Half as many fans in the stands: Athletic attendance dwindles over past decade

Across all WSU ticketed sports except softball, the average game attendance has been cut in half since 2014. With dwindling attendance, how are Wichita State athletics faculty and long-time fans responding to increasingly empty stands?

Allison Campbell and Jacob Unruh • February 27, 2025

Sascha Harvey

(Illustration)

The median attendance at Wichita State University athletic events has decreased by half over the past decade, according to data collected by The Sunflower.

Total home attendance in athletic events where it is tracked — men’s and women’s basketball, volleyball, softball and baseball — was 315,828 during the 2014-15 school year.

It was 181,055 in 2023-24 — 53% of the total attendance from a decade earlier — and is on track to decline further this year.

“It’s very frustrating,” said Sheryl Davis, basketball season ticket holder and longtime Shocker athletics fan. “… Right now there’s no demand (for fans to attend games).”

The decrease has been nearly uniform across all sports, except for softball. Median attendance at men’s and women’s basketball, volleyball and baseball in 2024 were all around half of what they were in 2014. Softball’s median game attendance increased from 284 in 2016 to 816 in 2024, a nearly three times increase.

According to NCAA records, overall Division I attendance has increased in some sports and remained similar in others over that timespan, which makes Wichita State an outlier.

Attendance decreases long before COVID

According to attendance records, the decrease in fan engagement began long before the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 2014, Wichita State has had at least three directors for marketing and fan engagement.

Fans enact a call and response cheer in the December Wichita State game against ETSU. Showing holiday cheer, several donned WSU themed Santa hats. (Peyton Eck)

Reginald McIntyre Jr. first served as the assistant and then in a director capacity from 2016 until 2021. He took over the position the year before the departure of men’s basketball stars Ron Baker and Fred VanVleet, and said in an interview in 2019 that their absence left game attendance “kind of iffy.”

In November 2016, Wichita State men’s basketball broke a long streak of sold-out stadiums. Four home games that year were played in front of less-than-full crowds.

McIntyre asserted, though, that people then began coming back “in waves,” despite attendance averages remaining static.

But McIntyre also acknowledged that the student section remained more empty than he wanted.

Collecting feedback

To increase attendance, Director of Marketing and Fan Engagement Connor Phelps works with Director of Athletics Kevin Saal to conduct fan experience surveys at the end of every athletic season to “get our finger on the pulse of what our fans want to see.”

“We’ve gotten literally close to 1,000 responses in each offseason in doing that,” Phelps said.

The athletics department also hosts regular listening sessions. According to Associate Athletic Director for Strategic Communications Tami Cutler, these sessions invite different age groups — from students to older fans — to discover what will bring more fans to WSU athletic events. Suggestions range from accessibility concerns to halftime performance recommendations.

Then, Phelps and Saal get to work implementing the feedback, often starting with what the two like to call “the low-hanging fruit.”

“Hit the easy ones first, and just kind of keep that momentum going,” Phelps said. “… If they tell us they want to see a DJ or … an emcee or the band to play more like whatever it is, we want to make sure that we’re giving them the experience that they want.”

But the process isn’t without its struggles — Phelps says conflicting opinions from different demographics make applying these changes “hard to balance.”

“You’ll have one group that says, ‘Yeah, the music is way too loud.’ Another group, ‘The music isn’t loud enough,’” Phelps said. “I mean, obviously neither of those you’re really knocking off the list.”

But Phelps said the majority of concerns presented during these listening sessions are addressed, and the feedback has been positive over the last few years.

“It’s been pretty cool to see the progress through the feedback of our fans, like I think they notice …improvements in a lot of areas,” Phelps said. “And so I do think, like that, the number of critiques is kind of starting to be dwindled down.

“Like it doesn’t seem the first year, when I got here, it was like, ‘Holy crap. This whole list here is, like, what we’re about to tackle,’ and now it’s a little more manageable, for sure.”

But the big picture goal, Phelps said, is to build an experience worth coming back for.

“Yes, there’s a basketball game going on, and that’s the primary draw,” Phelps said. “But there’s also a lot of these other happenings that … we hope fans look at and be like, ‘Oh, that’s definitely worth, you know, making the trip out there for.’”

Despite these listening sessions, Sheryl Davis, a Wichita State alumna and season ticket holder, said she — and other Shocker fans — feel unheard.

“We have an athletic department who sits in their offices and decides, whatever they decide, they are failing miserably, and they won’t listen to anybody,” Davis said. “… I don’t know how to reach the athletic department because I’m not the only one who harasses them. There are a lot of us who say, ‘No, this is not the way you do it.’”

Associate Athletic Director for Strategic Communications Tami Cutler credits some of the difficulties to the program switching from the Missouri Valley Conference to the American Athletic Conference in 2017. The Valley plays most conference games on Fridays and Saturday nights, while the AAC plays on Sundays.

