Where the Fans Belong

By K.M. Spence

FORT COLLINS, Colo.- Students and alumni gathered on Fri, Sep. 10 for an eventful Colorado State University volleyball game. The volleyball team was going up against Texas Tech’s Red Raiders from the Big 12 Conference. While CSU dominated the Raiders, much of the crowd was not that involved in the game. Looking back a week before this game, when CU and CSU football played, The Rocky Mountain Showdown, most, if not all the student section was filled. At the volleyball game, the majority of the student section was empty.

When examining the differences in crowd involvement at both volleyball and football games, there was a huge difference. As of right now, volleyball is ranked 15th in the nation, football, not so much.

According to Senior Colin Hornback, “The atmosphere is good at volleyball games, but not as enthusiastic. Our volleyball team might be good, but volleyball is not as well known as football.”

Looking around at the stands, the majority of the crowd consisted of both alumni and older adults. There were two designated student sections, but only half of both sections were filled. Every time one game would finish or would be on a time-out, the cheerleaders would attempt for crowd involvement, but would get nothing in return from students.

One event staff member that works at every home game for both volleyball and football, Mary Pluit said, “Football has more of a crowd because the majority of the student body that show up are drunk. At volleyball games, the common student turn out are freshmen and aren’t really here for drinking, they just want to show support.”

Each time a cheer would start the alumni and older adult sections would go along. They would yell and cheer and while the students would cheer when the volleyball team scored that was all that came out of those sections.

“I enjoy working at volleyball games more,” said Pluit, “the atmosphere is nicer, and I barely ever have to worry about getting security.”

The adults that did show up to the game seemed generally happy to be there. One spectator, Allison Humphry said, “I come to almost if not all the home games. I love coming to these events. Everyone is just so nice and you get the right amount of student support without getting too rowdy.”

Towards the end of the game, many of the students were getting up and leaving when the game started to get to a tight race for the winning of the third game. All the adults stayed and kept cheering the team on.

A few weeks ago, when the football game was drawing near the finish, students were getting up and leaving. This was due to a complete upset when the football team lost, 24-3.

“I just wanted to leave after the third quarter, but I forced myself to stay just because it’s football and maybe there was a slim chance we could’ve come back,” said Hornback. “I also wanted to stay because I just love the atmosphere when it comes to football. There were so many people there from both teams, it just felt like I should stay.”

The CSU volleyball team is doing much better than the football team is right now. As of right now, the football team is 0-3 and last year their overall record was 3-9. More people though continually go to football verses volleyball games. This has been a consistent trend and for right now has not changed.

“I hope one day more people would actually show up to the volleyball games,” said Pluit, “the atmosphere is calmer, but it still provides a lot of entertainment for students.”