The Field House can hold up to 5,000 people for the Lions men and women basketball games, but the average attendance is well below that total.
The women this season have broke the team record in wins with 20, score a Lone Star Conference best 74.6 points per game, are second in scoring margin by beating their opponents with an average of 8.9 points per game and are first in the Lone Star Conference North Division.
With that said, the women have the sixth lowest average attendance per game with only 334 people fans watching the action, while the overall total for the opponents attendance is at 849.
When the women travel to away games, an average of 789 people show up to watch them play, which is second best in the Lone Star Conference behind Eastern New Mexico who average 797.
“It’s frustrating because we are scoring more points than anyone in the conference,” said A&M-Commerce women’s head coach Denny Downing. “It’s not boring basketball.
Lion Britney Jordan was been named the Lone Star Conference North Division Player of the Week for two consecutive weeks and has earned three of the honors in six weeks.
Kanani Marshal leads the team in scoring, averaging 17 points per game followed by Jordan with 16.5.
Marshal was also just named Lone Star Conference North Division Player of the Week for the second time this season.
Prior to last season though, when the women broke the win record with 16 victories, the program was only able to accomplish three winning season in its history.
Downing said, “The program has been so bad for so long, we never developed a fan base.”
The same can be said for the A&M-Commerce men’s basketball team as well.
Their overall record so far through the season sits at 10-12 and they are tied for third in the north division with a 3-4 mark.
Attendance for the men’s games is an average of 418 per game, which is third lowest in the Lone Star Conference, but while on the road the average fan attendance is 903.
Action is not lacking for the guys either as Lamar Searight leads the team in scoring with 16.5 and is on a team that averages a total of 81.1 points per game.
The Lions have tried promotions this season giving away shirts, having events such as, “Night out at the field house,” and a $1,000 dollar free throw shootout that concludes on Feb. 14 that just has not seemed to work.
Both the men and women’s basketball team have cheerleaders that cheerthroughout the home games, and with the low attendance it may be hard to get people going.
“We feel stupid because we feel like we are cheering to the stands,” said cheerleader Casey Warren.
More people show up for the men’s games than the women’s, and Warren also observed that more people seem to watch the games during week than on weekends.
Consensus on the university is that the sporting events on campus have not had much fan support.
The A&M-Commerce football team had low attendance for the season and many people said that they would come to the games if we had a better and winning football team.
The same cannot be said for this basketball season, as the women are having their best year in history.
“I think there should be a lot more support for athletic events,” said Warren, who was also a cheerleader for the football team.