During football season, I received no shortage of pictures of packed stadiums from my friends at other universities. But at the Princeton-Harvard game this year, Powers Field was two-thirds empty. Had it not been for the free Hoagie Haven at a tailgate before the game, I have no doubt that the stadium would have been even more barren.
That’s a problem. Princeton games should have higher turnouts, and the University must play a role in raising turnouts. It can grow crowds by spreading news about big events and giving away t-shirts or rally towels at games.
The administration should approach sports attendance with a measure of importance. Crowd size is a metric of school spirit, and school spirit leads to alumni giving down the road. Further, a vocal minority of students here crave a more “normal” college experience. That means a raucous time on weekends, tailgates at football games, and an excited student section in the stadium.
But it’s hard to do those things in a subdued environment, which takes its toll on more than just sports games attendance. The dying sports culture might discourage admitted students from attending the University, for fear of a lackluster social life. After all, before coming to college, I figured that social life would center around sports — thanks to “Blue Mountain State.”
Sporting events are lackluster for many reasons, including the University’s small size. But what discourages me the most is the lack of advertising. I know of only one way to find out what’s happening in Princeton sports on a given day: opening the unwieldy Princeton app and going to the sports section there. But unless I check it every single day, I am likely to miss the big, important games.
The first hurdle is simply informing students. That way, those who have an interest in sports can go. The administration should start spreading the word about major sporting events by email, and these should not be sent by residential college listservs, which are used and abused on a daily basis.
Of course, getting University students to go out to non-academic activities en masse will always be challenging given their workload. But if the administration lightly incentivized turnout with giveaways — and actually told us what games were on the horizon — school spirit and excitement will end up shining through.
Tom Salama is a freshman from Bayonne, N.J. He can be reached at tsalama@princeton.edu.
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