Why, in a world full of social networking and a population full of people who need information “now,” can’t we fill the stands at a Hawk home game? With Facebook group joining becoming the norm, and Tweets flying 24/7, shouldn’t it be our first objective to do whatever we can do to get fans to come out and enjoy a sporting event?
Well as hard as it may be in any sense, multiple obstacles get in the way from achieving this goal. Monmouth Athletics has done a nice job in inspiring school spirit and promoting all the athletic events, but all work cast aside, attendance remains low.
Over the course of the year, the University undertakes a countless amount of promotional events for its sporting events, including free fan buses, certain giveaway nights, fundraising events, “Monmouth Mob” events and others. The main objective of the staff seems to be to promote a greater sense of “Hawk Pride” so that a day at Kessler Field could ultimately feel like a trip to the Horseshoe at Ohio State, or the Nittany Lion whiteout at Penn State. This goes for all sports, which have their share of promotions underway. Bottom line is, they’ve done their job, now we must do ours. As fans, we should wake up before we fall too far behind making the sports outing seem like just an event to attend out of boredom.
First year events and other promotional outings draw crowds for our football games, along with our drive to see a winning season, and the soccer program’s prestige intrigues the sports fan as well. A new men’s basketball program fronted by a NCAA Division I big name, along with a clearly qualified women’s basketball coach should also fill the seats. These are extremely attainable goals and would pinpoint Monmouth on the map as an institution to fear as a visiting athlete. The Hawk fan base can potentially inspire the football team to play at a whole other level, fan mobs at the MAC could alter a game, and attendance on the Great Lawn could have attendees on hand witness history. Intriguing anyone yet? Well if it’s not, the root of our problem is discovered.
So with all the excitement swirling around this season’s sports teams, do you think we will be able to walk the walk instead of talk the talk? That is something, although my opinion can change, I remain very skeptical about. We can add “Free Prizes” or “Big Time matchup” to any game flyer, but when game time calls, I fear our seats will remain empty. Deciphering the problem as if it were some sort of scientific issue, would a viable claim be that our fans our too lazy? One could guess that as many most likely stay in and ponder what to do rather than make the great trek that is about a five minute walk. To all readers, get up, get active, go out and watch!
All things considering, opinion and claims can only go so far. Demographically, this is a much smaller school, with a different atmosphere and different fan base from other big name colleges. We don’t have the population of the ones we see on TV whose fans are decked out in body paint. But when it all boils down, as a member of NCAA Division I athletics, we need to support our teams and make a school with a population of way under 10,000 students feel like a school whose athletic outings could support 80,000 fans.
The next time you get that email about a free fan bus, or an exciting tail gate barbeque or big time matchup at the MAC, don’t just immediately hit delete. Give that smartphone the chance to let you actually read the email, where you will find out that this event is actually worth going to.
You just might witness the turnaround season that the football program has been searching for, or the play of an All-American on the soccer field, or the play of top notch NEC competition in the women’s soccer program. You could even witness a potentially historic turnaround season in the MAC this year for the men’s basketball team, whose coach promised a championship banner hanging from the rafters in no time. See, doesn’t this entice the sports fan of any level? If not, chances are you’re reading the wrong section of newspaper.
PHOTO COURTESY of Jim Reme
