Colgate Attendance by the Numbers
By Gary Braham 2-1-2000
Colgate is often critisized for its low fan tunrout at home games. Sometimes rightfully so. I did some research on our average attendance for our most recent seasons.
Football
Average attendace for home games- 5925
Average attendace on the road - 4983
As you can see, theres about a thousand more fans at home then on the road on average. There are some schools in the league with higher attendance of course. A high alumni turnout is one of the main fan groups. With only 5 home games, many alumni and parents of students come to several of them a year. Football is Colgate's top sport for attendance.
Mens Basketball
Average home attendance-412
the league average -1052
Dead last in the league, Basketball just isn't big at Colgate anymore. Weekday games draw the smallest crowd.
Womens Basketball
Average home attendance- 162
the league average - 548
Also good for last in the league. Colgate has started a kids fan club. This gets some townies and young kids to the games, parents and friends go. The students for the most part ignore it though.
Womens Ice Hockey
league games
home average- 52
road average- 153
non league games
home average- 89
road average- 153
Womens hockey is just catching on at Colgate. Lots of parents and older people at the games. Some students are starting to come. A large chunk of our home attendance is still fans visiting from the rival school.
Men's Ice Hockey
non league games
home average- 1232
road average- 5773
league games
home average- 2125
road average- 3141
Hockey is our schools best sport and is second in attendance. The students turn out for these games, but alumni are less likely to drive as far in the bad weather upstate NY usually has in the winter.
Aside for football, our numbers really don't compare that well, which is too bad becuase we usually have good teams. Womens basketball was 3rd in the league but last in attendance. Other teams and have commented on our lack of attendance. I looked at this in several ways.
First of all, we are in the middle of no where. The cities and towns are small are fairly spread out. Alumni usually have to travel pretty far to get here. And our local fan base isn't as big as other schools. Secondly, we are a very strong academic school. Students are often very busy and just don't have the time to spend 3 hours at Cotterell Court. Thirdly, Colgate students are concerned with thier image. Lafayette students will cheer for thier team like fans cheer for a local pro team. Colgate students see themselves as being on the same level as the athletes, so will not put them in a position above the fans. Many of the students at games are atheltes themselves. School spirit is not as high as you tend to find at other Patriot League or ECAC schools.
I think Colgate should try to focus more on the local residents. They are here year after year and might accept Colgate sports as a form of entertainment and something to do. Perhaps organizing a homecoming game or at least one game that stands out for hockey. Push for one big game in sports that don't get a lot of coverage and try to get a large student turnout for that one game. If they enjoy it, they will come back for other games. Perhaps a midnight game or a midnight team introduction. Several hockey teams begin the season with a team game.
Something to get people excited for the coming season, or have one game or scrimage game late at night.
Whether you see Colgate's attendance as being a problem or not, I see room for improvment. I hope that this site can have some impact on attendance in some way by having atheletes advertise for upcoming games here. When people get excited for an upcoming game, others are likely to go to it as well. We're one of the most competitive teams in the league, its time to get competitive attendance wise.