Recently, The Pacer launched its own blog, Voice It!. I wrote the first post on this blog and I put together a list of three things I think new Athletic Director Julio Freire should focus on. Number one on that list, increasing student attendance at games.
Anyone who has been around me the past year has heard me rant, on multiple occasions, about the lack of student attendance at UTM sporting events. Community members, parents, faculty and alumni flock to games, but students are nearly an endangered species at these events.
I’m not going to act like I know why students don’t come out to support the Skyhawks.
If they win, there aren’t many people there and if they lose, there are only slightly less.
People often ask me, “Why would I go see a team if they’re just going to lose?” First of all, if that’s your rebuttal, it’s invalid. You clearly don’t show up when they win. Furthermore, sports fans will go see their team, even if the opinion of some of those fans is that their team sucks.
That’s not the issue with UTM; the teams don’t ‘suck’.
Is it a marketing failure? I don’t think so.
Do people just not care about sports here? Not even remotely true, people here love sports.
The Ohio Valley Conference is growing every year. People are paying attention to what goes on in the OVC now.
The women’s basketball team keeps finding OVC and NCAA records to break and the men’s team is getting better every week.
So I have a challenge for you, reader, go watch a game. Take a break from homework; sober up a little bit and go watch a game. Every issue of The Pacer contains an upcoming schedule of events. If you can’t find what you need there, go to www.utmsports.com.
Give it a chance, go to a game. If you don’t like it, write a letter to the editor to The Pacer, comment about how terrible it was in the comment section on our website or unleash a profanity-laced rant towards me on Twitter, @official_bks.
However, if you do go, and you enjoy it, all I ask you go back. Support your school and support your teams.
