As a twenty-five year season ticket holder I can tell you OU has never been very good at fan support for the team. There were times during the Tubbs and Sampson era when attendance was good but never great.
No question the key factors in making an exciting basketball venue is first quality basketball and second student support that makes the game a campus event . The presence of an excited student section makes the game more exciting and entertaining. Get the students to the game and the older fans will follow.
Kruger has worked diligently attempting to motivate student fan participation and he definitely has brought a better brand of basketball to LNC. Unfortunately it is going to take wins and an exciting brand of basketball to intrigue the students to venture to LNC and that is going to take some time perhaps 5-10 years.
Further the presence of the OKC Thunder has diminished the OU crowd and probably the OSU crowd by 15-25%. There are just so many entertainment dollars to be spent and a successful winning NBA franchise does not help.
Most season ticket holders are corporations that cannot give their tickets away to customers or employees that will attend. In time those tickets just set in a desk drawer and are written off as a necessary expense for supporting the university.
I have been attending OU basketball games for 50 years, first in McCasland Field House and now LNC. I would guess there have been no more than 15-20 sellouts and fewer full house than that. In Norman basketball excites very few. It is what it is and only a decade of top 20 performances will alter this attitude to any significant degree.
Actual attendance last night was 5,276 which from a historical perspective is relatively good for a Tuesday night game against lowly Tech ,especially with the present quality of the Sooners' play. KSU on Saturday drew 6,273 and the Kansas game the previous Saturday drew 9.415 but Kansas, Texas and OSU always draw considerably better than the other conference games.