Most likely it's not any one factor, but plenty of ones that combined for it. A few:

 

Kentucky playing in the NCAA tournament, and having a historically great season all the while, yea... that didn't help at all. Lots of fans were probably taken by that one. Making the drive to Louisville for an early NCAA game was probably a few people's only time to see UK in person this season.

 

Western Kentucky school's position in the draw probably hurts. They seem to do better for night games with fans making the trek up early and staying the day after the game. You'll usually see better crowds from the regions 1-5 when they play at night. Lots more opening game, opening session this year. For whatever reason, that's how it is. People from Eastern Kentucky seem to prefer staying the night before, going straight home if they leave, whereas with Western Kentucky, the trend is more go up for a night game and stay, leave the next morning. With the latter, it's easier to say "we'll go the next day if we win", meaning that the pool of people who'd have otherwise committed a bit smaller. *Maybe this is a complete logical fallacy on my part, but it's just kind of what I've observed over the years... I could be completely wrong.

 

It'd been a long time since any school in the field's "1st appearance since..." aside from Williamsburg, which was the smallest school in the tournament. Those kinds of numbers can really pump up a session. There wasn't really a team to do that this year. I'm sure Williamsburg brought an awesome crowd, but it's just kind of different when it's a Class A school doing that versus a 5A or 6A (e.g., when it's a school like Muhlenburg County in their first ever appearance and when Muhlenburg North hadn't been in forever, something like that. I know Collins may technically qualify, but they were pretty much there with the split from Shelby County, and they'd won a state title in football the year before. More people show up when the appearances are rare/scarce-- that's just how it is. Lots more people probably went to the early Johnson Central/Knott County Central teams in years 1-2 then they did in years 3-4. Scarcity is huge. Remember the last time you wanted Chik-Fil-A, but it was Sunday and they were closed so you couldn't? Ask yourself, how soon after did you go to Chik-Fil-A the next time you had a decision on a fast food of that type of commodity?

 

Related to the above point: some times fans can just get "spent out". Not the best economy and lots of people doing belt tightening and making cuts where they can. Throw this one in when the above factors are all present too, and it doesn't help that this is probably one of those years where statistically, if you correlated things to the State's economy on the whole, then this probably wasn't the best year for the casual fan with no rooting interest who might have otherwise went everything else held constant.

I'd say it doesn't help that it's $10-15 for parking each day and concession prices are ridiculous.

Need to move finals back to Saturday night. Teams that win their fans can stay and only have to pay for one day of transportation. Lots of coaches that did attend all week went home Saturday night or early this morning skipping the finals. Staying from Weds to Sunday gets expensive. Also heard coaches complaining about the Hyatt jacking up room rates to $300 a night and you have get the rooms a minimum of 4 nights. One thing I would like to see is getting the second game started faster. They give 25 minutes between games and they usually have another ten minutes allotted for awards. Some coaches who stay at the Hyatt leave and go watch NCAA games at the bar.

I wonder how much impact having live video on the KHSAA site has?

 

The stream was second to none. Great HD picture, good announcers and interviews before and after the game. After you connect the laptop to the TV, you have the equivalent of an NCAA broadcast. What more do you want? Plus save all that money for a trip to Florida in 2 months

Cash Money. That's what hurts.

 

Multiple days for those who keep on winning. Hotels for multiple nights. Food. Gas if relatively close and you drice back and forth. It borderline becomes the cost of a vacation for a family that wants to go all week.

 

Also...the 'little guy' draws the crowds. People aren't exactly pumped about seeing the privates and big schools (4A and up) being in the mix and/or eventually winning this thing.

 

After all, what makes this tourney so great is the little guys who have won this thing. Without those, the Sweet 16 isn't what it is.

Is it maybe because the economy isn't as strong as some believe? Or the cost is so high to attend games? It defiantly didn't have the turnout I have grown up with. Some student/fan attendance were good but top was very low and side had a lot of empty blue seats. Or maybe it was just a bad year with wrong teams/players and we are overlooking. Doss and Bowling Green turnouts were just awful. Unreal actually to be that good!!

Since Diddle Arena is losing the Girls State Tournament, why not have the Boys there one year or maybe Memorial Coliseum

The stream was second to none. Great HD picture, good announcers and interviews before and after the game. After you connect the laptop to the TV, you have the equivalent of an NCAA broadcast. What more do you want? Plus save all that money for a trip to Florida in 2 months

 

You had a different experience than I. When I tried starting the stream, regardless of when, it started at the beginning of the game and I didn't have any way to catch up to the live action. I feel I'm generally literate enough to figure out how to do that if I wanted, but yea... not this time. Maybe it was just a Mac/Safari thing, but I haven't heard of anyone else having the same issue either.

I live 80 miles from Lexington. I just went up for Friday & it almost a $150 dollar trip just for me. Gas. Tickets. Parking. Food. Beverage.

Not sure how a 7300-seat venue (Diddle) or a 10,000-seat venue (Memorial) will increase attendance. Somebody has to help me with the math on that one.

Is it maybe because the economy isn't as strong as some believe? Or the cost is so high to attend games? It defiantly didn't have the turnout I have grown up with. Some student/fan attendance were good but top was very low and side had a lot of empty blue seats. Or maybe it was just a bad year with wrong teams/players and we are overlooking. Doss and Bowling Green turnouts were just awful. Unreal actually to be that good!!

 

Whole lot of coin for a BG family for 3-4 days. Hotel or driving back and forth both.

 

Doss is what it is. For the majority of JCPS schools, you'd get the same turnout.

The stream was second to none. Great HD picture, good announcers and interviews before and after the game. After you connect the laptop to the TV, you have the equivalent of an NCAA broadcast. What more do you want? Plus save all that money for a trip to Florida in 2 months

 

If you have a smart TV with a Youtube app (or say an Xbox One or something else that has Youtube) I'd highly recommend pairing the TV and watching it that way. You go to https://www.youtube.com/pair to input a code that it gives you. That's how I watched it and I agree, aside from the brief time that the stream was screwed up during the finals, it is outstanding. And world's better than it was a couple of years ago when they simply pointed a camera at the Rupp board.

Not sure how a 7300-seat venue (Diddle) or a 10,000-seat venue (Memorial) will increase attendance. Somebody has to help me with the math on that one.

 

The attendance is not or has not been increasing over the last few years,, trying to find gyms that will play to that. If your only averaging 11-12 thousand why increase the venue size, what good is that going to do?

The attendance is not or has not been increasing over the last few years,, trying to find gyms that will play to that. If your only averaging 11-12 thousand why increase the venue size, what good is that going to do?

 

Are regional tournaments at large, 'neutral' venues eroding into the profits of the Sweet 16?

I wonder how much impact having live video on the KHSAA site has?

 

This kept me away, well this and the fact I really didn't feel up to going Friday and Saturday night. It's great that every game is televised live, but I wouldn't be surprised if they stop, nor would I blame them.

 

Add that on top of what has already been mentioned, UK playing this weekend and going for 40-0, may have kept a lot of people away who lived more than an 45 mins to an hour away from Rupp for Saturday night. A nice weekend on top of it.

 

Also, as I mentioned in the other thread, as others have mentioned before, the redbook stuff is keeping a lot of coaches away. Then for a few years the old timers who went to every single Sweet 16 and every game are not coming with the numbers they had in the past, and younger people are not coming.