Feb. 23, 2006

The Big Ten Conference announced on Thursday that the University of Illinois has been awarded the fourth annual Big Ten SuperFan Cup in recognition of its marketing and promotional campaign that helped boost attendance at women's basketball games over the 2005-06 season.

With an average of 3,468 fans over eight conference home games, Illinois increased its attendance 71.0 percent this season after averaging 2,034 patrons per outing in eight games during the 2004-05 campaign. This year, the Illini hosted five crowds in conference action that were larger than its best turnout from a year ago, when they played Wisconsin in front of 3,056 fans. Of those four notable games, three totals eclipsed the 4,000-fan plateau, while a season high of 6,459 was recorded on Feb. 5 against Michigan State.

Illinois used several unique and creative promotions this year to enhance the crowds in Champaign. The Orange and Blue hosted the wildly popular courtside birthday parties in addition to other popular promotions like Daddy-Daughter Date Night and Girl Scout Day. A new twist that won over the fans was the season-long Sumo Challenge, which involved Illini players dressed in large sumo wrestling outfits battling each other through a tournament-bracket format on the video board during a second-half timeout of each home game. In addition to the game promotions, head coach Theresa Grentz and the UI marketing staff spent time in the off-season generating interest among student groups, dorms and Greek organizations, and also pitched Championship Ticket Packages with local businesses to provide tickets for thousands of area children.

The Superfan Cup will be officially presented to Illinois during its first Big Ten Tournament game next week in Indianapolis. The Big Ten Women's Basketball Tournament presented by XBox Live will take place at Conseco Fieldhouse March 2-6. The tournament bracket will be unveiled this Sunday, Feb. 26 after the completion of the Big Ten regular season.

About the Big Ten SuperFan campaign:
In the fall of 2002, the Big Ten launched the SuperFan campaign, a promotion designed to boost attendance for women's basketball regular-season games. This season's promotion, which honored Illinois as having the greatest annual percentage increase in average attendance for home conference games, allowed each institution within the league to publicize its women's home basketball games using additional marketing tools provided by the Big Ten.

Michigan State was the first university to be awarded the SuperFan Cup as the Spartans generated an astounding 77 percent attendance increase for home games during the 2002-03 season. In 2003-04, Purdue earned the annual traveling trophy after it ranked second in the nation for increased attendance and fifth in average attendance at 10,105 fans per game. Last year, Ohio State increased its attendance by 81.9 percent with a mark of 7,259 fans per contest. In addition, the Buckeyes shattered the Ohio State (13,320) and Big Ten (17,142) single-game attendance mark in the final home game of the season, when OSU sold out Value City Arena with 17,525 fans. The Buckeyes ranked third nationally in largest average attendance increase as 2,079 more fans attended games in 2004-05 compared to the previous year.

The league currently boasts seven teams in the top 25 among national attendance leaders. To date, six Big Ten teams - Minnesota (9,654), Purdue (8,203), Michigan State (7,782), Wisconsin (6,992), Ohio State (6,832) and Penn State (6,822) - have welcomed in more than 1,600 over the league's conference-only average of 5,180. Additionally, 10 home games across the league have hosted more than 10,000 fans, including a season-high mark of 14,697, when Wisconsin fans watched the Badgers upset Minnesota on Feb. 19.

Last year, the league ranked second nationally to the Big 12 with a conference-record 799,604 net attendance, which includes both home and Big Ten Tournament games. The conference has eclipsed its net attendance record over each of the past four years. The Big Ten has also led the nation in attendance seven of the last 13 years, most recently in 1999.

The 2006 Big Ten Women's Basketball Tournament presented by Xbox Live will take place March 2-6. Tournament attendance has eclipsed 30,000 fans in each of the last four years and just two years ago, the Big Ten set a pair of attendance records as the 2004 championship game was played in front of a single-session record of 9,417 fans, which helped establish an overall tournament record of 37,635 spectators.