If it seems like once robust crowds at Viejas Arena are shrinking for San Diego State men’s basketball games, your eyes aren’t deceiving you.

Last season, on average, Viejas was barely half full.

Turnstile attendance figures provided by the university – not the count announced by SDSU, but internal figures of how many people were actually in the arena – show that crowds have steadily declined over the past four years, from an average of 8,989 in 2014-15 to 6,868 last season.

Viejas Arena’s listed capacity for basketball is 12,414, meaning only 55 percent of seats were occupied.


That is still a relatively healthy number for college basketball, particularly on the West Coast and in the Mountain West Conference. But it is in sharp contrast to Viejas’ reputation as a rollicking, roiling mass of humanity when the Aztecs play.

The Union-Tribune requested turnstile counts and ticket revenue information for the past five seasons through the California Public Records Act. SDSU took nearly three months to provide a four-page response.

The announced attendance, which SDSU defines as tickets distributed, was 10,686 per game last season. That means an average of 3,818 tickets, or roughly one in three, went unused each night. For a Dec. 12 game against Division II Cal State Dominguez Hills, more tickets were unused (5,310) than used (4,973).

Turnstile attendance has topped 10,000 only twice in the last 64 regular-season home games.


“We’re aware of it,” said Steve Schnall, SDSU’s executive associate athletic director who oversees ticketing and marketing. “What I would say is this: We feel strongly about what our product is and how our fan base supports it.

“You can certainly say that our no-show rate has increased over the past couple years. But what we have as a product, I think a lot of programs, especially in the West, would still like to have.”

There are several potential reasons. One is the Aztecs became such a hot commodity that people were renewing season tickets months before the season, not knowing the opponents or dates or tip times, and simply can’t come to every game. Another is that they got spoiled with six straight NCAA Tournament appearances from 2010 to 2015, followed by no postseason appearances in two of the past three years. An 80-game sellout streak ended in 2017.

Another issue: The precipitous drop in student attendance, from 1,614 in 2014-15 to 789 last season, has created a de facto “back door” into Viejas.


Unclaimed tickets from the students’ per-game allotment of 2,500 are sold to the general public, usually for $20. Savvy fans buy those GA tickets and sit just rows off the court next to “The Show” student section – a location that would cost several times that if they bought season tickets, which include a mandatory donation to the Aztec Club.

Schnall said season-ticket renewal rates were in the 95-percent neighborhood for years, and there was a wait list that swelled to close to 1,000. Last season, for the first time since 2011-12, Viejas did not sell out its non-student allotment (about 9,300) through season tickets that ranged from $199 to $1,750.

For the 2019-20 season, even without a price hike, he projects the renewal rate will be more like 80 to 85 percent, opening 1,500 or so seats per game.

“Which,” Schnall said, “I don’t think is a bad thing.”


His reasoning: For years, there was a perception that Aztecs tickets were impossible to get. The increased availability may bring a new wave of fans to a game at Viejas.

Schnall compares it to 2016, when the Aztecs hosted three NIT games and sold tickets with little notice, many of them to fans who weren’t season-ticket holders. Two of those games sold out, and the no-show rate was considerably smaller, given the proximity of the game to when tickets were purchased.

“As vibrant as our gym has been and still is for some games this (past) season,” Schnall said, “I think you’re going to have an insurgency of some people who have not been in the building on a consistent basis who will now have that chance. To me, I look at that as an opportunity.”

The data indicated some promising trends. Turnstile attendance, particularly among students, rose in the final month of last season. A ranked Nevada team drew 9,116 on Feb. 20; the only larger turnstile counts over the past three years were for Gonzaga (10,429) and Nevada (9,923) in 2017-18.


One thing not affected by a decline in turnstile attendance is ticket revenue since, well, seats are already paid for whether or not they’re used. A pair of price increases in recent years has meant total ticket revenue climbed from $2.29 million in 2014-15 to $2.82 million in 2017-18.

Last season, revenues were essentially flat – dipping $9,581. Schnall said the athletic department’s 2019-20 budget line for men’s basketball would be “about the same” despite the reduced season-ticket renewals, with an increase in single-game sales projected.

“When we were selling out on season tickets,” Schnall said, “the question was asked: Why do you sell it out on season tickets instead of holding some (individual game) tickets back so different people can have the opportunity to check out the product? Several years later, that’s pretty much where we are, and people are going to get that opportunity.”