MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — It was a promise Bob Huggins said he intended to keep.
“We had a miserable year last year and I promised the state of West Virginia that we wouldn’t do that again,” Huggins said following West Virginia’s 65-47 victory against Oklahoma State on Tuesday. “We were going to get it going again and we were going to be in the NCAA tournament and we were going to be ranked again.”
The remark came in response to a question of Huggins’ place in history after tying former North Carolina coach Dean Smith for sixth place on the all-time Division I wins list.
Huggins’ point was there were other things higher up on his list of priorities, including West Virginia’s season attendance.
“At least until today, we were on pace to set the all-time attendance record,” Huggins continued. “That’s important to me. I pay more attention to that than I do on who has won how many games.”
The 2009-10 Final Four team set the school record with an average attendance of 12,377 at the 14 home games that season.
Through 14 home games this season, WVU’s average attendance is 12,051. The 17th-ranked Mountaineers (19-7, 7-6 Big 12) have two more home games remaining — Feb. 29 against Oklahoma and March 7 against No. 1 Baylor — that have already been announced as sell-outs.
The WVU Coliseum seats 14,000.
West Virginia listed the attendance at 12,053 for the Oklahoma State game.
Anyone in the Coliseum that day could see there were more than 2,000 empty seats.
Also, four times this season, the attendance at a home game was listed above 14,000.
So, just how does WVU figure it’s attendance numbers for each game?
For that, a call was placed to Matt Wells, WVU’s senior associate athletics director in marketing.
In short, Wells said every ticket that is sold — whether it be through season tickets, mini packages, family-day packages or corporate sponsorships — is counted in the attendance figures for each game, regardless of how many fans actually enter the arena.
“What we believe is every ticket sold should be counted,” he said. “It’s like an election, where every vote counts. We believe every fan who buys a ticket is worthy of being counted.”
This attendance policy, Wells said, was adopted by WVU when the school first joined the Big 12 in 2012, and it is in line with the majority of Division I schools.
“If you did enough research, could you find a few schools who do actual attendance?” Wells said. “Probably, but what I can say is just about every school out there is counting attendance the same way we are.”
According to Wells, the attendance figures counts more than ticket-holders. Credentialed media and workers — such as the concession-stand personnel — are also factored into the equation, which is one example as to how the attendance can go above a sold-out 14,000 on occasion.
“Other tickets that get counted, for example, the tickets that our coaches and players get for each game are in those numbers,” Wells said.
The remaining factor is the students. WVU sets aside 2,300 student tickets for each home game, according to Wells.
As during the football season, WVU students can claim their tickets to each game online days before each game.
If the student request goes above 2,300, WVU has the option of meeting as much student request as possible through a lottery system based on how many unsold tickets remain from the general public.
As for surpassing the season attendance record, WVU’s final two home games are against quality opponents, which will be of interest to fans.
Still, the Mountaineers would need to average 14,657 fans at each game to break the record. The largest attendance this season so far has been 14,224, on Feb. 1 against Kansas State.
“It looks unlikely that the record will be broken,” Wells said. “You can still finish a strong second.”
WVU Coliseum’s top five season attendances
- 2009-10: 12,377
- 2017-18: 12,304
- 2019-20: 12,051 (two home games remaining)
- 2010-11: 11,469
- 1981-82: 11,384
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