Dylan Godfrey weighs in on the lack of attendance for York sports. If they expect to fill the stands, they better start winning.
I’m a fan – online.
And as an avid sports fan and current York student, sadly, I must admit I rarely attend any York sporting events. I’d rather sit in my residence room and endlessly scroll through statistics or stream videos of my favourite professional sports teams than attend a Lions’ game.
It’s not that I don’t have any interest in amateur or university sports — I’ve attended many of my local hockey team’s games recently. So what is it, beyond genuine interest in sports, that would draw an athletics enthusiast like myself to a Lions game?
The answer is simple. That is, the idea is simple; the execution, maybe not so much. The answer: win.
To the casual sports observer, York seems to be a place of complete athletic incompetence when you consider the ineptitude of some of the more high-profile sports teams such as the football program, which has only won three games since I started attending York (I am going into my fourth year of study.)
Ironically, these rare wins are a significant step up from how the football team was playing in years prior to my enrollment. Such disappointments certainly don’t inspire a sports fan, let alone a casual sports fan to attend a York game.
“The answer: win.”
A losing team doesn’t have an audience; we’ve seen this most clearly in hockey. The Lions’ hockey team, while they’re not as bad as the football team, has struggled. Their most successful season, to date, was 2011-12 when the team went 14-10-1 — an ordinary record at best. According to statistics posted on the Canadian Interuniversity Sport website and from firsthand accounts, attendance at Lions’ hockey games is not good — a fact that goes hand in hand with the lack of success the team has had on the ice.
From the world of professional sports comes an example of the opposite, where winning and athletic achievements mirror the upturn in attendance. In 2003-04, the Pittsburgh Penguins were floundering to stay afloat in the NHL. The team only won 23 of their 82 games, and fittingly, were ranked 30th in attendance that year, averaging less than 12,000 people per game. But over the next decade, during which the team saw a Stanley Cup victory, divisional titles, and household names like Crosby, Malkin, Staal, Letang and Fleury, the team’s attendance fortunes changed dramatically. The Penguins have been in the top five of league attendance since 2007-08, which runs parallel to the amazing and consistent success.Thus, if there is one thing that these hockey examples make obvious, it’s that success equals fans in the stands, while mediocrity, underachieving, and utter failure leaves the arena empty and cold. Once the Lions start winning, it’s guaranteed people will start to care and show up to games.
While some Lions’ sports thrive, like our top notch soccer program, it is the high-profile struggles of the football and basketball teams that have perpetuated the loser mentality among the York community. If the Lions want to see a spike in attendance at their sporting events, every sports team must be successful, in turn creating a winning culture that any fan — casual or hardcore — would love to support.
Dylan Godfrey
Contributor
