Memphis Basketball Attendance Tops AAC by Wide Margin

Following a disastrous second half to their 2023-2024 season, the Memphis Tigers enjoyed a very good rebound season in 2024-2025. They won the most games they’ve won in a season since Josh Pastner went 31-5 in 2012-2013. Some of this year’s wins include two-time defending national champion UConn, a Michigan State team that went to the Elite Eight, and a top-20 Ole Miss team that went to the Sweet Sixteen. They won the AAC regular season for the first time since joining the conference for the 2013-2014 season, and they won their second AAC Tournament in the last three seasons. And while they may have fallen in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, there is no doubt that this was the best season of the Penny Hardaway era.

But how did the attendance for Tigers games at FedEx Forum look this year? Here is the attendance for every Memphis Tigers home game during the 2024-2025 season.

Over the course of 15 games at FedEx Forum this past season, the Tigers averaged 11,931 fans per game. That is a less than 1% drop from last year when they averaged 11,967 over the course of 17 home games. Unsurprisingly, two of the three largest crowds of the year were against teams that are not only power conference opponents but who also have large followings in the Memphis area: Ole Miss and Mississippi State. And while the average may have been hampered by the fact that the Tigers play in the American Athletic Conference, it’s also impressive that the second largest crowd of the whole season was the regular season finale against AAC foe USF.

How does this year’s attendance stack up compared to previous years?

This year’s Memphis attendance ranks 9th best in the last 13 years. Perhaps one reason for the slight drop this year is the dissatisfaction with the program following the disastrous end to the previous season. Last year, the Tigers were 15-2 and #10 in the country but closed the season out by going 7-8 the rest of the way and failing to make the NCAA Tournament for the fourth time in six seasons under Penny Hardaway. Coming into this year, enthusiasm for the program was understandably low. However, after having one of the best years in the last decade, excitement for Tiger basketball should be much higher next year.

And of course, it appears that Memphis basketball has struggled to rebound from COVID, just as Memphis 901 FC did before their ultimate demise and departure and just as the Memphis Tigers football program has struggled to do. Prior to the pandemic, the hire of Penny Hardaway hire had energized the fan base to the point where by the end of his second season, they were averaging 162% more people than they were the year before he was hired.

But the reason that many of the fans and local media will point to as the reason for the attendance is the American Athletic Conference. It certainly held true for football and there can’t be too much debate about it being true for basketball as well. Simply put, many of the basketball programs in the AAC do not move the needle. And the ones that would (like Wichita State) haven’t been good enough to move the needle for several years.

So it is then unsurprising that Memphis basketball attendance was far and away the best in the AAC this year.

Memphis basketball attendance this year was 98% higher than the next best attended team (Wichita State) and was a staggering 948% higher than the worst attended team in the conference (UTSA). Additionally, while Memphis averaged a 66% full arena, only FAU was able to match that as their arena averaged 97% capacity. The only other teams that were able to get to the 50% mark were Wichita State and East Carolina.

Also worth noting is that, on top of having the highest average attendance in the conference, Memphis was also one of the biggest draws for other teams in the conference. Of the twelve other teams in the AAC, four of them had their biggest crowd of the year when the Tigers visited: Rice, Tulane, UAB, and FAU (though FAU had the same attendance of 3,161 for a number of other games).

Despite being in the AAC, there is reason for optimism for Tiger basketball fans. The Tigers just had their best record in a long time, they won the conference regular season and conference tournament, and went back to the NCAA Tournament where they were a 5-seed. It is widely agreed that Penny Hardaway showed tremendous growth as a coach this year, from use of timeouts to having his team well prepared to limiting his rotation. If the Tigers land a few key pieces in the transfer portal, then there could be an attendance bump for next season.