At the end of the 2024-25 season, Creighton ranked No. 6 in average home game attendance in NCAA Men’s Basketball for the fourth year in a row. An average of 17,366 people crowded into CHI Health Center for each of the 17 home games.
The No. 6 position comes after North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas and Syracuse.
Creighton also ranks No. 7 for accumulated attendance, with a total of 295,217 people present at home games throughout the season, according to figures from the NCAA.
The Bluejays consistently draw the biggest crowds in the Big East Division, topping the chart for both average and total home game attendance.
For the last four years, Creighton’s team has ranked No. 6 for highest average attendance out of 352 teams, but the tradition doesn’t begin there.
Creighton has a history of high attendance for men’s basketball, ranking in the top 10 for average home game attendance for 13 of the last 14 years, even with limited crowds allowed in the stadium during the 2020-2021 season due to COVID-19 precautions.
This year’s numbers show a slight increase from last year’s average of 17,269. The highest average home game attendance came in the 2013-2014 season, with 17,896 fans at each game.
Home-field advantage is a well-known phenomenon, and the Bluejays seem to benefit from their supportive fans. Creighton won 88% of its games played at home this season, compared to 55% of away games.
Creighton Head Coach Greg McDermott said that the encouraging fan base has contributed to the success of the team, which finished the season ranked No. 2 in the Big East.
“You can’t have a successful program without tremendous support. We’ve got some of the best. Some of the people that have been with us through thick and thin—it’s been incredible. That’s why it’s easy for these guys to go out there and lay it all on the line…,” McDermott said in a press conference following the team’s loss to Auburn in the NCAA tournament.
Though the Bluejays have consistently ranked in the top six nationally for attendance, their stadium, CHI Health Center, ranks No. 15 in stadium capacity.
CHI Health Center, which has hosted the Bluejays since its opening in 2003, seats 17,352 people. This means that the average crowd at a men’s basketball game exceeds seating capacity.
Creighton is the second private school on the ranking and has about 8,700 students, including both graduate and undergraduate schools, compared to Syracuse’s 22,000 students. The smaller fan base doesn’t keep the white and blue from showing up.
“People want to come out and see it, and people want to support Creighton…especially this last group of guys that that we have. So, I think it’s awesome and it just [speaks] to the success of the program [and] the strength of the passion of Omaha residents for their sports teams,” College of Arts and Sciences junior Hank Salsbury said. Salsbury attends almost every Creighton Basketball home game as a member of Blue Crew.
Creighton’s attendance tradition may have something to do with the strong sports culture in the region. Nebraska’s teams consistently have high attendance rankings as well.
In the 2024 season, Nebraska Football ranked No. 11 in the NCAA for average attendance of 86,900 people. Women’s volleyball earned the No. 1 spot for an average of 8,713 people at each home game, bringing the season total to 191,681 in-person viewers.
In August 2023, 92,003 people packed into Memorial Stadium in Lincoln for a Nebraska vs. Omaha women’s volleyball game, setting the world record for attendance at a women’s sporting event.
Though Creighton men’s basketball has received a consistently high turnout over recent decades, Omaha sports fans are beginning to show their appreciation for women’s volleyball as well.
The Omaha Supernovas, also playing at CHI Health Center, rank No. 1 in the world for average attendance for a professional volleyball team. Since their founding in 2023, the Supernovas have seen increasing attendance for their matches, beating their own attendance record for a U.S. pro volleyball match seven times, according to the Pro Volleyball Federation.
With a long-standing tradition of dedicated fan support, Creighton’s basketball program proves that in Omaha, passion for the game fills every seat.