Ball State set a new women's basketball attendance record Saturday, as 4,030 fans appeared at Worthen Arena to watch the Cardinals play Toledo.
The new figure bests the Cardinals' previous record of 1,979, set at home against Toledo last year.
The team's bid to shatter the Mid-American Conference's attendance record of 5,560, however, fell 1,530 short.
Cardinal's head coach Tracy Roller said although the conference record was not broken, she was satisfied with the turnout.
"4,000 is fine with me," Roller said. "We got 3,000 more fans than we usually would and I think today people saw some great basketball and I know they'll come back again."
The athletic department, as well as members of the team, passed out 30,000 free vouchers to Saturday's game against Toledo throughout the Ball State and Muncie communities.
Chris Taylor, assistant director of intercollegiate athletics, said he thought the promotion was a success but was disappointed more fans didn't show up.
"I think we're disappointed we didn't get the 6,000," Taylor said. "That 's a tall order -- maybe we should have said just break the Ball State record."
Taylor said the athletic department will likely try the promotion again in an attempt to break the record.
"What it did was create a buzz," he said. "Ball State women's basketball was in the forefront; it was in the front of the media; it was on the radio; it was in the community.
"I think what you hope happens now is that the 4,000 people who were here, especially the students, enjoyed what they saw tonight," he said, "(and) that the fan base that we're averaging, around a thousand a game, maybe grows to 1,500 or 2,000 and then we do this again ... and then it gets to 2,500 or 3,000 a game."
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