At Western Michigan, hockey is the bigger sport. I've heard some fans argue it's bigger than football (although attendance HIGHLY disagrees). Compare 32K to 4K

That being said, attendance-wise, hockey and basketball are about the same. Basketball gets more general admission fans, but hockey gets more student fans. (Hockey: half the arena is students; Basketball: Almost all the arena is general admission)

Gameday atmosphere - For football, The home opener, Homecoming, and vs Central Michigan can have great atmospheres, but outside of those, hockey has the best atmosphere.

(04-05-2019 02:43 PM)CliftonAve Wrote:  Miami of Ohio gets ~3,000 to its hockey games, that's probably 2-3 times as many people that are at their basketball games.

That's gone down in recent years, but in general that's true. Though we usually have a basketball game or two north of 3K when we give away tickets to local schools, Miami staff, etc.

(04-08-2019 07:38 PM)Love and Honor Wrote:  

(04-05-2019 02:43 PM)CliftonAve Wrote:  Miami of Ohio gets ~3,000 to its hockey games, that's probably 2-3 times as many people that are at their basketball games.

That's gone down in recent years, but in general that's true. Though we usually have a basketball game or two north of 3K when we give away tickets to local schools, Miami staff, etc.

Seems like WMU and Miami funding hockey and FBS football hurts basketball. There's not as much of an attendance differential at WMU - I guess the 3K who show up is the usual diehard crew thru winning seasons or losing seasons - but the consensus is that funding hockey comes at the expense of basketball.

I personally like all 3 (FBS football, D1 basketball, D1 hockey) and think each one brings value.