How UK women’s sports attendance figures look since move to Rupp Arena
Women’s sports at the University of Kentucky are playing on a larger stage than normal during the 2023-24 school year.
The ongoing $82 million renovation of Memorial Coliseum on the UK campus has forced a quartet of Kentucky women’s sports — basketball, gymnastics, STUNT and volleyball — to find new playing venues for home games.
And Rupp Arena is that new location for the majority of these home contests.
While the UK STUNT team is competing at the Clive M. Beck Center on the campus of Transylvania University, each of the other three displaced Kentucky women’s sports have moved into Rupp Arena.
Kentucky women’s basketball is playing 12 of its 17 scheduled home games this season in Rupp.
The Wildcats’ volleyball team contested all 12 of its home matches during its 2023 SEC title-winning season at Rupp, including a pair of NCAA Tournament wins.
UK’s gymnastics team has yet to host a home meet this season, but its 2024 schedule will feature four meets in Rupp Arena.
With the volleyball season complete, the women’s basketball season ongoing and the gymnastics season in its early stages, here’s a look at what attendance has been like inside Rupp Arena this season for UK women’s sports.
The Herald-Leader obtained the scanned ticket attendance for each of the 12 Kentucky volleyball matches and four Kentucky women’s basketball games played at Rupp Arena in 2023 via the Kentucky Open Records Act.
Kentucky volleyball averages more than 2,000 fans at Rupp Arena
The UK volleyball program averaged 2,100 fans per match across the 12 home matches contested at Rupp Arena this season.
This included a season-high scanned ticket attendance of 3,359 fans for UK’s home opener against Pittsburgh, a match that was part of a home-and-home series with the Panthers that was geared toward each program setting an all-time attendance record.
UK fell short of that goal: The all-time attendance record for a Kentucky volleyball match remains when 9,475 fans attended a match against LSU in October 1993 in Memorial Coliseum.
The biggest disparity between an announced attendance and the scanned ticket attendance for a UK volleyball match this season also came in that season-opening match against Pitt: The scanned ticket attendance was 1,689 less tickets than the reported attendance.
▪ UK vs. Pittsburgh on Sept. 1: 3,359 tickets scanned.
The scanned ticket attendance was 1,689 less tickets than the reported attendance of 5,048.
▪ UK vs. LSU on Sept. 22: 2,570 tickets scanned.
The scanned ticket attendance was 963 less tickets than the reported attendance of 3,533.
▪ UK vs. Tennessee on Sept. 24: 2,396 tickets scanned.
The scanned ticket attendance was 1,016 less tickets than the reported attendance of 3,412.
▪ UK vs. Ole Miss on Oct. 8: 1,248 tickets scanned.
The scanned ticket attendance was 993 less tickets than the reported attendance of 2,241.
▪ UK vs. Mississippi State on Oct. 20: 1,286 tickets scanned.
The scanned ticket attendance was 1,140 less tickets than the reported attendance of 2,426.
▪ UK vs. Arkansas on Oct. 22: 1,199 tickets scanned.
The scanned ticket attendance was 1,045 less tickets than the reported attendance of 2,244.
▪ UK vs. Georgia on Nov. 12: 2,340 tickets scanned.
The scanned ticket attendance was 1,050 less tickets than the reported attendance of 3,390.
▪ UK vs. Texas A&M on Nov. 16: 1,182 tickets scanned.
The scanned ticket attendance was 876 less tickets than the reported attendance of 2,058.
▪ UK vs. Missouri on Nov. 19: 1,792 tickets scanned.
The scanned ticket attendance was 969 less tickets than the reported attendance of 2,761.
▪ UK vs. Florida on Nov. 25 3,112 tickets scanned.
The scanned ticket attendance was 979 less tickets than the reported attendance of 4,091.
Kentucky clinched the outright SEC regular season championship with a win in this match, which took place at the same time as UK football’s Governor’s Cup win at Louisville.
▪ UK vs. Wofford on Nov. 30: 2,169 tickets scanned.
The scanned ticket attendance was 11 less tickets than the reported attendance of 2,180.
▪ UK vs. Baylor on Dec. 1: 2,552 tickets scanned.
The scanned ticket attendance was 21 less tickets than the reported attendance of 2,573.
For the 2022 season in which home matches were played exclusively at Memorial Coliseum, the Kentucky volleyball program averaged 2,361 fans per match in reported attendance across 17 total home matches.
Kentucky women’s basketball attendance soft
Kentucky women’s basketball’s on-court struggles have continued in head coach Kyra Elzy’s fourth season leading the program, and attendance has also suffered.
UK played four games in Rupp Arena this season in 2023, with four other home games at Transylvania’s Clive M. Beck Center.
In each of UK’s home games in Rupp Arena, the attendance has numbered less than 1,500 fans.
And for the three games that required a ticket to get into the building, the disparity between the reported attendance and the actual scanned ticket attendance was greater than 2,000 tickets.
Across the four Rupp Arena games, an average of 1,231 fans were in attendance.
▪ UK vs. USC Upstate on Nov. 11: 1,465 tickets scanned.
This attendance matched that of the reported attendance for the game. This game had free admission for fans, and attendance was counted by a clicker.
▪ UK vs. Minnesota on Dec. 6: 1,212 tickets scanned.
The scanned ticket attendance was 2,174 less tickets than the reported attendance of 3,386.
▪ UK vs. Furman on Dec. 17: 1,044 tickets scanned.
The scanned ticket attendance was 2,243 less tickets than the reported attendance of 3,287.
▪ UK vs. Lipscomb on Dec. 21: 1,203 tickets scanned.
The scanned ticket attendance was 2,221 less tickets than the reported attendance of 3,424.
For the 2022-23 season in which 15 home games were played at Memorial Coliseum and two home games were played at Rupp Arena, the UK women’s basketball program averaged 3,695 fans per game in reported attendance across 17 total home games.
This included large crowds for lopsided home losses to Louisville (7,927 fans), South Carolina (4,016 fans) and Tennessee (6,152 fans).
This story was originally published January 17, 2024 at 7:00 AM.
