Bellevue College has a plethora of different sports ranging from basketball to baseball to golf to soccer to softball to volleyball. Not only do we have all these programs, but the teams play at a championship level.
The problem is that the attendance for these games is very low. That begs the question of; why aren’t students going to the sporting events?
There are a number of possible reasons students are not going to the games. While the definite reasons aren’t clear, there are ways to improve the attendance.
Improving the attendance has been the main goal for the athletic department this year. Keturah Anderson, an intern for the athletic department, has been implementing ideas to increase attendance.
“I am trying to fill the seats. I just want to get a picture of the stands completely filled to the point where we need to use the other set of stands in a basketball game.”
With basketball season coming up, Anderson wants there to be enough people at every game so they have to use more seats to accommodate everybody.
She has some ideas on what can be done in order to bring more people to the games, “I am just trying to increase awareness and attendance.
Instead of just making flyers to go on the walls, I want to make smaller flyers and do a lot of tabling where I am sitting and handing out flyers to students and basically being a planted area around the campus.” This is one the smaller ideas which is meant to get the word of mouth going around campus when events are happening.
There are some larger scale ideas that are being worked on as well, but are not quite ready to happen.
One of the more noticeable ideas involves somebody wearing the big bulldog mascot suit while advertising upcoming games, “I feel like that [someone wearing the bulldog costume] will gain some attention because every time because I have been the bulldog before and people will come up to you and be excited.
People like the mascot costume,” said Anderson.
One of the more popular events was a pizza and Coke giveaway at a volleyball game in October. However, while it was successful the first time, they did it a second time where the attendance was less than stellar.
Now at games, they are giving away other things such as shirts and sunglasses to bring in more people.
Anderson’s ideas are very strong and can work well if people will dedicate the time to watch the games.
Some of the major problems why people aren’t attending are due to a lack of time, sports knowledge and the school spirit traditional universities games could provide. Anderson is looking for people to help with handing out flyers and to wear the bulldog costume.
Athletes love a true home field advantage with fans that cheer and actually want them to win. That is where the student body comes in.