{"id":70584,"date":"2016-03-23T05:00:27","date_gmt":"2016-03-23T10:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/?p=70584"},"modified":"2020-08-25T10:30:30","modified_gmt":"2020-08-25T15:30:30","slug":"graphic-conference-tournament-attendance-falls-another-7-percent-in-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2016\/03\/23\/graphic-conference-tournament-attendance-falls-another-7-percent-in-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"Graphic: Conference tournament attendance falls another 7 percent in 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The two-game Big Ten quarterfinal session last Thursday that featured a night game between Ohio State and Penn State drew an announced crowd of 4,283 at Xcel Energy Center (photo: James Rosvold).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The calls for changes to the conference tournaments are likely to only grow stronger with another year of declining attendance.<\/p>\n

The average attendance per session for the 2016 tournaments was down 7 percent over last season, extending a slide over the three years since conference realignment.<\/p>\n

The 6,988 average per session this season was down 37 percent from 2013, the last season before the Big Ten and NCHC debuted, the CCHA dissolved and teams scattered.<\/p>\n

Keep in mind that these are announced attendance figures, not the actual number of people in the seats. It’s common practice to use the number of tickets sold or distributed as the official attendance figure even if the number of people to actually witness the game in person is a small fraction of that amount.<\/p>\n

Announced attendance figures for the 2016 tournaments fell compared to the year before in five of six leagues. Only Hockey East saw an increase.<\/p>\n

Here’s a look at the trends since 2000:<\/p>\n