A concern that some have around the Otterbein campus is the seeming lack of fan and student attendance at various Cardinal sporting events. Otterbein has multiple facilities that many programs envy and would love to have for themselves, but there don't seem to be very many people attending games at the various venues.
During the last off-season, the football stadium, Memorial Stadium, underwent a renovation that saw the old field ripped out and brand new artificial turf, specifically a Crossflex brand HP synthetic turf, brought in to replace it. Another part of the renovation that some non-sports fans may have missed was the removal of the opposing bleachers. These bleachers were removed due to the new turf and track being wider than the old field and track, leaving too small of a space for the bleachers. Now fans of the Cardinals as well as the visitors all sit in the home bleachers, where they can get a better elevated view of the competitions. Even with the removal of the opposing bleachers, the stadium is still only filled on very rare occasions, like homecoming or the Capital football game.
Attendance at Otterbein sporting events is taken in a variety of ways, either by measuring ticket sales or simply counting the fans from the press box. The numbers tallied for attendance at the various games are fairly accurate, and if compared to other teams around the OAC they would match up rather similarly. However, student attendance at the sporting events is not where the athletic department would hope it to be.
According to Otterbein SID Adam Prescott, the explanation could be simple. "The more that the teams win, the more fans will be at the games," he said. He also thinks that students may be elsewhere during game time. "Here, you have a fantastic location, Columbus is right there. At some schools there isn't much to do off campus, but here Columbus is just around the corner and it offers a lot."
A bigger problem for some of the smaller sports like soccer, lacrosse and volleyball come from their schedules. A lot of the games they play are during weekdays, when most students are either in class or busy with homework. Sports like football and basketball that are played on the weekends have a big advantage simply because the students aren't quite so busy.
A final thought from Prescott was one of praise for the communications department. "We have a fantastic radio and TV department, something that a lot of schools don't have. So fans who don't feel like going to the game have the opportunity to watch or listen to the games at home. If it's bad weather or bad timing they can still follow the team."
Editor's Note: This article has received edits to address factual inaccuracies.
