By Jared Sugerman, News Staff
Despite my preference toward e-mail inbox cleanliness, I kept six messages received less than one week after Halloween. Three of those were from the Athletics Department, two came from the co-op connections staff, and one notified me of a message sent to my Facebook inbox from DogHouse member Tim Fouche. The common thread among the six e-mails was they all provided information regarding either the soon-to-be sold-out men’s hockey game between Boston University and Northeastern, or to highlight the achievements of our women’s soccer team, this year’s regular season Colonial Athletic Association champions.
So many e-mails were passed around like leftover Halloween candy during the days following Oct. 31. Yet, I have done my best to savor these few messages; I think my Huntington News colleague Jared Shafran would understand why I should do so.
Prior to Northeastern’s first game at Matthews Arena, Jared and I met unexpectedly near the top of Section 58. I had not seen him often, if at all, since we traveled to Grand Rapids, Mich., March 28 and watched Northeastern fail in their attempt advance beyond the first round of the 2009 NCAA men’s hockey tournament. As a new season began and the Huskies prepared to battle Bentley, the two of us looked on in disbelief at the crowd building within a balcony that was rarely filled to half its capacity just two years ago. It was a sight that neither of us could have imagined.
Many of us have looked and commented upon the newly renovated Matthews Arena, which now regularly plays host to crowds of 4,000 spectators or more. However, the infrastructural renovation of Northeastern’s athletics program began in earnest last year. It was then that demand for men’s hockey tickets became so great that students were given the opportunity to claim them at Blackman Auditorium days prior to an event, rather than waiting in line at Matthews Arena only hours before the games began.
Administrators (eventually) realized that this left co-op students incapable of retrieving tickets that were taken prior to the end of each workday. Thus, the university responded (albeit slowly) by reserving 100 tickets available to co-op students only Nov. 5. This has now become a common practice. Those still incapable of retrieving tickets for the game played against BU Nov. 6 could attend a viewing party at Curry Student Center, where HuskyCable’s broadcast would be displayed on large screen televisions, or watch the game in the comfort of their own dorms or apartments. Subscribers to GoNU.TV can view live video of every Northeastern home game, as well.
Those six e-mails I preserved in my inbox reflect the enthusiasm that is building for an athletics program that has begun to blossom, and their content demonstrates the appreciable work done by the administration and the Athletics Department to buoy this newfound support.
I received another e-mail Nov. 4. Though it has since been deleted, the message to which it was linked remains a part of my Facebook inbox. Written by Fouche, the message said as of 3:45 p.m. that day, ‘the tickets available at Blackman [Auditorium] are SOLD OUT.’
And I still remember the fourth of November.
‘- Jared Sugerman can be reached’
at [email protected].
