Fall seems to have officially arrived on campus. The leaves are changing colors, and many have begun to fall from their branches. Many students are planning out and coordinating their Halloween costumes to ensure they have one for every day of Halloweekend. Some students, however, especially those from New York, are focusing their attention on the World Series. The Fall Classic is, at least in my experience over the past week, the talk of Fairfield’s campus as the Yankees look to secure a record-extending twenty-eighth title.
While professional sports are exciting, I believe it is just as worthwhile, if not more, to watch or attend a Fairfield University athletics event. I will, of course, admit that the athletes competing are not nearly as highly compensated, if at all, and they come nowhere near the pros in terms of ability. It is called the “pros”, after all. However, what a university sporting event lacks in big money and professional skill, I believe it makes up for in more human and community-oriented categories.
When one attends a game, match, meet or fixture to support a university team, they are watching their own classmates compete. The same athletes who take the court at the Leo D. Mahoney Arena are also in your dorm and classes. Being a student-athlete necessarily means one also has the title of student. The Fairfield University community is primarily, and most importantly, made up of students. To attend a Fairfield athletics event means that you are supporting people within your immediate community. These are people you have most likely interacted with, maybe roommates with or be good friends with. Student-athletes not only represent your community, but are from, and part of, your community.
This cannot be said about national sports. Most people have little to no ability to meet the athletes from their region’s professional sports franchises, let alone share a dining hall or dorm with them. One may argue that professional athletes do, however, represent the team they play for in the same way a student-athlete represents Fairfield University. To some degree, this is true. Upon further thought though, this argument fails to hold up as nearly all professional athletes are not from the communities they wear on their jerseys. Take the New York Yankees roster for example. Only three players from their twenty-six-man roster are from New York. Only one of these three is from New York City, which is where the team plays.
Beyond even being from the city, state or region their team represents, professional athletes do not live similar lives to the average fan of said team. These athletes are paid millions of dollars, live in the nicest houses and, most likely, skip town once the season ends. Student-athletes, on the other hand, share the same living experience as the average fan of the teams they play for because their average fans are also students.
The gap in experiences, lifestyle and accessibility between the fans and athletes of pro and collegiate level fans is enormous.
There is likewise a gap in what the support of a fan means to either level of athletics. Depending on what kind of sporting event you attend on campus, there may be anywhere from a handful to almost two thousand fans in the stands. At these levels of attendance, one fan does make a difference, especially at the lower end of this spectrum. In contrast, the pro level routinely sees tens of thousands of fans at any given game, not to mention the many thousands to millions watching on TV. Your support means far more to a Fairfield University team than it does to your favorite MLB franchise.
Fairfield Athletics permits you to connect on a more meaningful level with the sport you are choosing to engage with. You know the people who play, the community they live in and their experiences because it is all shared. To connect with athletics on campus is to connect with your own community while connecting to a pro team is to connect with what is essentially a faceless financial and entertainment asset.
Finally, let us not forget that admission to games on campus is free for students. This is a value the pros can unequivocally not compete with.
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