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Are Empty Seats in Rupp Arena Sending Kentucky a message?

For decades after Rupp Arena opened in 1976, if Kentucky was playing, the stands were packed. That has ceased being the reality.

The headline last week on a Jacob Feldman article on the sports business Website Sportico.com, was, “Attendance is down across sports.” As compared to 2019-20, Feldman cited significant increases in the numbers of NFL, NBA and NHL teams this season playing before less than 90-percent capacity.

While the sample size is small, attendance has so far this season been soft for basketball games in at Central Bank Center.

For the Wildcats' 2021-22 exhibition opener against Wesleyan, the announced attendance in Rupp — the number of tickets distributed to the event — was 17,133 in the 20,545-seat venue.

The figure for the second exhibition, against Miles College, was 17,814.

With Robert Morris as the foe for the official home opener Friday night, the announced crowd figure was 18,454. Look, a multitude of sports teams — college and professional — would salivate over attendance numbers such as these.

Read full article here.

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