Memphis Tigers could miss Grizzlies payment over worst basketball attendance in nearly 50 years

Memphis senior Alex Moffatt will run out of the tunnel for his final home game at FedExForum on Sunday, and he conceded that the sight of empty seats will not be an unfamiliar one.

When Memphis closes out its 2017-18 regular season against East Carolina, it will make official the program’s least-attended campaign since the end of the Moe Iba era. Even if the Tigers sell out FedExForum on Sunday, they will finish with their lowest average announced attendance since the 1969-70 season.

Memphis is averaging 6,211 fans through 18 home games, which is down by more than 3,400 from last season. Just four years ago, the school averaged more than 16,000 fans and ranked among the top 10 in the country in average attendance.

More: Nobody's home: Memphis Tiger basketball has an attendance problem

This will be the sixth straight year in which announced attendance declined for Memphis men’s basketball games.

As a result, the university is in jeopardy of receiving no money from the Memphis Grizzlies as part of its lease agreement at FedExForum.

According to the lease, Memphis is due an $800,000 payment if it averages more than 10,000 fans. If it averages between 6,000 and 10,000 fans, the school receives a reduced payment in proportion to the shortfall. If average attendance is below 6,000, Memphis gets no money from the Grizzlies.

Calkins: Memphis Grizzlies and Memphis Tigers share season of misery

That average, however, is based on the turnstile count, not announced attendance. The turnstile count measures the number of fans who physically attend each game.

Eric Sabin, the associate athletic director of finance at Memphis, wrote in an email earlier this week that the school does not yet have all of the attendance numbers for the season from FedExForum and would provide them once the season concludes.

Memphis received a $368,449 payment from the Grizzlies when it had an announced attendance of 9,622 per game during the 2016-17 season, according to documents filed with the NCAA and obtained through an open records request.

The athletic department received a $349,972 payment from the Grizzlies during former coach Josh Pastner’s final season in 2015-16 when average announced attendance was 12,028. Sabin said last March that the Tigers almost always received the full $800,000 payment prior to that.

If the average turnstile count is below 6,000 in two consecutive seasons, the Grizzlies would have the option to terminate the school’s lease. Memphis athletic director Tom Bowen has said publicly he would like to renegotiate the lease to give the Tigers more flexibility to schedule marquee non-conference matchups in the future.

This all comes on the heels of coach Tubby Smith’s first season a year ago, when the Tigers’ announced attendance hit a 35-year low.

When asked Saturday whether he is concerned that a large portion of the fan base hasn’t bought into his vision for the program after two years on the job, Smith noted sagging attendance is due to lots of factors.

“We were picked to finish ninth, 12th in some polls, in this league, so it was hard from the beginning. That was one of the troublesome things to start with,” he said in response. “I thought our guys have overachieved in some ways and I’m certain that fans take awhile to understand and appreciate that when you have to restore and rebuild and rejuvenate, it takes awhile. This didn’t happen in a year. It’s probably something that’s been happening awhile.”

“Every program I’ve ever gone into it’s been the case, except a place like Kentucky maybe. That’s why changes are made, and unfortunately we had the setback last year in the way we finished the season and had to go out and get so many new players. I guess (fans) weren’t told we had the No. 1 recruiting class in the league. That’s why we’ve been able to achieve what we’ve been able to achieve.”

Memphis will be looking to bounce back from an embarrassing 75-51 loss to South Florida, the American Athletic Conference’s worst team.

More: Memphis coach Tubby Smith left 'baffled' by Tigers' lopsided loss to USF

Smith called it the most disappointing performance of the season. Senior Jimario Rivers said the team wants to “show the fans that was just a fluke night.”

Moffatt noted on Saturday that it took two hours for Smith to break down a 12-minute segment of game film from the USF loss. But it’s these man hours put in that make the bleak attendance numbers so hard to stomach for him.

The Somerville native is living out a dream this season after rooting for the Tigers growing up. Smith put Moffatt on scholarship for the first time this fall and credited him with providing a steadying voice for the program's 11 new players.

But Moffatt is also aware, at least anecdotally, that the fans that once made Memphis basketball games a hot ticket aren't showing up in droves anymore.

“Of course we noticed when we were running out to 1,000 people ... and it’s frustrating because we’re working hard,” Moffatt said. “We’re doing everything we can.”

Tigers' next game

Who: Memphis (18-12, 9-8 AAC) vs. ECU (10-18, 4-13)

When, where: 2 p.m. Sunday, FedExForum

TV, radio: ESPN3; WREC-AM 600, WEGR-FM 102.7

Skinny: The Tigers hope to avenge an 88-85 overtime loss they suffered at ECU last month and secure the fifth seed in next week's AAC tournament. Memphis could fall to the No. 6 seed with a loss on Sunday. The Pirates enter the rematch on a four-game losing streak and the last three have been by an average margin of 28 points. ECU will play without forward Kentrell Barkley (12 points, 7.3 rebounds), who is suspended indefinitely. But it does have 6-foot-10 forward Jabari Craig back after he missed the first meeting with a foot injury. Freshman Shawn Williams had a career-best 30 points against Memphis.