There is no doubt football is a big part of our school. The blue turf is synonymous with our university. So why not divert some more attention towards all the other sports we have on
campus?
The Associated Students of Boise State University has made a big push recently to draw students out to football games and retain them there for the duration of the game.
Jaclyn Brandt of Boise’s Channel Six news team reported in September the home game between Boise State and Brigham Young drew record attendance numbers at the stadium with over 36,864 people. Even with increased seating this season the stadium was packed.
Meanwhile, other Bronco sports are left with comparatively very few people in attendance. This is something we could fix. It’s tough to believe students have no interest in other sports.
According to Boise State Athletics, men’s basketball made a splash in 2011 for being rated by the NCAA for having the seventh largest attendance increase in the nation with a whopping 4,594 attendee average. A complete fart in the wind compared to our football program. Although to be fair the seating for basketball is considerably less than for football.
In fact the biggest crowd for a men’s basketball game at Boise State was 12,649 in 1993 at what is now Taco Bell Arena. It’s safe to say the current basketball attendance is down a little since 1993.
If we worked as hard to get people to our other athletic events as we did for football then maybe we could build up a community around our entire athletic program, not just football. While watching Coach Pete and the boys butt heads with the opposition is fun, it would be great to see our other teams more often.
There are a lot of things we could do to fix this. For starters, it is difficult to even find any information on our other teams other than who they are playing. This is information that should be really easy to find or maybe even posted somewhere other than the internet.
It makes sense to just check out the official website for Boise State athletics, Broncosports.com because where else is there to go? However the site is not always reliable. What information you can find is not always up-to-date or particularly easy to find. For example our mens’ tennis team has already played two games, but you wouldn’t know it considering the lack of results and information on future games.
The lack of exposure for our athletics programs is something that perhaps warrants a review. While athletics is not the most important thing in the world, it is still a big part of university life and our athletes should be given more spotlight.
