Attendance

A bit of hyperbole, or is this true? From todays Detroit Free Press:

McCormick recalled plenty of empty seats during the late '80s and early '90s when the team made three Final Fours in five years. But it was nothing like this season, as the women's team has consistently outdrawn the men.

"It's surprising," said athletic director Bill Martin, who hired Beilein last year to revive the downtrodden program. "I mean, we had 6,500 at a women's game this year."

I'll have to do some checking, but except for the Michigan State game, which drew 5596 fans (not 6500 as claimed in the article), I rather doubt this.

Update:

Checking mgoblue.com's figures - reported attendance for Men's is 130530, with an average of 10041/game, the women 18878 with an average of 1761/game. Even if the men report tickets sold and women actual attendance I can't imagine Free Press is correct.

Average attendance is up a bit from last year (1716 vs. 1556), but lower than the three previous years (1744, 2170, 2303).