Special to the Ryersonian

There was a lot of blue at George Bell Arena when the Ryerson Rams beat the Golden Gaels from Queen’s University 5-3 in a hockey game earlier this season. Ryerson athletes love to see fans at their home games. But the blue that filled the arena that day wasn’t the colour of blue Rams T-shirts or flags — it was the colour of empty seats.

David Singh/Ryersonian Staff

There were more people at last week's volleyball game, and efforts have been made to encourage more people to come to Rams' games. But turnout could be even higher.

George Bell Arena, located at St. Clair Avenue West and Runnymede Road, a half hour’s drive from campus, is the home venue for Ryerson’s hockey team. The soccer team plays its home games at De La Salle College, down the street at Avenue Road, another 30-minute drive east.

But while excuses for the poor attendance at games and apathy from student fans are plenty, they’re nothing new. The only real reason may lie in the simple fact that the school has no central sports facility.
“I definitely think a new facility would help with getting fans out,” said Karen Hood-Deshon, marketing director for Ryerson’s athletics department. “This year we put some serious effort into promoting the hockey team for the home opener and we sent busloads of students. It showed people are interested but they have to go across town to go see the game,” she said. “If they didn’t have to travel, then we could just focus our efforts on making people aware.” 

Across town, the folks at the University of Toronto know just how much of a difference a good facility close to home can make.

Liz Hoffman, U of T’s athletic programs director said the university’s football team traditionally played at Birchmount Stadium in Scarborough and struggled to draw a crowd of 1,000 people. After opening their new varsity stadium at the St. George campus, attendance swelled to 3,000 per game.     

“We’ve had a new wave of interest in our athletics, and it starts with the new varsity centre,” said Hoffman. The new facility includes an interactive scoreboard, a ticker highlighting upcoming events and games, a café and concession stands. Bitter as it may be to take advice from a longtime rival, Ryerson might do itself a favour by following U of T’s lead.

“The buzz that would be created by a new facility will be phenomenal,” Hoffman said. “It will bring students to Ryerson.”

Mary Beth Challoner, U of T’s manager of sports promotions, agrees and says it will only help boost Ryerson’s sports fan base.
“We’ve gained so many fans just by changing venues. With a new facility and a little promotion, (Ryerson) will be rocking,” she said.
The same trend is happening at York University, Ryerson’s neighbour to the northwest.

“When we played football at Bathurst (Street) and Steeles (Avenue), we got nowhere near the number of students we do now that we play on campus,” said Patricia Murray, athletics director at York University. Meanwhile, York’s new basketball stadium fills close to its 800-person capacity at every game, making it by far the most popular sport at York. Ryerson’s gym seats 900, but this year, it hasn’t seen much more than 268 fans at one game.

Jean Kennedy, Ryerson’s athletics director, cautions that it’s difficult for Ryerson to keep up with York and U of T. “U of T and York are triple in number than what we are. Some of our sports aren’t on campus, theirs are. These variables come into play,” she said.

Student athletes are perhaps those most perturbed by the low turnout to their games. “I’m sure more people would come if we played on campus,” said Andrea Raso, a first-year business student and star of the women’s soccer team. “I’ve talked to a lot of people who said they’d come out and watch our games, but it’s just too far for them to travel.”
Raso has played soccer since she was little and has always been passionate about the game. “I really love it. Our team is really doing well and we’re surprising other teams with how well we play. I know there’s interest from students, but it’s so far to travel.”

Players at other schools also know the sinking feeling of empty bleachers. “It really helps when you have a crowd,” said Samantha Magalas, a graduate of York who played hockey and baseball at the school as an undergraduate and went on to play baseball with Team Canada.

“Fans aren’t the reason you play, but it’s definitely a different atmosphere. There’s a real adrenaline rush when you have people cheering in the stands.”

The poor interest in student athletics (and low morale) hasn’t completely escaped the notice of Ryerson administration. A student task force was commissioned by president Sheldon Levy in December of 2005 to examine the quality of all student life. When the task force filed its report in August 2006, one area that cropped up was student sports. The task force recommended, in short, that Ryerson make its students proud of the Rams. One of the prime indicators it pointed to was the dismal sales of Rams sweatshirts in the bookstore.

