Penny Hardaway calls for higher attendance at Memphis basketball home games

Everything is more or less going to plan for Memphis basketball this season.

The Tigers are currently No. 21 in the Associated Press (AP) Top 25 with five Quad 1 victories over Missouri, San Francisco, No. 11 UConn, No. 20 Michigan State and No. 25 Clemson.

Memphis is also led by perhaps the most exciting backcourt duo in college basketball—PJ Haggerty, the country’s ninth-best scorer, and Tyrese Hunter, a two-time American Athletic Conference (AAC) Player of the Week. Haggerty, Hunter and Colby Rogers, who all shoot 39.4% or better from 3-point range, engineer a Memphis offense that’s become the nation’s No. 2 perimeter shooting unit.

Those three factors—plus several others—hypothetically create an attraction worth seeing live. And they have, at least on paper.

Each of Memphis’ first four games at FedExForum this season drew at least 10,543 fans. The Tigers’ home opener against Mizzou welcomed a season-high 11,709 attendees. But those figures are simply the announced attendance, aka the number of tickets bought rather than scanned at the door.

The actual turnstile attendance for those contests is currently undisclosed to the public, but Tigers coach Penny Hardaway suggested the marks fall well below what the announced attendance says.

”To me, it’s empty. It’s not as packed as it has been in the past. And I don’t know if it’s because of me or what’s going on,” he said during the “Penny Hardaway Radio Show” at Brookhaven Pub & Grill Monday. “We’re still the city’s team. We’re ranked, and we’re fighting really hard. We need the support from everyone.

”That’s all I’ve known Tiger basketball to be, is supportive. I know the economy is different and things have changed. But at the end of the day, we need everyone to show up.”

Memphis drew an average scanned attendance of 6,827 fans last season, according to figures released by the school. That’s down from the 7,458 attendees the program averaged in 2022-23, or the 8,813 average it drew in Hardaway’s first season.

Granted, 75% of Memphis’ home games this year were played against mid-major opponents. That’s bound to change when Memphis hosts Mississippi State on Saturday and No. 17 Ole Miss on Dec. 28 to end its non-conference schedule.

Hardaway hopes those games get more Memphians into FedExForum.

”I’m hoping that Memphis shows up for the last two non-conference home games,” he said. “Please, let’s get the Forum packed.”