: 110 in 2007-08
Whitworth: 838 in 2007-08
Willamette: 436 in 2004-05

You will find that most schools have their best attended years during seasons in which the teams are good, and worst years during bad seasons.  That is natural. 

But I think the numbers do bear out that Whitworth has consistently had the best crowds.  If the raw numbers were available from the 90s, my experience is that those averages would look similar.

[pineconefan]

Pio20, thanks for posting those pictures.  I am glad to see the student body did come out for the game against UPS last season and created a great small college environment.  It makes it more fun for both teams.

According to the NWC website, the attendance at last season's L&C-Whitworth playoff game was 1,450.

Logshow, I am pretty sure all the NWC schools keep totals for fans in the seats, rather than tickets sold.  Students/faculty get in free to the games at all the NWC schools.

[pineconefan]

BTW - I didn't want to go too far and get into standard deviations for those attendance numbers, I am sure there is a math major out there who can run the formula.   

[Pio20]

Are those lowest and highest attendances averages for the season? or single games?

Aren't all these numbers irrelevant though? I was under the impression that there is no "official" count of attendance. I know at LC, students and staff get in free and there isn't anyone at the door counting every person that walks by. As far as I know, the SID guesses the attendance and puts it in the stats.

[pineconefan]

Average = per game attendance for that season.

[Pio20]

Highest Yearly Attendance figures by school -
George Fox: 1145 in 2004-05

You will find that most schools have their best attended years during seasons in which the teams are good, and worst years during bad seasons.  That is natural. 

George Fox did go 13-3 in conference that season. Shows you the George Fox fans definitely come out in record numbers when they are doing well. They finished 3-13 the season before that! Another thing attendance numbers don't take into account is the road team's fans.

[pineconefan]

As mentioned to Logshow, all the NWC schools let in students and faculty/staff for free, so that is a wash.

As far as relevence, each school can be as accurate as it wants for keeping or estimating attendance.  The NCAA keeps annual attendance figures for all levels, including DIII, so each conference has to make a report based on the numbers provided by the members.  If those numbers are relevent for the NCAA, they should work just as well on this forum.

[pineconefan]

"Another thing attendance numbers don't take into account is the road team's fans."

The do take it into account.  Those figures represent who is in the building, not just home fans in attendance.

To me, that makes Whitworth's averages more impressive.  As the furthest school away from the others, there is rarely a big visiting crowd to inflate the total.

[Pio20]

"Another thing attendance numbers don't take into account is the road team's fans."

The do take it into account.  Those figures represent who is in the building, not just home fans in attendance.

To me, that makes Whitworth's averages more impressive.  As the furthest school away from the others, there is rarely a big visiting crowd to inflate the total.

I'm not disputing WW's impressive attendance figures by any means. What I meant by it was that you can't always say higher attendance=more of your fans because there may be a lot of the other team's fans as well. Which, as you point out does make WW more impressive seeing as how far it is from other schools. But in general, if all fans and staff are let in for free, then isn't the "official" attendance nothing more than an estimate by the scorekeeper or the SID?

[UPSoundLogs]

This is not for certain, but I've heard numerous times and from different people who work at UPS that the "official attendance" only counts fans that pay at the door.  That means students and also any friends and family that players put on the free admission list are not counted.  In my opinion, at some of those big games that Logshow mentioned there were way more than 2 grand in attendance.  The gym has been basically packed before and it wouldn't seem that full with only 2,000 people in the gym. 

[pineconefan]

Sound -

The NCAA tracks attendance (bodies in the building), rather than paid admissions, since many DIII schools let everyone in for free for all games.  Since attendance is what the NWC is supposed to report to the NCAA (and thus includes in the stats), someone at UPS is having trouble following directions. 

[LCPios07]

As someone who worked in the LC sports information department, I was often in charge of putting the attendance number on the box score. To do this, I would simply make up a number and make sure that it didn't end in 5 or 0 so it would seem believable. Maybe there was someone else taking official attendance (I doubt it), but I wouldn't put much credibility in the attendance on box scores.