In elite women's basketball games, like the one No. 8 Duke will play tonight against No. 3 Stanford, there are usually two numbers on the boxscore that are most intriguing: the final score and the attendance.
In 2007, when Duke finished the regular season undefeated for the first time in school history, both statistics fell in the Blue Devils' favor. They won every home game and averaged more than 5,800 fans, including two legitimate sellouts against Maryland and North Carolina. Attendance figures are as badly exaggerated as players' heights and pitchers' fastballs' velocities, but the games against Duke's ACC rivals that year were, indeed, sold out. The atmosphere inside Cameron Indoor Stadium was equal to that of a mid-level men's game.
Which brings us to tonight's game in Cameron at 7 p.m. on ESPN. Lindy Brown, Duke's associate sports information director, told me Monday that as of late last week, more than 6,200 tickets had been sold for the game against the Cardinal. Duke has averaged 5,626 fans per home contest this year after welcoming more than 6,700 per game last season, but it's pretty clear that the number of sold tickets does not translate to butts in seats. For almost every home game, more than half of the arena has been empty, and that's a conservative estimate. Even last season, Joanne P. McCallie's first at Duke, no home game housed a full student section or inspired the type of atmosphere that defined hyped matchups the year before.
To make matters worse, the two teams might be surrounded by even emptier bleachers Tuesday, because students won't be on campus for Duke's best home game against a team not named North Carolina or Maryland. To compensate, the ticket office and women's basketball program have advertised and targeted certain groups to fill seats--including an advertisement on the welcome screen of GoDuke.com for the past few days--but it won't be clear until gametime if the strategy worked.
On Oct. 31, when Duke senior Abby Waner realized students would already be on break for Tuesday's game, she made a plea through reporters.
“If you can go home for only Christmas Day and then go stand outside on a sidewalk of concrete, all Christmas break, then at least come into the game,” Waner said, referring to tenters.
And therein lies another problem: there won't be any tenters before Jan. 4, meaning the only students still in Durham are those from North Carolina, some international students and those who overslept their flights after celebrating the end of the semester. Because of divergent schedules, though, this was the only time Duke and Stanford could meet, Joanne P. McCallie said in October. McCallie prioritized greater attendance when she came to Duke in April 2007, but so far, she has found that winning is the only way to guarantee spikes in spectators.
Fortunately for the Blue Devils, though, point guard Jasmine Thomas will return to the lineup after missing two weeks with a sprained MCL. She started practicing Sunday, and her mere presence on the court should help inspire a Duke offense that struggled without a true leader, committing 30 turnovers in its last game. If only there were people--especially students--in attendance to watch Duke's biggest test before the ACC.
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