Kentucky men’s basketball attendance off to a slow start
As I mentioned in my three takeaways from Kentucky’s 73-69 win over Vermont on Sunday, UK students have not shown up for the first two home games for the men’s basketball team.
I went back and compared attendance figures, and the announced attendance of 19,807 for Friday night’s opener in Rupp Arena was the smallest home crowd for a Kentucky men’s basketball game in Rupp in nearly 10 years. The previous low was 19,184 for Kentucky vs. Florida International on Dec. 31, 2007.
There’s a reason for the comparatively smallish crowd that New Year’s Eve in 2007, however. On that same day, the UK football team was beating Florida State 35-28 in the Music City Bowl in Nashville.
The crowd for Sunday’s game in Rupp was announced at 20,174. That’s just the eighth crowd of under 21,000 since the 2007-08 season.
e-RUPP-tion zone looking pretty dormant 7 minutes before Kentucky faces Vermont in Rupp Arena pic.twitter.com/0bOmK5INBn
— Mark Story (@markcstory) November 12, 2017
UK raised the price of student tickets from $5 to $10 this year. As Jared Peck reported last week, tickets are available to UK basketball games.
The chart below contains a list of Rupp Arena home games since the 2007-08 season that have drawn less than 21,000.
John Clay: 859-231-3226, @johnclayiv
Rupp Arena crowds of less than 21,000 for UK basketball
Since 2007-08 season.
Date | Opponent | UK | Opp | Dec | Att |
Nov. 6, 2007 | Central Arkansas | 67 | 40 | W | 20,335 |
Nov. 7, 2007 | Gardner-Webb | 68 | 84 | L | 19,845 |
Nov. 27, 2007 | Stony Brook | 62 | 52 | W | 19,269 |
Dec. 31, 2007 | Florida International | 92 | 49 | W | 19,184 |
Nov. 24, 2008 | Longwood | 91 | 57 | W | 20,105 |
Nov. 19, 2013 | Texas-Arlington | 105 | 76 | W | 20,305 |
Nov. 10, 2017 | Utah Valley | 73 | 63 | W | 19,807 |
Nov. 12, 2017 | Vermont | 73 | 69 | W | 20,174 |
This story was originally published November 13, 2017 at 9:01 AM.