The hot topic surrounding the end of the Memphis Tigers home schedule was the fact that the No. 6/7 team in the nation couldn't sell out a single home game this season.
Even head coach John Calipari and some of his players commented on their disappointment with the fan turnout after the Rice game last week.
Since then, the attendance issue has gained momentum and has some people around town wondering why don't the fans, particularly students, appear excited about having one of the best teams in the country representing their city?
"I think a lot of students are like me and would rather sit in their dorm and surf the web or play World of Warcraft," freshman computer engineering major William Tucker said. "But I think we do support the team."
I, like Tucker, can't speak for everyone who does not attend games on a regular basis, but a few factors other than World of Warcraft strike me as the main reasons why the Tigers don't sell out home games.
First, I said it once and will say it again, the Tigers play in the Conference USA. There probably aren't 18,900 people in this city, let alone 18,900 Tiger fans that would pay to watch Memphis destroy Southern Methodist University or Tulane.
The Tigers did not play one top-25 team at home this season, and their most exciting games were played on the road. Last year, teams like Gonzaga, Texas and Tennessee came to the Forum. This year, fans have grown accustomed to watching these type of games on TV, and until teams like Duke or North Carolina start coming to the Forum, they will continue to do so.
Second, most universities like the University of Tennessee, Duke or North Carolina play their basketball games on campus, which allows students without cars that live on campus an equal opportunity to go to the games.
The University of Memphis does provide on-campus residents with transportation to and from home games, but, as I learned from personal experience, the shuttles are loud, crowded and usually don't arrive on time.
However, I know that The U of M is mainly a commuter school, but most of those commuters don't live downtown, and the students who don't have a car and don't live on campus have to go through the trouble of finding a ride.
If you live in Germantown, it's sort of hard to find someone to ride with that's on their way to downtown Memphis at 8:00 at night. Even if people are willing to travel that distance, many students don't have time to go to a basketball game at 8 p.m. on a Tuesday night when they have an 8 a.m. class and two tests the next day.
"I haven't been to a game this season, but I have a car," senior engineering major Sir Walter Richardson said. "I work and go to school and just don't have the time."
There is also the issue of the size of the FedExForum. Of the top 25 teams in the country, only four teams, North Carolina, Georgetown, Louisville and Marquette, have a stadium that is larger than the Forum. If the Tigers played in a 9,000-seat stadium like Duke, they would have sold out every game this season.
However, the fact that the Tigers have not sold out FedExForum this year doesn't mean that people don't care. I happen to believe that the Tigers have not only united a campus, but these guys are uniting a city.
Last season, Memphis was ranked 13th in NCAA home attendance with 14,867. They also had the second largest attendance increase in the country. That means that more and more people are jumping on the Memphis bandwagon, and people care whether they win or lose. People were so upset with the football team winning only two games because they want to see them win and care about the program in general.
People who view fan support only by the number of tickets they can sell are not really concerned with the fact that this team is the pride of The University of Memphis and one of the few aspects about this city that receives positive national recognition.
