Season ticket sales spike for 2023-24 after historic UM basketball March Madness runs

Season ticket sales spiked significantly, and extra courtside seats were added at the Watsco Center to satisfy the demand for front-row seats to University of Miami basketball games this season.

More Hurricanes fans than ever want to see the men’s and women’s teams in person after their historic runs in the NCAA Tournament last spring. Tickets for the men’s team, which reached the Final Four, are up 60 percent, which is an increase of about 1,400 seats, according to athletic director Dan Radakovich. Ticket sales for the women’s team, coming off the Elite Eight, are up 32 percent.

“We have a lot of demand for premium seating,” Radakovich said. “So much so that the T.V. and radio announcers will be moved from courtside to make room for big donors.

“That is not unique, there are many places around the country where they have the donors on the floor and some of the media in different locations,” Radakovich added.

But that was not needed at Miami, until now.

The men have an exhibition game Sunday at 2 p.m. against The College of New Jersey and open the regular season November 6th against NJIT. The women open November 9th against Jacksonville University. The Hurricanes’ Final Four men’s banner will be raised on Nov. 10 prior to the game against UCF and the Elite Eight women’s banner will go up two days later.

Both teams held their Media Day on Monday and spoke about expectations for the upcoming season and potential breakout players.

The men’s team is ranked No. 13 in the AP Preseason Top 25 and the women’s team opens at No. 25 in the USA Today rankings.

“We’ve got to put that to bed now,” forward Norchad Omier replied, smiling, when asked how making a Final Four will impact this team. “We got to the Final Four, but that doesn’t matter anymore to me. The returners, we want more. We got so close but didn’t finish. This is a whole new beginning. Rankings don’t mean anything.”

Women’s coach Katie Meier, in her 19^th season, said UM’s recent post-season success has helped recruiting.

“There has always been love for The U and Miami, but some players were just waiting for Miami to prove it in the post-season and now they’re like, `OK, that can be my No. 1 school now,’” Meier said. “That shift definitely happened.”

Two returning players to watch are junior guards Wooga Poplar and Jasmyne Roberts.

Poplar, the 6-5 Philadelphia native, came on strong last season and is drawing raves from teammates and coach Jim Larranaga.

“Wooga is definitely an NBA prospect, we have a ton of NBA people at our practices evaluating him and our other guys,” Larranaga said. “He is a phenomenal three-point shooter and may be the best pull-up jump shooter in the country. His pull-up jump shot is as good as any NBA player. A lot of guys don’t have the mid-range game. He does.”

Poplar, who gets to the gym as early as 6 a.m. some mornings to shoot on his own, scored 31 points in a scrimmage last week. He suffered a mild groin strain over the weekend, and missed practice Monday, but Poplar said he expects to be back next week.

“I think Wooga might do what Zay (Isaiah Wong) did last year,” Omier said. “He’s going to leave a lot of people with their mouths open. I think he’ll be the breakout player in the ACC.”

Meier is expecting big things from Roberts, who stepped up in key moments last season. She will be counted on to take a bigger role with the departure of starters Destiny Harden and Haley Cavinder.

“I told Jas the other day, `Last year you got to play well and be a hero, you were the whipped cream and cherry on top of the banana split, but now you have to be the scoops of ice cream, you’ve got to be the heart and soul,’’’ Meier said.

Roberts welcomes the challenge.

“When (Meier) said that, it really gave me a lot of confidence,” Roberts said. “She basically gave me the key and said, `I need you to be confident and go out there and be great every night.’ So, I realized this is my time to lead the team.”

Meier announced one bit of bad news: incoming freshman Aurora Almon of the Dominican Republic will miss the season with a knee injury. Almon said she tore her left ACL and underwent surgery in August.