Faced by thousands of empty seats for every women’s basketball games the last two years, Director of Athletics Eugene Doris considered moving the program’s games from the Arena at Harbor Yard back to Alumni Hall.
“I think there could have been some better attended games this year,” said Doris. “But the poor weather conditions, the loss of top scorer Schrene Isidora and other players to injuries really hurt their attendance this year.”
According to head coach Dianne Nolan, the average attendance for women’s games in 2002-2003 was 2,675 people. But that is in ticket sales and most of those games were double-headers with the men’s team. In four games where the women played alone, they only averaged 768 people.
“I am very happy to play our games at the Arena,” said Nolan. “It is a great venue to call home.”
Despite the low numbers, Doris is sticking by the Stags. Doris said the women would continue to play at the Arena at Harbor Yard for 2003-2004 and beyond.
“It was hard to judge the type of crowd the team could have had by the way the season was going,” said Doris. “We made a five year commitment to the Arena, and there is no need to make a change.”
The Arena will be hosting an NCAA Women’s Basketball Regional Tournament in 2006, said Ken Paul, who works with the Arena and is also Senior VP and co-owner of the Bridgeport Blue Fish.
“This is a very good site for women’s basketball,” said Paul. “It is important to build a following for Fairfield basketball, but also to make it a signature place for woman’s basketball.”
Doris repeatedly failed to say how much money Fairfield lost having the women’s games at the Arena. Two games lost to weather caused this, but the year before the team did manage to break even, he said.
Nolan feels that the Arena provides a lot more than just revenue for the school.
“The Arena allows Fairfield University to continue its mission of excellence,” said Nolan. “The purpose of going to the Arena is to give our program increased visibility and to provide our players, students, fans and the public a state of the art home court.”
“Going back to Alumni Hall is not a desired situation,” said Nolan.
Fairfield’s players had varying reactions to any move back to campus.
“We wouldn’t mind moving back to Alumni Hall,” said center Milica Milijkovic, ’04. “It would be a step back, but I think we would get a better attendance at Alumni Hall because all the students are here.”
“I like Alumni Hall,” said Forward Cathy Dash ’05, “but I don’t think we should lose a place like the Arena because the coaches worked so hard to get it. And I know we are going to bring in the fans because next year we are going to have a great season.”
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