Why? Because great numbers tell consumers, “Everyone else is doing it, you should too.” Think about it a minute. If consumers learn that “Revenge of the Bumblebees” made $100 million at the box office in its first week, then people would say, “Hey, that movie must be great! If everyone else is seeing it, then so should I.” If the Mavs (or any other sports team) play to sold-out arenas, then something exciting must be happening that others want to join.

Which restaurant do you patronize? The trattoria with empty tables or the bustling eatery with a line out front. My guess is that most consumers would assume (whether true or not) that the busy restaurant has the best food, service, atmosphere or whatever. Also, don’t think for a second that advertisers don’t focus on attendance figures. They want to put their advertising dollar into venues that have consumers.

So, I’m intrigued by the point Mark makes regarding attendance figures being used as competitive intelligence, but, if the numbers are impressive, there is a flip side to the coin.

In sports, some people feel there is an advantage to a home team that plays before a loud crowd. I haven’t seen the NBA analysis on this, but Bill James has done performance-before-a-crowd analysis for baseball, and the results are useful.

The Mavericks attendance, as someone else pointed out, should be reported if even a penny of the arena/stadium was paid for with taxpayer money.

You want to hide your Mavs attendance figures? Why not ban them from TV so no one can see who’s showing up? Ban the radio guys from reporting what they see. Heck, ban the fans so they can’t tell other people how many people they think are there. You don’t need fans to play your games, anyway. Sport isn’t art. You don’t need anyone around to appreciate it.

If your team is good people will show up. It’s been like that since Day 1, Cuban. If your team sucks, fewer will show up. It’s also been like that since Day 1. If the local ice cream shop comes up with a new flavor this year called “Mavs Suck Because They Only Draw 6,000 Per Game Caramel Crunch” – you are going to get worked up about that? What if your team really is drawing 6,000 per game? I’m going to guess there would be a reason for that, which isn’t based on ice cream.

How about making your team a winning one, year in and year out. Everything else will fall into place and you won’t have to write these paranoid blog entries.