The good news about this past Saturday’s road trip with the SAC Blue Crew booster club was that some people at U of T finally went to the lengths of organizing an activity in the name of school spirit. The bad news was that only 13 people boarded the bus to Guelph for a free trip in support of Varsity Blues sports teams.
In a city like Toronto, with so much competition for people’s entertainment dollars and time, it is understandably a challenge to attract and maintain the interest of students. Nonetheless, it has to be acknowledged that the efforts of U of T have been lame for quite some time now.
Free admission for students to both home games and road trips like this past weekend’s plus the largest student body in the country is a combination that should draw crowds, but the games have been so poorly promoted that there is little awareness of them among most people on campus.
Guelph is hardly a shining example of university sports support in Ontario (Queen’s, Western or Laurentian would better fit the bill), but this past Saturday the gym was roughly 80 percent full for the basketball game against U of T, and the crowd across the street for a women’s hockey game being played simultaneously against the Blues was reportedly only slightly smaller. By contrast, the stands were perhaps one-third full at U of T’s Sports Gym for a basketball doubleheader I attended exactly one week earlier. The Blue Crew has begun some efforts to combat fan apathy, such as designating select games for promotion aimed at specific student residences, which is a long overdue endeavour. Advertising of this nature is expected to be more noticeable after the Christmas break, when the schedule of games gets back into full swing after an exam period lull. With the defending CIS women’s hockey champions, a men’s hockey team coming off its first division title in eight years, two Ontario volleyball powerhouses and an OUA contender in women’s basketball (to name a few of U of T’s top winter season teams), there is no excuse for fans to stay away.
I remember travelling to Laurentian University two years ago for the OUA East women’s basketball final between U of T and the Lady Vees. The hosts were supported by a raucous crowd that intimidated U of T right from the start as Laurentian got off to a fast start and never looked back in a 64-39 rout. My most vivid memory, however, was the atmosphere behind the Blues bench during timeouts. The fans created a true home court advantage for the Lady Vees by banging on pots and pans and blowing horns while U of T’s coach tried in vain to communicate with her players (see online story at www.thevarsity.ca).
Well, with the Blues, Lady Vees and Queen’s expected to vie for OUA East basketball supremacy this season, U of T fans will have a chance to exact some revenge, because this year the Sports Gym will be the site of the divisional basketball playoffs. With a long stretch of home games leading up to the tournament’s opening in February, hoops fans will have plenty of time to exercise their lungs—let’s take advantage of it.
