This Saturday, Laurier’s football team will be playing its biggest rivals, the Western Mustangs, in the provincial semi-finals. Is this the first you’re hearing of it? It’s not surprising if it is.
Laurier Athletics has failed to promote the team throughout the season, and the problem has never been more apparent than now.
The Golden Hawks had an incredible season, overcoming numerous injuries, including losing their starting quarterback for the season in week three, and still finished 6-2: second in the Ontario University Athletics.
Despite the team’s success, student attendance has been pitiful all season. Besides a handful of die-hard purple and gold clad student fans, parents, young children and alumni have filled the stands at University Stadium.
While some of the student body’s absenteeism can be attributed to the fact that students now have to pay for tickets, advertising is a much larger problem.
Besides a few 8.5” x 11” posters, students have no means of knowing when and where the game is or whom the Hawks are playing.
Laurier Athletics needs to find more effective advertising and promote this team that deserves fan support. With this week being a playoff game – one step away from the Yates Cup – against Laurier’s top opponent, it seems obvious that the athletics department should step up its advertising.
However, it has done virtually nothing. Aside from the run-of-the-mill posters suffocated by the countless other advertisements posted in the Terrace, Bricker Academic and the Concourse, the game has received no promotion.
There are several mediums available where students can easily be reached. For example, a Facebook group started by Hawks’ defensive end Daniel Bishop has already generated a massive student response.
This is such a simple idea that is not only free, but is also far more effective than anything that the department is doing now.
