Four years after moving out of Alumni Hall, the Fairfield basketball teams are still unsuccessful at filling even half the seats at the Arena at Harbor Yard.
Since packing up and heading to Bridgeport in 2001, the Stags have struggled to rouse support for the teams from the student body and greater community. Although the arena is capable of holding nearly 10,000 people, four times that of Alumni Hall, the average attendance for men’s games has been no more than 2,900.
Eugene Doris, Fairfield University’s athletic director, admits the transition has been difficult but has stood firmly behind his decision, believing the move was necessary.
“It has not been an overnight success,” said Doris. “But we had to look at the fan-base. It was the same people coming back for over 30 years. The ability to grow at Alumni just wasn’t there.”
When the decision was originally made to move the basketball teams to an off-campus venue, Doris said it was modeled after a similar move made by Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference member Siena College, which upgraded from playing on campus at its 4,000 capacity-seating Alumni Recreation Center to the Pepsi Arena (14,750 capacity) in 1997. At that time, Siena was having great success with its move, increasing attendance by nearly 40 percent.
“We made an increase almost immediately,” John D’Argenio, Siena’s athletic director told The Mirror. “We felt that we had good fan support at the time and felt that there was a good indication that when the team moved we would continue to have good support.”
Student support at the time of Fairfield’s move however, appeared to be considerably weaker. Even when playing at Alumni Hall, students complained of “sports apathy” and a general lack of interest in athletic teams.
“Athletics just wasn’t something students were into at all really,” said James Naldi ’03. “It was much easier to go to the games when they were played on campus, but it just seemed like no one really cared.”
While Doris considered the Siena statistics to have been a useful reference point, he also points out that the information is “all relative,” as Siena’s venues are much larger than that of Fairfield’s.
He also said that Siena’s on-campus arena, which remains the home of its women’s basketball team, is “as good of an on-campus arena that a mid-major is going to get” and that Alumni Hall’s poor condition played a dominant factor in the eventual shift of the teams.
“We have an obligation to give [the basketball programs] a quality venue to play in,” he said. “It’s hard to view Alumni as an equal venue.”
While very few would argue the greater upside Harbor Yard has over the 46-year-old Alumni Hall, attendance statistics make it easy to question whether the move has been appropriate especially for the women’s team, who, according to WVOF Sports Director Rory Duyon ’06, attract only a few hundred fans to each home game in the cavernous Bridgeport arena.
“Attendance-wise, we haven’t gotten the numbers I know we can,” said Dianne Nolan, Fairfield’s women’s basketball coach.
Nolan, who had no input when the school decided to move the team, admits it has taken awhile to get used to playing in the much larger and emptier arena, but is slowly starting to feel more comfortable.
“Fans are starting to settle in and it feels more like home now,” she said.
She also admits however, that she misses the “intimacy” she once felt at Alumni Hall, stating that “while Alumni is not a desirable place to play,” she would not be adverse to “a blend of some games on campus.”
Students also wouldn’t mind seeing a few games on campus, as efforts have been made by the student spirit committee to get at least a scrimmage played at Alumni Hall. Marco Ambrosio ’07, who heads the committee, has attempted to improve student support by attempting to get a few games on campus next year as well as requesting a change of location for the student section at Harbor Yard. Ambrosio feels that these changes may help foster a sense of school spirit from the student body.
“It’s more than just basketball games. We want to develop a sense that Fairfield is where people want to be,” he said. “We want to make people happy to be here and create enthusiasm for the school.”
Yet Doris seems satisfied to plow ahead with Fairfield’s five-year contract with the arena and is currently negotiating a contract renewal following the 2005-06 season.
He is also content that, although by a small margin, average attendance for the men’s team has at least been better than when they played at Alumni Hall. Since moving to Bridgeport, the men’s team have averaged at least 2,500 spectators per game, slightly larger than a sellout crowd at Alumni Hall (2,479). During the teams last season at Alumni they averaged 2,063 spectators per game.
“The things we’ve seen this year were more in the direction we want to go, as we started to get corporate ticket holders and did more entertaining in the suites,” he said. “Plus we received a much more asserted effort from the students and I was extremely pleased with the student turnout.”
Doris hopes to provide students with more reasons to cheer for the Stags next season, as efforts are currently being made to alter the arena’s configuration in hopes of creating a more “intimate” atmosphere. While he would not go into detail, Doris said that changes will cut the arena’s capacity to 7,000 and place students in “better position” to support their teams. He feels confident that if the alterations work out, they will provide the teams’ with the kind of support they’ve been missing.
“There are kinks that still need to be worked out, but we feel that the magic number [for arena capacity] is at 7,000,” he said. “If we can get intimacy it will lead to a better following.”
Ambrosio also feels that the efforts by the school will not go unnoticed.
“You can see that they do see it as something important,” he said. “They do try to market to students and alumni.”
AJ Kastanotis ’06 is also looking forward to the possible changes next season and hopes to witness firsthand the effects the fans can have on the Stags opponents.
“It will definitely create a better atmosphere,” he said. “Before I felt distanced from the team. I think it will definitely be harder for MAAC teams to come into our house and try to push us around.”
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