COLUMN: A View from the Porch

Attendance won't tip Richter's scale He should grab a clipboard and a whistle. Richter's vision is admirable, and his plans look to be backed with honest effort and enthusiasm, but ultimately Richter has limited ability to increase fan support. Richter admits this to a degree, but it is important to look at just how important winning is to increased fan support. Richter's focus lies primarily with Penn's two marquee sports, football and basketball. Women's basketball has never had a winning program and only limited tradition compared with the 100-plus years of football and men's basketball, so there is not a lot of relevant data to draw from. Based on the numbers from the Athletic Communications Department, which keeps stats of its estimated football attendance since 1970, two factors show themselves to have a significant effect on football attendance. Neither factor will be Bill Richter's friend this year. One is schedule. Attendance is down every other year when Penn plays only three Ivy League home games. It will be worse this year, as one of those three games, against Columbia, will be played during fall break. The only way to fix this imbalance would be to add a ninth Ivy League team, which is preposterous, or to add games of local interest, which thankfully will occur beginning in 1999 when Penn will play Villanova. The other factor affecting attendance, also out of Richter's control, is a team's winning percentage. Penn won an unprecedented five straight Ivy League football titles from 1982 to 1986. In 1982, Penn averaged 26,828 fans for its three Ivy games. In 1984, Penn averaged 29,364 fans -- almost a 10 percent increase. After three straight sub-.500 league records, attendance at 1992 Ivy League home games dipped to an average of 16,128. By 1994, Penn was in the midst of a 24-game winning streak and saw its crowd support for Ancient Eight battles rise back to an average of 18,610, despite hosting Columbia during fall break. This season therefore poses severe difficulties for Richter's first attempt at new marketing schemes. The Quakers haven't won the title since '94, they have a poor home schedule and they were absolutely embarrassed in their first home outing of the season -- a 34-18 loss to Richmond. Men's basketball shows similar trends. Big 5 games and Princeton still routinely sell out. It is actually the other Ivy games that draw the least attendance, as there is little local interest. Currently, Ivy weekends routinely average around 3,000 fans per game, excluding the 8,700 that show up for Princeton. In 1993 and '94, during Penn's last period of dominating hoops, average attendance numbered over 5,000 per game. Luckily for Richter, while football is a nightmare to market in 1998, men's basketball is ready to boom. Not only are the Quakers co-favorites to win the Ivy League title, but non-league contests such as Kansas and Temple should have even marginal fans standing in line for season tickets for the '99 Ivy season. As a result, basketball numbers should be more favorable to Richter's marketing plans. All of these numbers are not meant to say that we should not try Richter's ideas or that he is foolhardy to even try attracting more fans to athletics. It is important for the Athletic Department to show that Penn is serious about drawing fans. And when it is successful in producing raucous cheering sections, it not only improves team performance but also fosters a greater sense of community on campus. What the numbers do show is that while Penn students like free T-shirts and giveaways, what they really want to see are Ivy League titles.

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