“We’re competing with other things, church and … (the Kansas City) Chiefs and other things,” Cutler said. “And so … the Sunday matches … kind of turned into, well, … it doesn’t matter who we’re playing because … people already have activities planned for that day.”

By 2020, attendance continued to drop in most sports, in some by the hundreds. Marketing directors were then confronted with a new attendance challenge — the COVID-19 pandemic.

Participation and the pandemic

With the pandemic came the cancellation of athletic events across the country, depriving fans and athletes of the typical sports seasons. Current Director of Marketing and Fan Engagement Connor Phelps said this created a new epidemic — a population of armchair fans.

“(During COVID) people … weren’t allowed to come to the games, and so they had all this free time, this additional … kind of discretionary income to spend elsewhere,” Phelps said. “You know, they realized that they liked using it maybe elsewhere … So it’s been kind of hard to get some of those fans back.”

Attendance at WSU was already declining prior to the pandemic. In 2018-19, total attendance was 247,727 – 78% of the total attendance five years prior. However, in 2020-21, attendance tanked to 80,313 and hasn’t recovered to pre-COVID levels since.

Since COVID, Phelps said athletics marketing has had to invest even more in its creative and social media departments to match the needs of fans, who became accustomed to short-form video content throughout the pandemic.

“We’ve added a lot of content creators to our team to just kind of cover a lot of the day-to-day stuff … we maybe weren’t hitting years and years ago when social media wasn’t as important,” Phelps said.

Addressing attendance difficulties

Despite the additional content creators, attendance has continued to dip, except for softball. Phelps said multiple factors impact game attendance, ranging from ticket prices to concession offerings, promotional events and team performance.

“I mean, it’s hard to point to one reason, to be honest, right?” Phelps asked. “I mean, you have the COVID factors, you have economic factors, just so many different things that it’s really hard to pinpoint, like, one reason as to why … this is decreasing, or it’s less than it used to be. So it’s really hard to tell.”

But for some long-time Shocker athletics fans, like Davis, the stagnation in attendance has become increasingly frustrating. She said “there is no one in the athletic department who is interested” in bolstering attendance.

When Davis was a student at Wichita State in the late 1960s, she said Charles Koch Arena was the epicenter of excitement on campus.

“It was standing room only,” Davis said. “It was the place to be.”

But, nearly 60 years later, Davis said the landscape looks considerably more empty than when she was a student.

Dissatisfied with what she’s seen and experienced in recent years, Davis called for fan input on The Shocker Faithful, a Facebook group for students, fans and alumni of Wichita State. Her two posts garnered more than 100 responses, which she said overwhelmingly pointed to two key indicators for the drop in attendance: high prices and poor parking.
“When we can’t go, we give our tickets away,” Davis said. “I put them on (The Shocker Faithful) and say, ‘Here,’ and there are people who love to go.

“They just can’t afford it.”

Phelps said ticketing is generally “cheaper than … a lot of the high school events around town,” but there is an emphasis placed on deals regarding season ticket holders.

“We want to respect the investment that season ticket holders … make to us when they purchase these season tickets at the beginning of the year,” Phelps said. “… If we price 16 games at $5 a ticket … it’s really doing more harm than good in the long term for us because you then have those season ticket holders who can become kind of less committal.”

But Davis feels that her survey — and WSU athletics — don’t reach the root of the recent attendance slump: disengaged students.

“They’re already coming or not — They’ve made up their minds,” Davis said. “ … (But) when you look at your (target) market, it’s not me … (it’s) those students who … have a longer-term relationship with the university.”

Phelps said athletics has been working to entice students, especially commuters, to come to games through tailgates, giveaways and free food.

WSU athletic faculty want to hear directly from students as to what might encourage them to attend athletic events. After all, Cutler said, everyone wants better attendance.

“We also want … a packed house, and we’re doing everything we can to … get people there and get the butts in seats,” Cutler said. “It’s great for everybody, not just … them. It’s great for the players, too. And … everybody loves it when (it’s) super loud in there.”

About the Contributors

Allison Campbell, Editor-in-Chief

Allison Campbell is the editor-in-chief of The Sunflower. Campbell is a senior pursuing a journalism and media production degree with a minor in English. She served as one of the news editors during the 2023-2024 year. Campbell hopes to pursue a career in writing or editing after graduation. They use any pronouns.

Jacob Unruh, Sports Editor

Jacob Unruh is the sports editor for The Sunflower. He is a senior at Wichita State, majoring in journalism and minoring in political science. Unruh is pursuing journalism after graduation. This is his second year on staff. He goes by he/him pronouns.

Sascha Harvey, Illustrator/Designer

Sascha Harvey is an illustrator/designer for The Sunflower. A senior majoring in graphic design, this is Harvey's fourth year on staff. He's previously served as The Sunflower's design director, arts and culture editor and opinion editor. He is originally from Arkansas but has no accent to speak of (unless you listen really hard). Harvey uses he/him pronouns.