It's the same thing over and over when we have successful teams. Look at the lightning now and how many people 'care' about them today... take the bucs when they bwere selling out rayjay and there was a waiting list for tickets... or the rays world series appearances. Tampa just loves winning and the city gets behind W's.
If USF wins, people will go. Winning makes it cool, being ranked makes it cool, winning championships makes it cool. Until we start winning it won't be fun or cool and no new fans will be created.
I suspect if/when we start winning, some of those casual fans that we captured in '06, '07 will come back.