Yesterday, a column ran shedding light on the non-revenue sports on this campus. It discussed their importance to UW and suggested fans should broaden their horizons when it comes to attending sporting events.
As someone who has had the privilege, err... yeah I'll go with privilege, to write about the majority of Badger sports, I have provided my insight on this topic.
Here are the top-four reasons why the average fan on this campus is disconnected from non-revenue sports:
The University of Minnesota fails to sell out football games. Not because the fans are uninterested, but rather because you have to get on a bus and travel close to 20 minutes in order to get to the game.
Though Camp Randall is not in the heart of the campus, it is still within walking distance, or more importantly, inebriated walking distance from any part of campus. The Kohl Center is a two-minute walk from the southeast dorms and a five-minute walk from State Street.
The majority of non-revenue events take place on the far west side of the campus and require a bus, car or moped to attend. Please tell me how many people out there know where the Porter Boathouse is?
Last year, would you really have recognized that you were sitting next to Olympian swimmer Carly Pieper in lecture? For the majority, the answer is probably no. Non-revenue athletes lack the same presence or even celebrity status that football, basketball and hockey players do.
Conversely, if you're sitting next to Joe Thomas in class, you have a pretty good idea who he is, or judging by his 6'8' 300 pound stature, you can at least narrow him down to a player in some regard.
Big name athletes on campus carry a celebrity status even though they are still amateurs. Senior swimmer Adam Mania never had \the pool-side girls"" attend his meets last year. Well, that is probably a good thing for them because chlorine might be the only thing that can wash off that amount of make-up on an individual face.
This is simple. If your roommate calls you and says, ""Calhoun just ran for 250 yards against Bowling Green, or Robbie Earl had a hat-trick last night,"" most people would understand each achieved something special.
But if the same person called and said, ""Hoopman and Daniels [former men's crew members] were both on the boat that won its heat in 5:31.16 on the 2,000-meter Nagaragawa International Regatta Course!"", the common reaction would be, ""That's great... wow... umm... yeah, I don't know if that is good or not.""
Let's face it, people attend the big-name sporting events because drinking takes place before, after and, if you are crafty enough, during the game.
A football game at 11 a.m. gives 80,000 people an excuse to drink at 8 a.m.
It is a shame these sports often go unnoticed. UW fans are missing performances by a host of All-Americans and future Olympians each day. No one discredits their credentials or the legitimacy of their respective sports, it's just that the majority of people would, for the reasons listed, rather watch an Elite-Eight game against UNC rather than the Carroll College Invitational, that's all.
That is my take on why there are commonly 84 instead of 84,000 in attendance.
In other news, the award for most insightful response to my column last week goes to Kodey Feiner, a junior majoring in Dairy Science and International Business.
He stated, ""Next time you think it's a good idea to bash farming, try going a few days without eating meat, drinking milk or eating bread.""
Good understanding of the piece, Kodey. I may just embark on that challenge in the coming weeks.
jrmcnamara@wisc.edu.
