Select sports teams losing points in student attendance

By: Eduardo Almaguer/Staff Writer

eduardo.almaguer@fiusm.com

Late last year, FIU hosted the Sun Belt Volleyball Tournament for the first time in a decade.

At the time, I was the team’s beat writer. The University had just advanced to the semi-final round of the tournament for the third consecutive year, and its match against Western Kentucky was minutes away from starting.

I gazed out onto the crowd and was shocked. The U.S. Century Bank Arena was barren.

The box score showed that 335 people attended that game, but that number had to be skewed, unless they counted actual volleyballs as people.

Here was one of the more successful programs in FIU about to take on the best team in the conference, and the arena wasn’t even a tenth full.

A showing of 335 people meant that for every six people, there were 94 empty seats.

This attendance issue isn’t something relegated to the volleyball team. It’s something that plagues just about every single FIU team, and it’s an absolute shame.

I analyzed the home attendance records of the volleyball, football, baseball, women’s soccer and women’s basketball team.

Only football showed favorable attendance from FIU fans. The rest of the group had appalling numbers.

Before I lambast the University’s student body, let me begin by applauding them.

Football came in second overall in the Sun Belt Conference when comparing percentages of home stadiums. FIU averaged 18,700 fans in a stadium with a capacity of 23,000. Out of every five seats, only one would be empty.

Now it’s time for the ugly stuff.

FIU Baseball, the team that won 40 games in 2011, led the conference in almost every offensive category, made it to the championship game in the SBC tournament, and returned to the regionals, ranked seventh in the conference in home attendance.

Arguably the best team in the conference had a turn out rate of 29 percent.

Though the average attendance in the SBC for baseball was 39 percent per home stadium, ULM, the worst team in baseball last season ranked third overall.

The women’s soccer team, the squad that won the Sun Belt Conference Tournament had an average of less than 300 fans show up to a field that holds 3,000. That averages to about 18 percent attendance compared to a 24 percent conference average.

The women’s basketball team this season has been even worse.

Let us not forget that this is the team that showcases Jerica Coley, the athlete that is number two in the nation in points per game, and a lock to be the SBC Player of the Year.

How many fans occupy that 5,000-seat arena on average for their games? 423. For every 100 seats, only eight had a butt occupying them.

I’m neither blind nor disoriented. I know we live in Miami. I know that there are a lot of attractions that capture a college student’s attention instead of a women’s basketball game on a Saturday evening. I know that the Sun Belt Conference isn’t something we can go pounding our chest about when it comes to competitiveness. I know that FIU, a commuter school, is less than 40 years old, still a ways away from being considered anything close to a dynasty.

But, I look at it from the athlete’s eyes.

I’ve covered a few of them and not once have they complained about it, but I know deep down that it can’t be fun playing in front of more plastic than flesh.

When you win a game, only a handful of people are there to see it, and when you lose the game, it scares off those that showed up to begin with.

It’s fantastic that the football program has seen such a boon to its attendance, but the fact that not a single other program can eclipse the 30 percent mark in attendance is absolutely outrageous.

The FIU spirit is trapped in the Cage and it’s not getting out any time soon.