Boise State University President Bob Kustra declared Vandal fans and the Moscow community a “nasty, inebriated” culture in 2010. That comment was a direct response to the intense pride and loyalty we demonstrate during football season — a pride that apparently does not transfer to our basketball team, which has a better record than the football team.
The attendance for Saturday’s men’s basketball game was 1,843, a pathetic number for a school that currently enrolls 10,000 students on the Moscow campus alone — and that was a good night.
Idaho is No. 3 in the WAC having split series against the conference’s top two teams, with an overall record of 15-11. By the end of the season, this Vandal team might be considered one of the best since the squad that won the Big Sky and reached the Big Dance in 1989 and 1990.
If we consider ourselves true fans, a team with the ability to win should pack the Spectrum. Our bandwagoner friends to the south manage to stuff more than 5,500 fans on average in the Taco Bell Arena to watch a Bronco team that has one conference win this year and is 12-19 overall. Who are the true fans?
Idaho averaged about 1,300 fans per men’s home game during the 2011 season, which was comprised of 15 games making the total season attendance about 20,000, according to statistics from the NCAA for men’s varsity basketball team attendance. Kentucky, Syracuse and Louisville all averaged more per game than Idaho did all year.
An average of 20,000 people during a single season is weak attendance for a Division I team, especially when some Division II and III teams are bringing in double that number. In the same report, Northern State University in South Dakota — a school with approximately 2,600 enrolled students — averaged 3,000 fans per game in 2011.
Every Vandal fan out there has a different opinion on what needs to happen to increase the attendance: They say marketing needs to improve, a new facility should be built, men’s coach Don Verlin should personally recruit students from on-campus housing groups, star players should bring the energy and the team needs to win.
University marketing might employ old thinking and the Cowan Spectrum isn’t the Cameron Indoor Stadium, but it does the job. Verlin and his team participated in the fourth annual Readers as Leaders program this semester and visited local elementary schools. Participating children have the opportunity to achieve reading goals and receive a T-shirt that can be worn for free admission to the game and their parents enjoy reduced ticket prices. Not only that, but the men’s and women’s teams hosted Fan Fest in Bob’s Place to reach out to students and community members with autograph opportunities, promotional items and playing video games. Verlin reaches out to the community, while coaching a WAC-contending team, but it’s not the coach’s job to get fans in the stands.
That responsibility falls on people who call themselves true fans — the ones who say they bleed silver and gold — and the people who are employed to promote the reason for bleeding.