One of the most frustrating sights for a college sports team is to see thousands of empty seats during a game. Unfortunately for the Saint Louis University men’s basketball team, this has become a recurring theme recently.
SLU has had the experience of dealing with an evident lack of support for its team. Sure, the basketball team has not been as successful recently as it was in the early 2000s, and it is obviously more fun and exciting if the team is winning consistently, but only supporting SLU basketball in years in which the team is good would essentially mean being a fair weather fan.
Something that went overlooked last year was the fact that the team actually did considerably well at home last year. The team knocked off Dayton and Boston College—teams that both qualified for last year’s NCAA tournament—at Chaifetz Arena. Fourteen of the Billikens’ 17 wins last season came at Chaifetz Arena, so while the team struggled overall, it performed quite well at home. However, that went unnoticed by most SLU students last year, and the overall image of the team having a struggling season perhaps overshadowed the fact that the team was superb at home last year. So if you’re looking for another reason to get out and support the team, keep in mind that they’ll usually put on a show at Chaifetz.
Students have certainly found a way to provide excellent support for the SLU men’s soccer team, as SLU ranks 5th in the nation in average attendance. So why not make it out to the basketball games as well? The basketball team has ranked only just inside the top 50 in recent years in attendance average.
Despite the hiring two years ago of famed head coach Rick Majerus and the addition of Chaifetz Arena, attendance for SLU basketball games has actually dropped. During the 2005 basketball season in which SLU’s basketball games were played in downtown St. Louis’ Savvis Center (now Scottrade Center), a mix of 8,000 students and other fans attended home games on average. However, even with two great additions to the basketball program, SLU’s attendance last year per game was a mere 7,627 fans. More than 2,000 seats were left empty each game in a year in which attendance should have skyrocketed.
The construction of Chaifetz Arena at the edge of campus was expected to draw more fans, specifically more students. This was a perfectly reasonably expectation—students would be able to walk to games rather than taking a shuttle, and certainly other local fans from around the city would not have much trouble making it to a fairly centrally-located arena. Unfortunately this has not been the case. Whatever the reason for not improving attendance may be, students need to get out and support their team. With increased support comes increased success.