Attendance at BU sporting events: Why don't fans come to games, and how is BU Athletics trying to change that?

The Boston University men's hockey team reigns supreme for attendance among all of BU's athletic teams — but Agganis Arena still rarely fills up for home games. Agganis, with a capacity of 6,300 for hockey games, isn't nearly among the largest rinks in college hockey, but BU still only ranks seventh of 12 Hockey East schools in regards to attendance this season.

To begin the 2015-16 season, BU has filled to 72.7 percent capacity with an average of 4,580 fans at every home game. That percentage is down so far from last year's 75.98 percent.

But, as for other sports, the numbers are even smaller.

This season, BU Athletics ended a two-year experiment of hosting in-conference men's basketball games at Agganis, which can hold up to 7,200 fans for basketball. In 2013-14, Agganis filled to just 12.47 percent capacity for basketball games, and that number dropped to 8.32 percent in 2014-15.

In fact, BU men's basketball has reached more than 50 percent capacity just twice over the past three seasons. The 2015-16 season opener drew 1,256 fans to the 1,800-seat Case Gymnasium for a game between BU and Northeastern University. The only other time Case Gym has seen nearly that many people in the past three years was for a game against Harvard on Dec. 7, 2013, which drew 1,233 fans.

"I think especially if we continue to have games in Case, it helps us because it's more intimate, more of your high-energy basketball venue," said Dan Mercurio, director of marketing and strategic planning for BU Athletics. "Agganis is a fantastic facility, but it's huge ... and it's not realistic in the Northeast. You don't even see [Boston College], who's in the ACC, one of the top conferences in the country, drawing big for their men's basketball team right now."

The women's hockey team, despite four consecutive conference titles and six straight NCAA Tournament appearances, hosts small crowds as well. At Walter Brown Arena, which seats 3,806, BU has averaged just 283 fans a game in 11 home contests in 2015. During the 2014-15 season, an average of just 268 BU fans came to games.

So why the discrepancy? It's due partially to the tradition of men's hockey on campus.

"Hockey's always going to be the king," Mercurio said. "But I think a reason for that is tradition. They've been national champions ... whereas a good year for men's basketball would be getting to the NCAA Tournament. I think we're quite a ways away from being a Top 25 team in the country. It's a different caliber program.

"Men's hockey, they're consistently a Top 10-caliber team, and that has to do with the tradition that's been built here since Jack Parker first got here. So we're talking 40, 50 years ago that they became an elite program. ... [men's basketball] will always be playing second fiddle, but that's okay. We need a marquee program."