By Julia Mericle
Managing Editor
Senior Sebastian Bellm said he tried to attend all St. Bonaventure University men’s basketball home games. He traveled to Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Brooklyn to watch the men play this season.
However, Bellm said he did not attend any Bonaventure women’s basketball games. He is not alone.
The men’s team averaged 4,040 fans per home game this season, while the women’s team averaged 920 fans, said Tim Kenney, director of athletics.
The university provides equal access and opportunity in sports to both men and women in compliance with Title IX. However, the reality that society puts more emphasis on male sports shows in these numbers, said Heather McDivitt, who provides academic support to student-athletes.
Some female players, including Matea Britvar and Katie Healy, attribute larger crowds at men’s games to a faster, showier style of play.
“For the women’s game, we don’t get much of a student section, because we don’t have fancy tricks and dunking abilities,” Britvar, sophomore forward, said.
Yet, some attendees prefer the traditional style of the women’s game, said Darryn Fiske, director of strength and conditioning.
“A lot of people love watching us play, because it is much more pure,” Healy, senior forward, said. “You actually get to see plays being run and defense being played.”
The dollar dictates greater attendance at men’s games, according to Kenney. He said the popularity of men’s games stems from the national issue of treating college sports like a business hyping the greatest revenue producers.
“It goes back to the national focus that then trickles down to the general consumer, the fan,” Kenney said. “The ESPN factor is what I’ll call it, has a significant part in shaping what people become interested in.”
These factors draw students like Bellm, who said he attends games for the crowded, high-energy atmosphere and drinking that occur over the basketball itself.
The difference in attendance has roots in tradition, said Fiske. Many alumni who attended Bonaventure before the women’s team became Division I in 1986 still attend men’s games, he said.
However, Fiske, in his 17th year as a Bonaventure coach, said attendance has improved. When he started coaching, women’s games attracted only about 100 attendees, he said.
Britvar said her team’s progression to the second round of the NCAA tournament this year might entice bigger crowds.
“I like to talk to my friends and tell them to come to our games, and if you’re not impressed, then I won’t be upset if you don’t show up anymore,” Britvar said. “All of the people I told that to showed up for the rest of the season at our home games and loved watching us play.”
McDivitt said the athletic department makes an investment in the future by encouraging elementary schools to send students to women’s games.
“We are modeling to those little kids that we don’t just go see the boys play. The girls games are just as important and exciting,” said McDivitt.
“It’s fun to see those little kids look up to Katie Healy and the women as role models and heroes just as much as they would some of the male players.”
Some students, including senior Joseph Ferencik, said attendance at women’s games versus men’s games won’t change. Others, including the men’s team’s Idris Taqqee said attendance at women’s games is on the rise.
While average attendance at women’s games is still only a quarter of the average attendance at men’s games, the women’s team saw a 24-percent increase in attendance since last season. The men’s team saw a 4-percent increase in attendance, according to Kenney.
Taqqee, a sophomore guard, said attendance at men’s games is about tradition, but the women are not far behind.
“They built a good tradition for themselves,” Taqqee said. “And it’s going to get better.”
mericlje13@bonaventure.edu