In response, Levy pledged he would be “placing a renewed emphasis on athletics at the university.” He also announced that he’d be hiring a new full-time coach for the hockey team and would be introducing a new line of sweatshirts to enhance the Ryerson Rams’ image. Hiring Graham Wise, former York hockey coach, did prove to be a great step for the hockey team, but nowhere was any mention made, neither by the task force nor the president himself, of needing an on-campus sports facility.

This past October, however, the idea came out of the woodwork with Levy’s notion of buying the Sears parking lot on Jarvis Street and turning it into a multi-purpose sports centre. At a breakfast reception on Oct. 11, he proposed the idea to Kennedy, who left the breakfast feeling awed. But in later interviews with The Ryersonian, Levy was much more cautious, admitting Ryerson was far from building on what it didn’t already own.

“We don’t own it right now. We tried to acquire it, the province has shown interest in selling it us,” Levy said at the time. Kennedy was similarly reticent, saying that not only would the property have to be purchased, but the matter would have to go to a student referendum before a single shovel could hit the ground. Levy is keeping his mind open to buying the property and to those in the athletics department, his willingness is a promising signal that a new facility may be in Ryerson’s not-too-distant future.

With two feet planted firmly in reality, the university refuses to attach a dollar amount to a plan that’s still considered a dream. But Ryerson can take a few cues from complexes at universities across the country. Concordia University in Montreal recently spent $60 million on a mega-sports complex — admittedly a larger version of what Ryerson hopes to build — but it was possible in a compact, downtown location.

Rams coaches and staff say they’d welcome the chance to compete in front of a big crowd at Ryerson.

“As a player, the more fans there are the better. Whether they are cheering for you or against you it creates a better ambience at the game,” said men’s basketball coach Glenn Taylor.

Given that it’s university athletes, a vocal crowd will have an even greater effect, said women’s volleyball coach Bob Cholette. He says a lack of fans at games has a noticeable effect on players. “When you get first-year students (on the team), it’s even worse. If you have younger players, it has an effect on them. But as they get older they get more familiar with it and they are more psychologically prepared to handle it.”

Cholette also said targeting first-year students might be helpful in building a solid fan base that cares about Ryerson’s sports teams. “We just need to try to get students earlier. Get them on the e-mail list. Let them know what’s going on. Everyone figures out what they like after first year. Then they go with it.”   

Having a good facility close to campus isn’t a cure-all for poor team support.

Taylor thinks the best way to get fans out is to win. He remembers coaching his first game at Memorial University in Newfoundland and the team was brutal. “There were 15 people at the game,” he said. “Five of them were my family, and the other 10 were the parents of the players. But in five years we were winning and they had to call the fire marshal to each game to make sure we weren’t going over capacity.

“I’d like to believe that fans would come regardless of whether they win or lose, and it would help if they did. But my experience tells me the opposite,” he said.

Cholette agreed with Taylor saying, “The better the teams, the more people will come. If you have exciting players then people will come because they want to see that kind of people perform.”

The school is also trying to draw people who don’t go to Ryerson and a new facility would go a long way in achieving that. “Depending on where the facility is, we could get passersby as well,” Hood-Deshon said. “They’ll see the event and say, ‘What’s this? Oh it’s Rams soccer.’ And they’ll stay and watch. Then it would be our job to make sure they enjoy the product and stay longer.”

Wise said Ryerson should look to Lakehead University in Thunder Bay as a good model to follow. “Lakehead is a smaller community, but its crowds aren’t just students... they get townspeople to go as well,” he said, recalling the time his teams have played games in Thunder Bay.

The response from Ryerson’s sports department would suggest that having a sports centre at Ryerson and a ramped up fan base may be just the ticket to a big win for Ryerson’s athletic future.

Challoner insists that students are missing out when inter-varsity sports aren’t given priority. “My time at university wouldn’t have been complete if I hadn’t competed in sports. The camaraderie, the friends you make, it’s really special.”

Ivan Canete, head of athletic events at U of T, says even for the spectators, the experience is incredible. “Alumni will come back to their school to watch games. Nobody comes back for classes or exams. It’s far too underrated.”