The difference? There's a lot of them.
For the first time in years, the Penn State student section can actually label themselves a 'student section'. Nittany Nation, as they call themselves, has seen just as much of a revival this year as the men's basketball team. In less than a year the student section has gone from under 1,500 at most games, to over 4,000 on average for the past few games. No longer are the students struggling to fill up an entire sideline. For the past two home games (Michigan, Michigan State), they've filled up the space behind both baskets and have even leaked into the once barren upper deck.
Attendance in general has increased this season as the BJC has had attendances of 10,270 and 8,730 in the past two games. These numbers are up 22% over two similar conference games last year. But the attendance increase can not only be attributed to the extra numbers in the win column. Both the student body and the athletic department have committed time and energy this season into creating a real home court advantage for the Nittany Lions.
Through the use of websites such as Facebook and on-campus promotions, both the students and the athletic department have been "advertising" home games furiously this season. The Nittany Nation "officers" have been creating Facebook events for each home game which has without a doubt raised awareness and excitement for each game.
Once reserved only for football season, pump-up videos have been virally spread on the Internet, which although they generate excitement, take up way too much of my time at work and severely compromise my job.
The athletic department and GOPSB.com have created professionally made video's of their own which are not only shown on the web, but also on the Big Ten Network (filmed by my buddy Jeff). Examples if these can be seen at the bottom of the post.
Along with videos, the athletic department has done a great job of promotions and giveaways during games this season. At Saturdays contest against Iowa, the Big Ten football championship trophy will be in attendance along with Darryll Clark, Navorro Bowman and Evan Royster among other football players. The players will be signing autographs before the game and fans can pose with the trophy. Students can also enter to win free textbooks or season tickets for next year's football season.
The players even hand delivered season tickets to a small number of the season-ticket holders before the season. If that doesn't show a plead for fans...I don't know what does. Either way, it's clear that Penn State is beginning to make the commitment necessary to make basketball a serious program at the University.
It's hard to say if the extra fan base in the stands and the extra noise in the rafters of the BJC has contributed to PSU's early season success. But the players have certainly noticed. After the Lions heartbreaking loss to Michigan State in early January, Talor Battle made it a point that the media include his thank you to the fans during their game summaries. Senior Jamelle Cornley was seen mouthing "thank you so much" to the student section before the Michigan tip-off. It's clear that the players appreciate the support as much as they need it.
As the season wares on and each game becomes more and more important, let's not only be satisfied with an increase in fans at each game. Sure we're not even close to the attendances that Illinois, Michigan State and Ohio State draw each night. But we're moving in the right direction. Can you imagine the player's reaction if they ran out of that tunnel in front of a sold-out Bryce Jordan Center? It may not be probable yet...but with a student body of over 40,000 at University Park, it's possible.
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1 comment:
Awesome awesome awesome. You are the blogger I dream about becoming.
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