A View from the Woods

I vividly remember watching the women’s basketball team host then-No. 3 Duke University in the 2006 Blue Sky Classic. The heat and noise in sold-out Leede Arena was electric. The gym was alive, and cheers continued throughout the game despite the Big Green’s blowout 77-40 loss.When the men’s ice hockey team packs Thompson Arena for its annual home game against Princeton University, students turn out in droves to be part of our favorite tennis ball tradition.As NARPs, this is a way we can have a real influence on athletics. Athletes agree that they have more energy when they can feel the support of the crowd, and often play better because of it.Joseph Geller ’16 wrote a stellar op-ed (“Support Our Sports,” March 25) about why students should come support their friends and classmates, in which he said that increasing attendance at sporting events is the one thing he would change about Dartmouth.Despite the benefits for both fans and athletes, more often than not, attendance is still shockingly low.I understand that Dartmouth is a small school. Sure, sports here are different from the power conference teams we so frequently see on television. But the level of athletic competition here is Division I. Big Green athletes are impressive, and teams compete on the national level against powerhouse schools (shout out to the softball team competing tonight against Arizona State at 6 p.m. on ESPNU).I believe that we owe our teams more support at home games. But how can we boost active attendance?The easy answer is winning. Fans want to see a successful team. Simple enough. But it’s important to realize that winning and attendance are tightly intertwined. Winning breeds fans, and the energy of a lively home crowd tends to bring more wins. Case in point: the men’s ice hockey team went 3-1-1 in its last five home games against Princeton.I’ll break down ways we can boost attendance into three categories, in order of difficulty: local youth attendance, local adult attendance and finally Dartmouth student attendance.How do we get more kids out to games? Dartmouth athletes are celebrities to local kids. When Big Green players visit schools or serve as volunteer coaches, kids get a chance to build relationships with them. These relationships clearly foster attendance, as anyone who has been to a game can attest.Conveniently, kids come with parents — making this a two-fold measure to increase game attendance. The marketing branch of the athletic department also runs promotions such as Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and College employee discount nights at basketball and football games. Sports are an important source of entertainment in the Upper Valley, and making games both accessible and exciting will draw local adults to our fields.Last is the Dartmouth student body, in many ways the most difficult demographic to convince.The most common reasons students cite for not going to games include not knowing when the games are, not caring and being too busy with schoolwork. To these issues, I raise a few suggestions. First, student groups can boost awareness about games by creating buzz on social media. Second, if students knew more about the success of many of the Big Green teams and the high-level competition, perhaps more students would care enough to turn out. And third, are you really doing homework on a Friday night? If so, props to you. If not, why not bring your friends and support your classmates as they represent our school in a game or race?Just last term, COSO recognized a new student organization named the Big Green Machine as Dartmouth’s official student section with the expressed intent of increasing student turnout at sporting events. As a COSO organization, this new club has leverage that previous athletic department initiatives did not have. Be on the lookout for pep-rallies, tailgates, prizes and attendance competitions next fall, as the organization makes its push to fill the stands at Memorial Field, Thompson Arena and Chase Astroturf Field, among others.We have the opportunity to leave Dartmouth better than we found it, and one area that stands for improvement is attendance at home games. GBG.