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Despite a relatively down year for the BYU hoops team, one that ended with a first round NIT exit, BYU ranked top 15 nationally in attendance for the 7th straight year. BYU’s attendance also ranked 1st in the west for the 8th straight year.
The NCAA has yet to publicly release official statistics, but Greg Wrubell tweeted the aforementioned numbers Thursday afternoon.
.@BYUbasketball's average attendance of 14,476 in 2016-17 ranked 1st in the West and 14th nationally; 7th straight year in national Top 15.
— Greg Wrubell (@gregwrubell) July 6, 2017
The 14,476 per game attendance (76% capacity) is a slight dip from the 14,699 in the 2015-2016 season. Average attendance was over 16,000 in 2014-2015, the last time BYU made the NCAA tournament. 2015 Renovations now put Marriott Center capacity at 19,000.
With a home game against Utah this upcoming season, BYU may see a slight uptick in attendance if the Cougars have a similar year. BYU should be releasing its non-conference schedule in the next week or so, which will give us a better idea of what other home games could see big attendance numbers.
Princeton, Utah, Alabama, UMass, Weber State, UVU, and Texas Arlington have all already announced games versus BYU for the upcoming season.