Men's Basketball Preview

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Men’s

The 2013 Marshall Men's Basketball team's ticket sales saw a drop from the 2012 season to the 2013 season.  Marshall hired a new head coach in Dan D'Antoni, and had multiple roster changes. Could the changes spark a raise in ticket sales?

According to the NCAA's Official Attendance tracker, Marshall's Basketball team had an average attendance of (6,197) a game in 2012. That number dropped to 5,893) in 2013. This ranked Marshall 100th overall among NCAA Division qualifying school; however, the ranking was a drop from the 87th ranked position the previous season.

The average attendance for an NCAA Division I game was (5,176). This ranks Marshall slightly above average. However, even though there was a decrease this past season, Director of Ticket Sales, Tyler Crockett, said that there has been a positive trend the last five years.

"Over the past 5 seasons, season ticket sales have been on the rise," Crockett said. "With a positive outlook for each upcoming season over this time period, we have acquired more season ticket holders each year. With Coach D’Antoni returning to coach our squad this season, we expect to be above and beyond last years’ number as well".

Crockett did mention that the previous seasons lack of success has an effect on ticket sales, but he also believes that bringing in D'Antoni will help sales as well.

"Success or failure in the previous season is absolutely one of these factors.  We do happen to be in an area where our fans are quite the basketball buffs, and this helps our sales tremendously," Crockett said. "In fact, some of this can be attributed to the success we had when our current head coach was a player that has lead our fan base to be avid basketball fans.  Also, bringing in a new coach, who happens to be one of Marshall’s favorite sons, has led to a lot of interest this season as well".

Another factor that effects ticket sales, according to Crockett, are the promotional events.

"When you have some folks who are on the fence, offering some sort of discounted rate or some type of single game on-court opportunity can definitely encourage folks to purchase," Crockett said.

Some fans also feel good about the attendance this season. Marshall Sophomore, Nick Simmons, went to every game last season, and he said that he expects attendance to go up as well.

"I have talked to a couple of my friends that wanted to go to some games last season," Simmons said. "They didn't want to go because Marshall was not exactly a stellar team, but this season is different. They have a new coach, who played for Marshall, and they have some interesting new players".

Marshall starts off its season with four consecutive home games. The first is against Concord on Saturday, Nov. 8. Then it plays three games in a span of five days. The games include Jacksonville State, Savannah State and West Virginia Tech.