CRAWFORD | Could Louisville men's basketball still crack the top 10 in attendance? | Sports

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- On Saturday, in the KFC Yum! Center, the black-and-red "striped" crowd that watched the University of Louisville men's basketball team beat Pittsburgh for its 23rd win of the season was not only its largest crowd of the season but the largest for a Cardinals' home game since 18,493 came to see interim coach Mike Pegues make his debut against Duke on Jan. 29, 2022.

Saturday's crowd of 18,459 drew praise from first-year head coach Pat Kelsey. It was Louisville's second crowd above 18,000 this season and continued steady attendance growth for a program that has been lagging precipitously since the departure of Rick Pitino before the start of the 2017 season.

"The first thing I want to say is that the atmosphere was phenomenal," Kelsey said after Louisville's 79-68 win over Pittsburgh. "It was phenomenal. And I told our guys 'You've earned that.' They've worked their butt off and they're having a phenomenal season. And we talk about how this team, I think, reflects the character, toughness, the grit of the city of Louisville. And I think our fan base sees that. And to come out the way they did tonight, I mean, that was a big, big, big time college basketball atmosphere."

The "stripe out" encouraged fans to wear red in even-numbered sections and black in odd-numbered, and fans followed the script.

"I give our marketing staff a lot of credit for the idea to come up with the stripe out," Kelsey said. "We challenged the fanbase. They were unbelievably coachable and they followed through. And the stripe out was awesome. I thought our student body was terrific. They made a major impact in the game, the students in the fan base. It was special tonight. I had goosebumps when I walked out, and they were a major, major factor in the game."

Attendance leaders — Men's college basketball attendance leaders for 2024-25 season, compiled from stat reports by the major college basketball conferences.
WDRB GRAPHIC / ERIC CRAWFORD

After the game, Kelsey again waded into the end zone student section to thank fans.

Louisville's average attendance this year is up 27.2% from a year ago. And it has dealt Louisville back into a crowd from which it has been absent since COVID-19 — national attendance leaders.

Louisville ranks 16th nationally in announced attendance with an average of 14,635 fans per game, according to power conference attendance reports through Sunday. With two home games remaining, it has a chance to climb.

It's not likely, but if Louisville could average 20,500 or more over its its final two home games (a number it has not reached since 2020), the program could actually pass Kansas into the No. 10 spot in national attendance. Even with good crowds that are smaller than that, it is poised to pass several programs in the top 15 and will post its best average attendance since 2020.

Louisville ranked in the top five nationally in attendance for 36 straight years prior to Rick Pitino's acrimonious departure after the 2016-17 season. Prior to that, Louisville had drawn nearly 3 million fans to the KFC Yum! Center in its first seven seasons. Over the past eight (which included one season nearly completely empty for COVID and another affected by it), it has drawn just over 1.5 million.

Drawing a big crowd for Wednesday's 9 p.m. home game against California might be a stretch. But Saturday's 2 p.m. home finale against Stanford, Senior Day for a group of players who have returned the program to national respect, should draw a large crowd, perhaps the largest since the Duke crowd in 2020.

Given that it plays in the second-largest arena in NCAA Division I, with a capacity of 22,090, Louisville has some upside in attendance. It averaged better than 20,000 per game from the time of the arena's opening through the 2016-17 season. Crowds around college basketball aren't what they used to be. Schools are shrinking arena capacity in favor of luxury suites and premium seating.

But at Louisville, those areas are built in. And the program appears poised to take its place among the top draws in college basketball fairly soon.