How great would it be if we actually knew about our on-campus sports events ― before they happened?
Yes, there have been pep rallies prior to basketball games in the Don Taft University Center. But what about the non-basketball, sports such as baseball, softball, golf, tennis, rowing, track and field, swimming, soccer, or volleyball? All of these sports are represented by NSU athletes. But do you know when their events are? Yes, Finatics have consistently appeared at athletics events, attempting to raise more “Shark Pride.” Yet based on the sparse fan turn out, outside of Finatics participation, at many athletic events, it seems that the available advertising is not sufficiently interesting the student population.
NSU Athletics has the potential to be extremely appealing to the student body as an organization. Their attempts at interesting students, however, have been largely limited to basketball games. Some of the promotions seen at recent basketball events this season were: raffles for Lady Gaga tickets, half-court shooting contests for Wiz Khalifa tickets, as well as free T-shirts for fans. Why are these promotions exclusive to basketball? Baseball does have a corn-hole bean bag tournament for fans for between inning entertainment. But mostly, students have little motivation to attend athletic events at NSU.
When you live in beautiful Florida all year, it is easy to deny school pride for a warm day at the beach. To help remedy this, the athletics department is cooperating with Campus Card Services to develop some kind of point system for prizes. Theoretically, students might be able to swipe their SharkCard at athletic events to earn points. According to Vernol Robinson, Director of Campus Card Services, this system might be available by next fall.
However, it still seems that more could be done to make athletics events appealing to the NSU student population this season. Posters announcing game times and dates in places other than in the Flight Deck windows might be a start.
