Last week, the men's soccer team's impressive season came to a disappointing end with a loss to Old Dominion University in the NCAA tournament. A crowd of 802 students turned out for the Bears' biggest game of the year, among them a handful of die-hard fans.
"I've been to quite a few soccer games," said Ross Leskin '11. Then he clarified: He has been to every single home game the team played this season.
But Leskin's ardent support of Brown athletics is far from the norm on campus. A recent Herald poll found that a slim majority - 52.7 percent - of undergraduates said they have attended a varsity sports game this semester. Though 69 percent of freshmen reported they had attended a game, only 47.4 percent of sophomores, 50.3 percent of juniors and 44.3 percent of seniors said they had.
The Herald poll was conducted from Nov. 5-7 and has a 3.9 percent margin of error with 95 percent confidence. A total of 621 Brown undergraduates completed the poll, which was administered as a written questionnaire to students in the University Post Office at Faunce House and in the Sciences Library.
Tess Avitabile '11 said she has never been to a game for one simple reason: "I get bored watching sports."
James Kraemer '08, who also has not attended any games this semester but said he usually goes to one or two events every year, said he doesn't typically go because "Brown teams aren't very good."
Karis Casagrande '10 tried to go to a soccer game last year but left when she found out she had to buy a ticket.
"I'm not interested enough to pay money to get in," she said.
All athletic events are free to students with Brown IDs except for NCAA postseason events, for which all attendees are required to buy a ticket. But the athletic department occasionally subsidizes student attendance - the department bought 500 tickets to the soccer team's playoff game so the first 500 students to arrive could get in for free. "We blasted through those 500," said Rick Merriam, assistant athletic director of marketing.
The athletic department tries to encourage student attendance through Morning Mail, table slips and advertising in The Herald, on WBRU and on Facebook. Merriam said the department has reached out to residence halls and the Third World Center, created theme nights like the upcoming "Mardi Gras Night" at a men's basketball game, initiated giveaways, brought musical acts like the Brown Band to games and offered student attendees the chance to win prizes through contests.
Encouraging student support of athletic teams "is my number one priority," Merriam said.
In an effort to measure the initiatives' effectiveness, Merriam and his office have begun tracking student attendance at varsity games where tickets are sold. (Even though students admitted free to regular season games, others have to purchase tickets to many varsity contests.)
This fall, the men's soccer team, which advanced to the second round of the NCAA playoffs before falling to Old Dominion, drew an average of 326 students to each of its games, hitting a season high of 1,112 student attendees at the season opener against Santa Clara.
Women's soccer events averaged 118 students per game, and football events attracted an average of 740 students per game, with 1,066 students showing up for the team's Homecoming game against Princeton.
Men's and women's basketball and ice hockey will be tracked this winter, along with men's lacrosse in the spring.
When Moses Riner '08 transferred from Duke last year, he decided Brown students needed some encouragement to attend sports games. Riner created BrowNation, which is described on its Web site as "the only official fan club of the Brown Bears." The club is based on the Inferno, a similar organization at Duke, Riner told The Herald in September.
For a $20 membership fee, BrowNation allows students to earn points for attending athletic events - with extra points for wearing body paint - which go toward free athletic apparel and giveaways.
Director of Athletics Michael Goldberger said BrowNation was "a great boon" to the athletic department's efforts to increase student attendance, and he said the department offers financial support to the program.
"We love the fact that (BrowNation) is a student initiative," Goldberger said. "Students encouraging other students is really effective."
Because the department has just started tracking student attendance, Goldberger said, there is no way to compare the numbers of students attending sports games before and after the creation of BrowNation.
Currently BrowNation has around 300 members, Riner said, a number he described as "phenomenal" because he thought membership would be closer to 100 at this time.
"Giving students a reward for going to games is a great incentive and has helped membership increase," Riner said.
Still, some athletes say they occasionally wish they had more support on the playing field. Mark McAndrew '08, co-captain of the men's basketball team, said he appreciated the large turnout for the game against the University of Rhode Island earlier this month (the Bears lost 75-61) and would like to see such enthusiasm more often.
"In the URI game, (the fans) were all really excited, real pumped up. There was a great crowd, and we were all real into the game because of them," McAndrew said. "When you have fans cheering you on, it makes it that much more exciting to play and play well."
But often, "a lot of the people who attend the games are either friends of the people who are playing or just come to support because they like the sport, but not necessarily to cheer," he said.
But size doesn't matter as much as energy when it comes to crowds, McAndrew said. "You could have 30 people going nuts, or 400 people watching like it's a lecture hall whose impact would not be as greatly felt as the 30 people going nuts."
McAndrew compared Brown to larger universities like the University of Michigan. "The crowds are larger, there are traditional cheers (and) everyone sings the fight song," he said. "Those environments are fun to play in."
Madison Miketa '10, who plays on the field hockey team, which won one game in its fall season, said field hockey games routinely draw a crowd of 10 to 15 student fans, a number she called "pathetic."
Miketa agreed that enthusiastic support transforms the game for the players.
"The ice hockey (players) would come to a lot of our games, paint their chest and beat drums," Miketa said. "It makes it a lot more fun to play when the fans are students."
Often, fans at sports games are other athletes. McAndrew said he tries to go to as many sports events as he can, and Miketa said her field hockey team regularly cheers on the soccer and ice hockey teams.
Throughout their successful season, members and coaches of the men's soccer team often credited the strong student turnout at many games for energizing the team. "First and foremost, in order for a team to be successful, they have to feel like they are supported," said Head Coach Mike Noonan. "We've had a rich tradition of success, and I think its because people have come out to support us."
Noonan said the men's soccer team has been "pretty favorable when it comes to attendance," but, he added, "some of our students athletes could be better supported by our peers."
