The NCAA recently released attendance data for the 2016-17 men’s and women’s basketball seasons, and as it turns out, Marquette basketball is pretty popular.
The men’s attendance ranked 19th in the country with an average of 13,715 people coming through the turnstiles at the BMO Harris Bradley Center for each of MU’s 17 home games last season. Marquette ranks second in the country amongst schools without football programs, trailing only fellow Big East squad Creighton, who ranked #5 at 17,412. BYU is the only other non-Power 5 football conference team in the top 20, with the Cougars drawing 14,476 on average.
It’s the 16th consecutive season where the Golden Eagles have ranked in the top 25 in the country in average attendance. Marquette has posted a winning percentage of 77.5% in the 29 year history of the Bradley Center, and that jumps up to 81.6% over the 16 seasons of top 25 attendance.
Marquette also showed a growth in attendance for the first time under head coach Steve Wojciechowski. Wojo’s first season had a notable drop in average attendance from the final season under Buzz Williams, and the second season with the former Duke assistant in charge saw a small drop as well even though the Golden Eagles won 20 games with Henry Ellenson destroying freshman records left, right, and center.
The Big East was one of five conferences to average at least 10,000 fans in attendance per game. The league averaged 10,014 people per game in 170 contests, and the only leagues to perform better were the Big Ten (#1 with 12,235), ACC, SEC, and Big 12.
