Paid attendance at Razorback sports events tops 1 million

Arkansas topped one million in paid attendance for home events in 2014-15, an increase of more than 10% from the previous year in ticketed Razorback sports, according to information provided Wednesday (July 1) by the University of Arkansas Athletic Department.

A total of 1,062,572 Razorback fans purchased tickets for home events in football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, gymnastics, soccer, softball, men’s and women’s track and field and volleyball, marking a 10.1% increase from the 964,909 fans who represented paid attendance for the same events in 2013-14.

Eleven of the 12 sports saw increased paid attendance this year. Football netted a 17.9% increase in attendance last season, while soccer (13.4%) and volleyball (11.3%) also enjoyed double-digit percentage attendance increases.

Following are the top five attendance comparisons with the previous year.
Football
2014-15: 399,124
2013-14: 338,618

Men’s basketball
2014-15: 283,485
2013-14: 269,838

Baseball
2014-15: 273,605
2013-14: 255,274

Women’s basketball
2014-15: 31,503
2013-14: 28,850

Track & Field
2014-15: 22,787
2013-14: 21,630

“We are grateful to the more than one million Razorback fans that cheered on our programs at home this past year,” Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics Jeff Long said in the statement “With the tremendous support our more than 460 student-athletes receive from the passionate fans of our program, we were able to record the most successful year in the history of Razorbacks Athletics. Thank you to all those who cheered our teams on this past season and we look forward to seeing you at a Razorback event in 2015-16.”

Arkansas recently finished the 2014-15 year ranked 16th in the Learfield Sports Directors Cup, a competition that tracks the nation’s most successful intercollegiate athletics programs for their performances throughout the year. The 16th-place ranking was the best national finish since the scoring format was adopted. Of the top-15 teams in the standings, 12 have 20 or more sports in their programs. Arkansas sponsors 19 varsity sports, 16 of those programs contributed to the record-breaking point total, tying a record also achieved in 2007-08.

The Razorbacks ranked fourth among Southeastern Conference programs. Arkansas is the only Division I school in the nation this year to have won a bowl game, games in both the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments and an NCAA Baseball Regional.

Academically, Razorback student-athletes posted a program record cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 3.24, with more than 60 percent of student-athletes achieving a 3.0 GPA or better.