Women's NCAA tourney attendance down 30% from record '24
- Attendance at the women's NCAA Tournament dropped by 30%, with 224,972 fans this year compared to 292,456 last year, according to Front Office Sports.
- This year's attendance is slightly below the previous record of 231,677 set in 2023 but remains the third highest in tournament history.
- Television ratings for the first round averaged 367,000 viewers, which is a 22% decrease from last year's record of 469,000 viewers, according to ESPN PR.
- JuJu Watkins suffered a season-ending injury during the tournament, impacting coverage.
28 Articles
28 Articles

Women's NCAA tourney attendance down 30% from record '24
The women's NCAA Tournament is chock full of new stars, but attendance through the first two rounds has dropped significantly minus last year's household names including Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese.
Women's tournament starts strong, lags behind Clark-crazed 2024 viewership
ESPN is off to a hot start in the women’s college basketball department, albeit behind the Caitlin Clark-fueled numbers the network put up last season. The first and second rounds of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament posted its second-best audience on-record, trailing only last year’s first round viewership buoyed by the Clark frenzy. Per Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal, ESPN’s Friday and Saturday coverage across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, an…
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- 54% of the sources are Center
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