The Huskies played Virginia Commonwealth Feb. 20, a team that beat Duke in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament’s in the first round last March, sits in first place in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) and possesses a potential future NBA player.
There were 1,846 people in attendance at Matthews Arena last Wednesday to see Northeastern nearly upset the VCU Rams. It was one of the team’s best turnouts for a game so far this season.
On the other hand, when the men’s hockey team beat UMass-Lowell 2-1 at Matthews Arena Nov. 17, 2,237 people were in attendance, which was their lowest figure of the season.
Despite a talented young team and a near .500 record in CAA play, the basketball team has managed to top 2,000 in attendance just once this season – Jan. 19 in a 73-69 overtime win against Delaware – and have failed on three separate occasions to reach even 1,000 spectators.
Men’s basketball head coach Bill Coen said he doesn’t worry too much about attendance figures. He said his team has a chance to reverse low turnout trends by tapping into a student body that vocally supports professional teams like the Red Sox and Patriots, and can be loud and numerous at hockey games.
“I’m happy when I see hockey attendance go up, because that means there are sports fans who are Northeastern fans,” he said. “The potential is there. My goal is to get a sold out arena for every sporting event. It would be terrific if we could reach that level of passion.”
One problem, though, is that many college basketball fans already exist at Northeastern, but instead choose to follow big time programs, like Duke, because of the level those teams play at and the media attention they receive.
Other CAA teams can run into the problem of the lack of exposure mid majors receive. Georgia State, for example, has also seen less than a thousand in its stands three times this season as well.
Mike Bivas, a sophomore architecture major, said he is a North Carolina basketball fan and would be more likely to pay more attention to the Huskies if they were either closer to the top of their league or played in a more nationally recognized conference.
“I go to the games sometimes; I go if I have the time,” he said. “But it’s not overwhelmingly attractive because they’re just not a great team, and they play in a weaker conference.”
Coen said he understands that there are limitations for boosting attendance figures inherent in the way the conference schedules its games.
“I think a couple of factors contribute to [lower attendance], because CAA Saturday afternoon start times are one o’clock. A lot of times that’s not the most beneficial time to run a sporting event. I think a lot of times with evening starts you have a better chance to draw in the student body,” he said. “But those are the factors you can’t control. What you have to try to control is to play the best brand of basketball you can.”
Events like March Madness highlight the drawing power of big time college basketball. But in contrast, mid-majors and smaller schools sometimes struggle in generating interest in their programs. Some fans will jump on board to support the bigger schools gaining national media attention, but may forget about their own school’s brand of competitive basketball.
Rick Lilienthal, a sophomore behavioral neuroscience major, said he enjoys going to as many Northeastern basketball games as possible because he’s a fan of the sport. He said other fans of basketball ought to consider going and witnessing the quality of play at Matthews.
“The CAA is an up-and-coming conference. It’s exciting. VCU beat Duke in the tournament last year,” he said. “Just because we’re a smaller school doesn’t mean our athletics aren’t up to par.”
