It’s Friday afternoon. Classes have finished for the day and the weekend is here. There is lots going on over the weekend, specifically within athletics, yet not many people will be going.
Wayne State College has the stigma of being a “suitcase college”, where many students leave campus to go home over the weekend. WSC football lost a heartbreaker on Saturday, Sept. 14 to No. 11 Minnesota State, while Nebraska-Lincoln thumped the University of Northern Iowa. Yet more people went to or watched the latter game on TV then went to WSC game.
Some students and staff gave their opinions on what they think could be done to get more people to stay on campus and attend games and events, and not go home over the weekend.
“I’ll be going to the game tomorrow,” Ty Sterling, a junior sport management major said on Friday, Sept 13. “I haven’t been to many games the last couple years, so this year I just kind of wanted to stay around campus and be more involved.”
“I may be going to the game. I haven’t quite made up my mind yet,” sport management instructor Blaine Meyer said. “We have some stuff going on so I’m still trying to make up my mind.”
I spoke with a couple other students who wished not to be named. They both told me that they weren’t going to go to the WSC game. They told me they were going to stay in their dorms and watch the Nebraska football game. They said they’ve been Nebraska fans longer than they’ve been at WSC, so they are going to watch Nebraska over WSC.
When asked about why they would go to the game, Sterling talked about how he has a couple roommates that are on the team, and so he wanted to go to the game to show his support for them. Meyer had a different reason for why he would go to the game.
“I think the biggest reason that is making me consider going is family night,” Meyer said. “It’s an opportunity for me to bring my young child to the game. I also have a lot of interaction with a lot of the football players throughout the week, and its also a big game for WSC.”
Sterling said that, for him, he felt like there were better things to do instead of going to a WSC game. He talked about that he feels like he has to go out of his way to attend a game when he would rather spend time with friends or family, or just watch other games on TV. Meyer said that he tries to attend at least one game each year, sometimes two or three. He said it all just depends on when and where the game is and what him and his family have going on that day.
“We’re always way busier during football season,” Meyer said. “It’s the end of summer and the weather is starting to change and get colder. So, we just try to pack in as much stuff as we can before the weather changes and spend as much time together as a family, and it just happens to fall during football season.
I asked Sterling and Meyer, as well as the two other students, what they felt WSC could do to get more students to stay on campus over the weekend and go to more sporting events. The two students said that they would like there to be more promotions and events to get people involved during the games, like giveaways and games. Sterling said that he thought promotion was the biggest thing that would help. He felt that it’s hard to know when teams play and that if there were more flyers and posters put up around campus would be a big help.
“That’s a tough question,” Meyer said. “With the Blackout event that I put on with my Sport Marketing class, I always try to gauge the reason why students go home over the weekend, and I try to get an understanding of what would make them stay. And students are incentivized by free stuff, which, to me, is not why you should be going to a game, but I think a big thing is just having things going on. If there was something that was more targeted towards college students, that would help. I think it can be easy for college students to say, ‘I would like to drink at the game, but I can’t just drink at home’. I think the beer garden is a big addition.”
Senior defensive specialist on the Wildcat volleyball team Brooke Peltz said that going to games is a great way to get out of the house and support your classmates and school. She mentioned that there is a serving contest that happens between sets with prizes given out to winners as something else to do for going to game.
“It is always so great having a big student section,” Peltz said. “The student section does a great job of creating energy for us and overall making the game more fun. The community around WSC athletics never fails to show up for us and we all really feel that support.”
When asked what she thought could be done to get more people to go to games, she gave the idea of throwing out t-shirts when there is an ace serve or a block. She thought it could be a great way to keep fans engaged and could attract more people.
Football takes on University of Sioux Falls on Saturday, Oct. 26 at noon on Bob Cunningham Field. It’s also the Hall of Fame Game where the WSC 2024 Hall of Fame class will be honored.
Volleyball has three games this week. They played Peru State on Tuesday, in which they won in three sets (put scores). They also play No. 13 Southwest Minnesota State on Thursday, Oct. 24 at 6 p.m. and USF on Saturday, Oct 26 at 4 p.m. Both games are at Rice Auditorium.