Fans scream for their teams in the cold arena, banging on the boards around the rink. The lines outside are long, some still waiting to get in and others being turned away all together. Despite being a club sport students have to pay to watch, University of Idaho Men’s Ice Hockey tends to bring in large crowds even with their title as a club team. However, Vandal Athletics struggles to bring in their own consistently, despite already having an established connection to UI administration and free admission to students.
Although this may seem like an unfair comparison, the hockey team consistently fills their stadium with dedicated fans who always come back for more. Even though Vandal Athletics has a larger venue, they fail to consistently fill it.
This isn’t to say students never show up. According to Vandal Athletics’ attendance records in 2017 men’s basketball had 4,329 fans in Cowan Spectrum, women’s basketball packed 1,230 fans in Memorial Gym hosting University of Denver in 2019, and soccer hosted rival Boise State in 2017 with 4,171 fans an NCAA record for a women’s indoor soccer game.
When looking at the year of these spikes and each team’s most recent seasons, soccer now averages approximately more than 350 less fans per game this season and men’s basketball averages approximately 760 less fans per game compared to 2017. However women’s basketball despite, not having as large of a spike in the 2019-2020 season are averaging approximately 230 more fans per game.
Athletics reached these kinds of numbers through great marketing, canvassing and letting everyone in town know when and where games were. This is something they have been struggling with recently.
While Vandal Athletics has stated they do advertise games to bring in larger audiences — students aren’t exactly packing the stands. This can be seen in the number of students who attend along with the atmosphere. Even in our own newsroom, the majority of our editorial staff has not attended a game.
Currently Vandal Athletics advertises through different media channels including newspaper and TV ads, but they need to shift their current marketing techniques to better address a student audience. The majority of UI students are not accessing their media in the ways athletics is marketing their content. Students spend their days scrolling through Instagram, Facebook and other social media platforms barely receiving marketed ads for games.
If athletics wants to draw more students to games, they need to meet them where they’re at by marketing in areas they know students will see whether it’s using more social media marketing or emailing students a list of upcoming games. With the new controversial Idaho Central Credit Union Arena in progress of being built, the athletic department needs to give students a reason to show up to the games. Despite the arena being funded outside of the general education budget, many students would rather this money be spent on something they might actually visit. The project has already broke ground, and we can’t change that. Our focus now should be on justifying it to those outside the athletic world.
The athletic department has been working on finding ways to connect with students more. According to Vandal Athletics, newly appointed Athletic Director Terry Gawlik has been working with various student organizations to find solutions to low game attendance, but they need to find a solution soon.
It shouldn’t all be on Vandal Athletics. It’s on us as students to go out and support our teams, but we have to know when those games are.
– Editorial Board
Matthew Friesz '14
This isn't a recent phenomena, even when we've been successful the AD has never capitalized. The extent of "getting the word out" when I was on campus was a sandwich board out in front of the Commons that said there was a game, sometimes they didn't even bother to include a time. With BBall, you add to the complexity of "where" considering they play half of their home games in the Mem Gym. ICCU Arena will solve that problem, but it'll be up to the AD to fix the game day experience for students, which never been their strong suit. It's time for them to step up and take the task seriously, but having competitive programs across the board would also help get y'all in the door. Ultimately it's the students who have to decide it's important enough for them to want to show up and get behind any one of our teams no amount of advertising and outreach can change that truth.