Tennessee Women Are Tops

Tennessee’s women’s basketball team is going not only for an unprecedented fourth consecutive national championship, the Lady Vols are also setting records at the box office. Tennessee raised the bar again this year in home attendance, averaging 17,568 a game. That was an increase over the last two seasons of 4,469 a game--a figure greater than the 17th-best average crowd count this year in the women’s college game, 4,287 by Old Dominion.

Tennessee last season became the second women’s basketball program to finish in the black financially. Connecticut has made money the last three seasons.

UConn was runner-up in the 1998-99 crowd-count derby. The Huskies filled Gampel Pavilion--10,027 seats--for every home game this season.

Fourteen schools averaged better than 5,000 a game.

UCLA finished 31st in average attendance at 2,974, but that figure includes two games where thousands of high school students were admitted free, one crowd totaling more than 9,000.

Stanford was the top-drawing Pacific 10 program, 20th with a 4,045 average.

Here are the schools with the top women’s attendance for the 1998-99 season:

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School Total Average Top game 1. Tennessee 210,818 17,568 22,635 2. Connecticut 142,885 10,027 10,027 3. Purdue 107,196 9,745 14,123 4. Wisconsin 118,561 8,469 10,734 5. Texas Tech 95,838 7,987 10,659 6. SW Missouri St. 114,192 7,613 9,115 7. Ohio State 98,639 7,588 9,117 8. Illinois 81,473 7,407 16,450 9. New Mexico 105,629 7,042 16,087 10. Texas 100,674 6,712 10,659

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School Total Average Top game 1. Kentucky 303,771 23,367 24,321 2. Syracuse 332,801 20,800 30,367 3. North Carolina 270,307 19,307 21,572 4. Louisville 266,767 19,054 20,051 5. Arkansas 292,704 18,294 20,298

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