Maryland Student Section

[simplyred]

Go to a Cardozo basketball game (at least that was the case a few years back). The school was mostly white and Asian but the stands were filled with frenzied black students. Black kids, in general, may look more to the NBA (at least in NYC---a pro sports town) but if you look at the student body at St. John's specifically, I don't think race i itself is the primary factor. Again, if you look at CA games vs. MSG games, there is a difference. There are other reasons.

 

[kc41]

You should check your facts. They do support the team. MD is averaging just under 13,000 for their home games. I was at the VA Tech game and they had 18,000 and that was during Christmas break.

 

[Class of 72]

You should check your facts. They do support the team. MD is averaging just under 13,000 for their home games. I was at the VA Tech game and they had 18,000 and that was during Christmas break.

Maryland students have an "incentive" to attend games. All they need to do is request them online and show up. Not the case at SJ.

FYI:
Students have entries in the lottery equal to the # of Loyalty Points earned from attending previous games.
 Students earn Loyalty Points by attending games, but lose Loyalty Points for failing to attend games for which they claim a ticket. “No Show”
 Students who accumulate too many “no-shows” will lose their eligibility to register for future tickets.

 

[Class of 72]

If your argument is that white students are more interested in college sports than black students, I disagree. When I attended (granted it was in the "glory years") black students were very interested in the basketball team. I don't think there is any difference in the races in proportion to their relative population on campus.

I do think that there are other factors which may play into the disparity in attendance. First, I think there is a much higher white population than black in terms of resident students. That is due to socio-economic factors. Students who live on campus tend not to work, whereas commuter students tend to have after-school jobs.

If you look only at the season ticket student sections, they are mostly white but there are a large number of non-white students throughout Carnessecca. The Garden, maybe not so much. Again, socio-economic factors.

If race were the only deterrent to student attendance, then you would have CA full of white students; and the Garden would be more packed with them. Students are kept away for a variety of reasons, not the least is the culture of losing that we've fallen into the last 10 years. St. John's is still majority white, therefore it is not surprising that student attendance would be majority white.

I agree that the disparity is more social in nature (not economic). White and African-American students at St. John's both support the BB team in numbers proportionate to their numbers. Asian students, on the other hand, especially South-Asian, show very little interest in the team at SJ. Asian students, in general, show much less interest in college sports. The California system is a good example. At Cal and UCLA, there are plenty of empty seats because of that social phenomenon.

 

[L J S A]

At Cal and UCLA, there are plenty of empty seats because of that social phenomenon.

Can't speak on UCLA, but Cal has tons of Asian fans supporting the team. Stanford as well.

 

[mjmaherjr]

You should check your facts. They do support the team. MD is averaging just under 13,000 for their home games. I was at the VA Tech game and they had 18,000 and that was during Christmas break.

Maryland students have an "incentive" to attend games.

Going to Ratsies or the CLuck U Chicken after a maryland game would be enough incentive for me