Why Some Sports Get More Love

This is my first admission: I do not have a Facebook. My second admission: I did not need to have a Facebook to hear about the Facebook discussion about school spirit and favoritism towards male sports over female sports at Exeter. That’s how big of a talking point it was not only on Facebook but also on the campus this Tuesday, the day after the post was made. I think that speaks volumes as to how large of an issue it is at Exeter.Before I get to my main argument, let me address something quickly. This article is not in any way saying that female sports are any less legitimate than male sports or that female athletes are not as hardworking as male athletes. This is also not to say that girls’ teams, or any teams for that matter, do not deserve to have fans at their game. All teams deserve to have fans come support them. And this isn’t just for sports teams. Exeter’s musicians and artists deserve support too, whether it be at a concert, a play or an art show.Now that I’ve cleared that up, back to my main discussion. I’d like to address some of the points made by the student who posted their self-named “rant” that sparked the whole debate and those who commented on the post. First off, the reason that the boys’ basketball team had signs last Friday was because senior Abigail Ambrogi decided to make them for the team. Let me clear this up right now. Ambrogi said she did it because, “it’s flippin’ hilarious, and I have a lot of friends on the team.” She didn’t do it because they were guys or because she didn’t want to support the girls’ basketball team. She did it to support her friends. There should be no criticism of that.Secondly, while gender certainly plays a role in interest and attendance for sports teams at Exeter, we must look at other reasons before condemning gender as the lone reason for a lack in attendance. The original Facebook comment brought up a fair point about records and team success being a determinant as to whether a team attracts fans because no one likes to see a team lose. There is a lot of truth in that. As the comment pointed out, football attendance was a lot smaller the past two seasons when the team went 2-6 and 3-5 as compared to three or four years ago when the team went 8-1 and 6-2. Similarly, girls’ volleyball attendance was high the past two seasons when they’ve won two consecutive New England championships.Now as another Facebook commenter pointed out, a team’s win-loss record is not the only reason why people decide to support teams. The girls’ basketball team has won two championships recently and (in case you haven’t heard by now) boys’ cross country won three straight championships from 2012-2014. Yet, both teams didn’t have great turnouts those years. This brings me to a big point. People go to sporting events because they find them to be entertaining. Whether it be high school games or the FIFA World Cup championship, they go to be amused. People consider different things entertaining, but there are many commonalities between them. One such thing is that people like to see a fast paced game; it holds their attention. For example, many people complain about baseball being a slow sport and therefore do not like going to games.Last week, I went to the girls’ basketball game against Bradford Christian to support my friends and peers on the court. While I did enjoy the game, I can see why some people would not consider girls’ basketball their cup of tea while still enjoying boys’ basketball. Simply, in comparison to boys’ basketball, girls’ basketball takes on a much slower pace. The boys average 64.1 points per game. The girls average 42.6. This season, the boys scored below 42 points in a game only once and the girls haven’t scored more than 60 points at all. People like scoring, and therefore the boys’ games are generally more appealing. Other things are in play too. A quick example: Dunks are very exciting and more prominently featured in boys’ games than girls’ games, especially at Exeter. Same can be said for three-pointers, which factor into scoring.The familiarity and ability to spectate at the event also factors in. I would consider cross country to be a tough spectator sport. While the race course is long, there are only a few spots where you can cheer on runners and you only see them for a short amount of time. Compared to volleyball where you can sit in the bleachers and see the whole match without moving, it’s easy to see why some people prefer going to a volleyball game over going to a cross country meet.Exeter’s wrestling team won New England’s and was the tenth best team in the nation last year, but received little fanfare. Part of this is because it’s a foreign sport to many. People are not as familiar with wrestling as they are with hockey because of the different exposure levels. Wrestling is rarely shown on TV outside of the Olympics, the Pan American Games and the NCAA championships. Meanwhile, the NHL has a $2 billion broadcasting deal with NBC and can be seen any night of the week. This doesn’t even include Olympic, World Junior Championships or college and junior game broadcasts. Some of the attendance at hockey games can be attributed to its exposure and the same can be said as to why wrestling doesn’t attract more fans.There are definitely other factors at play (time of game, conflicting games, prior commitments, etcetera) that I didn’t get a chance to address in this piece. I apologize if I didn’t get to something that you find to be a reason why some sports attract more fans than others. What attendance truly comes down to is the student body. As one Facebook commenter pointed out, “[t]his entire post and its comment[s] highlight one of the main reasons there’s such little school spirit. Everyone has to argue about everything.” We need more cooperation between Exonians to figure out a solution to this problem. I have started a School Spirit Committee in Student Council to help address and fix the issue. I would love to hear your ideas as to how this problem can be resolved. Anyone interested in joining the committee or who has comments on this piece (positive, negative or constructive), please feel free to reach out to me in person or via email (bmaclean@exeter.edu). I hope this article fosters more discussion about this important subject, not only on Facebook, but also around the Harkness table, in dorms and all around campus.