Vic Schaefer shares heartfelt appreciation for Longhorns’ explosive attendance and incredible ESPN TV ratings
Longhorns now rank 11th nationally in average attendance with a 97% growth rate from Vic Schaefer’s first season
Texas women’s coach Vic Schaefer was chatting with reporters Tuesday about the upcoming clash with No. 8 Kentucky when he stopped mid-thought and pivoted back to wins over Vanderbilt and South Carolina.
“I want to thank our fans,” Schaefer said unprompted.
“Obviously, we had great crowds last week. And you know, I look across the country y’all, and I don’t see that just everywhere. I turned on the TV last night and looked at an arena that was pretty much empty. You know, I just really want to thank our fans.”
Schaefer was simply overjoyed at the fan turnout in wins over No. 24 Vanderbilt and No. 2 South Carolina.
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The Horns announced that 7,049 fans turned out last Thursday to witness a 87-66 win over the Commodores. Fans sold out Moody Center on Super Bowl Sunday — a crowd of 10,517 — as No. 4 Texas rolled to a 66-62 win and snapped the Gamecocks’ 57-game winning streak in SEC play.
It was the third time the Texas women have announced a sellout since moving into the Moody Center in November 2022. Dawn Staley probably wasn’t surprised. The legendary South Carolina coach said afterward that women’s basketball is “It” right now.
ESPN also announced Tuesday that one million people watched the game on its platforms, with the audience peaking at 1.3 million. It’s the most-watched women’s basketball game on ESPN this season.
Texas plays at Kentucky on Thursday, but another full house is expected Sunday when UT hosts No. 5 LSU and coach Kim Mulkey.
“Part of building a program, as I told you a long time ago, is your fan base,” Schaefer said. “You know, I think we had some apathy here when we took the job. Obviously, we’re in a different arena, much bigger place, but part of building a program is not just your X’s and O’s. It's not your wins and losses. It's building your fan base.”
Nationally, South Carolina leads the nation in average attendance at 16,916 fans per game. Iowa is second, averaging 14,998 fans each night, powered in part by the incredible popularity of Caitlin Clark during her college days. Texas currency ranks 11th nationally as the Horns are averaging 7,157 fans per night.
Before Schaefer arrived, the Longhorns ranked 30th nationally during the 2019-20 season. That season, UT averaged 3,638 fans for home games.
“What we’ve been able to do in a really short period of time here, I'm really proud of,” the coach added. “Our kids deserve a lot of the credit because of the style of play they play. They're fun to watch. Our fans really enjoy them.”
National media outlets have noticed, too. Madison Booker was featured during a halftime interview of ESPN’s Monday night women’s SEC broadcast.
Other SEC coaches are noticing the Horns’ play. Booker was also named the SEC player of the week after putting up 20 points and 11 rebounds against the Gamecocks, the current SEC standard bearer.
“Madison Booker, Rory Harmon, the rest of my team, they're signing the same autographs, taking the same picture with the same person after every game,” Schaefer said. “But you know what? That’s OK. If that’s what it takes to build a fan base, we’re going to do it.
“There’s people up in the stands, there’s little old ladies up there that got a dozen cookies. They think those are their girls, not mine,” he continued. “They don’t think they’re Texas’ team. They think they’re their team. And that’s OK, and that’s really what you want. You want to build that atmosphere of ownership.”
Schaefer is grateful for the fan turnout, but he’ll always welcome more. As the coach might say, these SEC games only get bigger, y’all.
“So, really want to say thank you to our community and our fan base,” Schaefer said. “Again, our kids appreciate it. I appreciate it.”
