The sad reality for most sports programs is that fans are fickle.When the wins are racking up, so is attendance. But once a team falls on hard times, fans will fall off the bandwagon and lose interest.
Yet not all programs are created equal. Some illustrious tradition-rich franchises garner such loyalty and passion from their fan base that they seem generally immune to such fluctations.
In college basketball, one such program is Indiana. Plagued with the youngest and most inexperienced team in Big Ten history, the Hoosiers are last in the conference and tied a program-record losing streak before finally beating Iowa. And yet, in spite of what most would consider an utter disaster by Indiana standards, attendance at games is actually increasing.
There's little doubt that the passion and work-ethic of the team itself engenders the same passion from the IU fan base. The growing pains this season are not necessarily easy to take, but the response and attitude through it all from the team and the fan base will be something to look back on with pride. IU athletic director Fred Glass may have said it best during an ESPN Game Day special today:
It's like in the movie Apollo-13 when they are bringing the module back to earth and somebody shakes their head and says 'This could be the worst disaster NASA's ever faced', to which somebody else replies 'With all do respect sir, I believe this will be our finest hour.'"
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Well, I agree with most of your article...but to state that attendance at games is actually increasing is kind of deceiving. Its increasing in a sense as more people are going than earlier in the year before the big ten season started, but to nowhere near the amount of attendance as last year. Personally speaking, attending the games have been amazing and the atmosphere is always great, but i can not help and wonder what it would be like if every seat was filled as usual.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading this.
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