Women's NCAA Tournament sets all-time attendance records for first and second rounds
If this year's women's NCAA Tournament hasn't already dispelled the myth with the product on the court that there's widespread demand for the women's game, another record-breaking statistic only bolsters the case.
Through the first and second rounds, a total of 216,890 people attended games, setting an all-time attendance record. The NCAA shared the stat in a message posted to the official Twitter account of women's basketball.
This was the first time the women's tournament was allowed to use the March Madness logo and marketing that had been available for years for the men's tournament. But while the men's tournament games are held at neutral sites, the women's tournament is held at the home venues of some of the top-seeded teams.
The first two rounds have been marked by exciting play and historic upsets. On Sunday alone, in the second round, a pair of No. 2 seeds fell, both to No. 10 seeds.
In the first game, 10th-seeded Creighton pulled off a shocker, slaying mighty Caitlin Clark and Iowa, 64-62, on the Hawkeyes’ floor. With that upset, Creighton advanced to its first Sweet 16 in school history.
Then, South Dakota knocked off second-seeded Baylor, 61-47, in a game that wasn’t as close as the final score indicated. The Coyotes never trailed, and led by as many as 16 in the third quarter. South Dakota, too, notched its first Sweet 16 trip in program history.
And on Monday, the fifth-seeded North Carolina Tar Heels dominated fourth-seeded Arizona for long stretches, upsetting the Wildcats, 63-45, in Tucson. Arizona, last year’s runner-up, is the first team from the 2021 Final Four to be knocked out of the tournament.
This came after six double-digit seeds, one shy of the record, won their games in the first round.
A recent review estimated that the value of the women's tournament will be between $81 million and $121 million in 2025.
Contributing: Lindsay Schnell and Nancy Armour