University sports: where are the fans?
Best of the Beacon, Opinion, This Week's Edition Thursday, October 22nd, 2009
Fans crowding around an open tailgate before last Saturday's Boston College football game.
Walking through the campus of Boston College on an October Saturday afternoon, the first thing you notice is the tailgate parties. Seemingly every parking spot, every bit of front lawn, and any free piece of asphalt is filled with cars, barbecues, team flags, beanbag tosses, and people proud to be at the game, supporting their team. One six-story parking garage is set aside for people to party in before and after the game. And at 3:30 last Saturday, kickoff time, 35,261 of those fans filed in to Alumni Stadium to scream, gasp, and stomp on aluminum floors in support of their Eagles. It’s about 9,000 short of a sellout, but consider that it’s a down year for BC’s football team, their opponent (North Carolina State) isn’t a marquee team, and the game was broadcast for free on ABC.
Meanwhile, last Friday night in Fredericton, the UNB Varsity Reds hockey team started its regular season by raising last year’s national championship banner. Only 1,982 fans saw the game, which could be excused because a football game was going on at the same time. There is no excuse for Saturday night, when only 1,500 fans watched UNB play the rival Univeristé de Moncton Blue Eagles – less than half the capacity of the Aitken Centre. Thanksgiving weekend, UNB’s basketball teams played their annual tournaments before an ocean of empty seats – despite top-notch opposition. And last season, St. Thomas University all too often drew less than 300 fans for games.
It’s easy to compare the situations and shrug it off, what with college football being an ingrained part of American culture. But hockey is just as much if not more important to Canada’s culture; indeed, it’s one of the few things that bring this country together. Fans should be lining up for tickets to AUS hockey, a very entertaining brand of hockey. The players are mature and tough, the games are incredibly intense, and level of play is arguably higher than the Q. In other sports, like basketball and volleyball, university play is unquestionably the highest level of the game you can see in the province. Yet far too many seats at the gym remain empty.
UPEI Panthers warming up for a recent game. Not enough people are watching this team play. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
It’s not as if university sports are pricing themselves out of the market. An adult ticket to a UNB hockey game is $10. That’s less than the cost to see that new movie on the weekend, and much less than $14.50 minimum price to see the Saint John Sea Dogs. Basketball tickets are $8, and you get two games out of it – the mens’ and the womens’. Tickets for students and kids are even cheaper, which is great because the games have a great family atmosphere.
You could argue that a lack of media exposure is hurting university sports. Even the worst American college football game gets aired on some channel or other, and the NCAA basketball tournament dominates CBS’s schedule each March. But that’s because network executives looked at the large number of fans who show up for college football and basketball games and decided that people would watch it on TV. Small, half-full hockey rinks don’t attract TV cameras. Besides, local newspapers like the Daily Gleaner and the Aquinian do a bang-up job in covering university sports. People have no excuse not to know about the games.
In short, fans have no excuse not to show up for university sports. It’s an affordable, entertaining way to spend an evening. You don’t have to tailgate at the hockey rink (it’s too cold for that in the evening), but at least show up to a game once in awhile. Pound the bleachers and cheer on your team, even if you have no connection with the school at all. You might even like it.
Short URL: http://www.newbrunswickbeacon.ca/?p=1957
Posted by Sean Thompson
on Oct 22, 2009. Filed under Best of the Beacon, Opinion, This Week's Edition.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
