The attendance of 3,581 at Ball State University's second round home game in the WNIT exceeded the athletic department's expectations.
To secure the second round home game, Ball State bid to pay a minimum of $8,296 to the Women's Collegiate Sports Association with the assumption 2,250 tickets would be sold for the game against the University of Kentucky, according to bid documents.
Athletics director Tom Collins said the Ball State and Muncie communities represented the university very well, and the result should be something the WNIT notices.
"Those things will help you down the road the next time you play in the WNIT," Collins said.
Renee Carlson, assistant director of the WNIT, said attendance has been good overall in the tournament this year with certain areas of the country and teams doing better than others.
"We hoped for Ball State's sake that that would happen," Carlson said about the high attendance. "We were very happy for them."
Final revenue figures will not be complete for a couple weeks, Collins said. However, 3,581 tickets were sold, with approximately 200 going to students. Regular tickets were $7 and student tickets were $4, which would produce approximately $24,467 in ticket revenue. According to bid documents, Ball State expected $5,390 to go toward regular game expenses, including game personnel and facility costs.
That would produce a profit of $19,077. However, the athletic department will only be able to see 15 percent of the profit, because the Women's Collegiate Sports Association, the organizing body of the WNIT, is guaranteed 85 percent of the profit or the bid amount, whichever is greater. The profit Ball State receives goes back into the athletic department's general fund, Collins said.
Collins said it would be worth it to pay $1,000 in order to have a home game, so the financial result Ball State will see is positive because it will far outweigh travel costs the team would have spent to go to Kentucky.
Ball State had the third-best attendance among the second round games of the WNIT. Ball State has played two other home postseason games, both in the 2002 WNIT. In the first round, Ball State defeated the University of Louisville in front of 787 fans and then lost to Valparaiso University in front of 1,510 fans.
While this year's crowd exceeded expectations, Collins said he wasn't surprised by the attendance figure because of the success the women's program has had this year.
"It's kind of the crescendo that's been building all year," he said.
Ball State averaged 1,411 fans during its 11 regular season games, which included the Worthen Arena record of 4,711 against Eastern Michigan University. Coach Tracy Roller said she thought it would be hard to surpass the atmosphere of the Eastern game, but that the WNIT game did.
"The student section was top notch," she said. "It was as intimidating as any BCS school I've been too."
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