More than 150 athletes showed up for the 2024 Xfinity U.S. Gymnastics Championships. The Fort Worth Sports Commission reported an economic impact of $7.4 million on the city. And why would it not be? The GOAT of the sport, Simone Biles, was showing up. Then there was the fans’ beloved, Jade Carey, donning the leotard for the championships. And also the 2020 Olympic team silver medalist Jordan Chiles. The big names that are missing this year, and the impact can be seen.

Let’s start with yesterday, when the men took to the apparatus to finish their campaign. The Smoothie King Center has a seating capacity of 17,791, and yet, the images showed only about 20–30% of the arena filled, far below what you’d expect for a high-profile national gymnastics event. But things could have been different today. Olympians are performing; unfortunately, fans aren’t.

Joscelyn Roberson is here. Hezly Rivera had a bad US Classics competition. But she took the lead on day one here. This was her comeback. Fans must have shown up in big numbers for that! Only if…

One fan posted a picture from the last day of the Xfinity US Championships, and there seems to be no improvement. “I’ve been to every US Championships since 2003. Hard to think of one with a worse attended senior women’s final…,” the post read. A hardcore fan saying that this would be the worst-attended finale since 2003? Speaks volumes about how big an impact Biles has had on the competition in the past years.

In the image, the arena looked barely filled. Given the 17,791-seat capacity, the arena here appeared less than half full, upper sections appeared largely empty, and the lower bowl looked patchy with many open rows. It was like 25-35% percent filled.  Also, just a day before the 2025 Xfinity U.S. Gymnastics Championships, Ticketmaster showed many unsold seats, even in the upper sections. Although the women’s finals tickets were priced as low as $30 for juniors and $47 for seniors on August 10, unusually cheap for a national championship finale, fans did not show up.

A disappointing number for both days. But in previous years, the GOAT might have made a difference.

Biles and the women’s gymnastics team drew 7.6 million average viewers during the Olympic all-around qualifying meet on July 28, 2024, which Biles won to secure her third Olympic bid. The audience peaked at 8.2 million viewers between 10 p.m. ET and 10:15 p.m. ET as the athletes completed their final rotation. And this is just one example of how Simone Biles brings the audience with her.

Simone Biles brings the audience

In June 2023, a single announcement reshaped the ticket scene of the U.S. Classic. New reports broke out that Simone Biles was returning and going up against Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles, and Sunisa Lee in the single-day event in Chicago. Overnight, it became a must-see. Vivid Seats reported a 98% overnight surge for women’s tickets, leaping from $86 to $170, then climbing further.

Then, the average reached $213, a 148% jump, making the 2023 U.S. Classic the decade’s hottest gymnastics ticket, surpassing 2021 nationals at $209 and the 2021 women’s trials at $206 and $178, according to Vivid Seats’ marketplace tracking and historical pricing comparisons. And this wasn’t the end.

Simone Biles and co brought in some heavy numbers from TV in the 2024 Olympics as well. 

Gymnastics was a central driver of the 2024 Paris Olympics’ viewership success, significantly boosting attendance and engagement. The U.S. women’s gymnastics team’s gold medal performance, featuring Simone Biles, Jordan Chiles, Suni Lee, Jade Carey, and Hezly Rivera, drew an impressive 12.7 million viewers on NBC and Peacock, even during a weekday afternoon. This helped push the total audience for that day to 34.7 million across all platforms, making it one of the biggest viewership surges of the Games.

The live afternoon coverage of the women’s all-around kept fans glued, averaging 10.9 million viewers and contributing to several days with over 30 million viewers.

So, do you think their presence would have helped boost the attendance today as well?