Wisconsin’s Meteoric Rise Leads Boom In Women’s Attendance

Three years ago, you could not get a season ticket for the Wisconsin women there was not enough interest to offer one. Nowadays, a ducat still is a tough find, but for all the right reasons. BadgerBall has become one of the hottest attractions in the cold Midwest.

Since 1994, Wisconsin has risen in meteoric fashion to rank third in the nation in home attendance, drawing an average of 8,536 fans. The Badgers are one of three teams - Tennessee (11,096) and Connecticut (10,734) are the others - threatening to break the women’s average attendance record of 8,481 set by Texas in 1989.

Aficionados of the women’s game say it is more popular than ever.

According to Wisconsin women’s sports information director Tam Flarup, who charts attendance across the country, this year’s top 10 teams in attendance draw an average of 7,717 fans, an increase of 7.6 percent over last season’s top 10. Crowds among the top 20 also have increased. Overall, attendance should continue its steady growth for the 16th consecutive season.

A slew of teams, including Georgia, Oklahoma, Alabama, Florida and Baylor, have set single-game records, topped by the 21,592 who gathered Monday in Knoxville for the biannual Tennessee-Vanderbilt grudge match.

But the most startling success belongs to Wisconsin, which went from zero season tickets in 1993-94 to 5,486 this season, a surge coinciding directly with the 1994 arrival of coach Jane Albright-Dieterle.

Albright-Dieterle stressed the importance of community service to her players and markets each game as an event.

The community, she said, “started feeling they have ownership in my program and my team… . If you get them to one game, they’re hooked.”