Tactics
considered to raise sporting event attendance
By Toby Lewis and Rachelle Youngman
On-line Forty-Niner
 Attendance
is down this season from last season at
Cal State Long Beach men’s basketball games
as the team enters the spring semester with
a 2-13 record, Assistant Athletic Director
Steve Janisch said.
“Right now we are averaging 1,844 people
at home games,” Janisch said. Last year,
average attendance at home games was 2,018
people.
Despite a rise in the number of season ticket
holders this year, average attendance at
games is still down.
Janisch said that the recent lack of attendance
is not hurting the athletic department financially.
They figure these kinds of things into the
bottom line, he said.
In past seasons, Cal State Long Beach has
had sell-out crowds when playing teams such
as USC and Stanford, Janisch said. “Big
teams draw more people."
Janisch attributed the lack of attendance
to the fact that this season Cal State Long
Beach does not have a “big team” game on
its roster.
Another reason for poor attendance at games
is due to the losing record of the team,
Janisch said.
“Obviously, when you win everyone comes
[to the games]. Everyone wants to see a
winner,” Janisch said.
Russell Hayden director of ticket marketing
and operations, also attributed the decreased
attendance to several factors, one being
the men’s basketball team’s disappointing
two-win performance this season.
“In order to get people to attend it’s got
to be an event, not just a sports competition.
When your team starts winning the games
are on TV and the events become the place
to be,” Hayden said. “We’re trying like
hell to get people.”
Janisch also said they expect attendance
at basketball games to rise with the start
of the new semester. Hayden held similar
expectations.
“We have a lot of home games in February,”
Janisch said. Janisch said that
attendance at women’s basketball games is
averging about 600 to 700 people per home
game.
“The women’s team has had fourwinning seasons
in a row,” Janisch said. Right now, they
are 4- in conference and are in first place.
A.S.I. Sports and Spirit Commissioner Shelley
Levenson, said that her main goal for the
spring semester is to increase overall attendance
and interest in all spring sports not just
the ones that traditionally get most of
the attention, such as basketball and volleyball.
“All the teams work just as hard [as the
basketball and volleyball teams]. I would
like to see the attention spread out a little
bit,” Levenson said.
Levenson said she plans to begin promoting
for the rest of the season at the pep rally,
which will be held at the Friendship Walk
during Week of Welcome. During the rally,
all spring sports teams will be presented
to the student body. CSULB cheerleading
and dance teams will perform as well.
CSULB Athletic Director Bill Shumard said
he is not worried about the decrease in
attendance.
“It’s kind of a trend. We’ve been battling
and we are holding our own,” Shumard said.
It doesn’t help when you just made a coaching
change and the basketball team is losing.”
All home games at The Pyramid are free for
Cal State Long Beach students with valid
identification.
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