"The Elephant Man" (Baton Rouge)
January 25, 2010
Octavia McCoy White
January 28, 2010
With its small and compact foundation, Nicholls State’s Stopher Gym becomes a nightmare for visiting teams when fans fill the 3,800-seat facility.
With no other place to go, noise funnels straight to the basketball floor, which is a recipe for confusion if you’re a visitor and motivation for the home-standing Colonels.
But throughout the season, empty seats have been plentiful in the 40-year-old facility – a trend the Colonels hope changes in the heat of conference play.
“We’re trying to make it easy and entice people to come to the games,” said Nicholls Associate Athletic Director of External Relations and Fund Raising Ken Berthelot. “Both our teams play an exciting brand of basketball and it really is fun to watch.”
The Colonels’ men’s basketball team has averaged 277 fans per game this season and the women’s team has drawn an average of 124 fans each game.
Both of those numbers rank last in the Southland Conference by a wide margin. The next lowest attendance number among men’s teams is McNeese State, who draws 530 fans per game. McNeese State is also next to last in women’s attendance and draws 357 fans per game.
But in the coming weeks, the Colonels plan to host several game night events to try to draw fans to the games. Those events include business nights and games where former alumni will be honored.
Berthelot also said several halftime promotions are also scheduled for games throughout the remainder of the season.
“We’re trying to put together a pretty good package,” Berthelot said. “We have a good, competitive league, in a very informal, family atmosphere.”
The reasons for the lack of attendance this season are likely two-fold, according to Berthelot and Nicholls coaches.
The first reason is the majority of the team’s games have been played over Christmas break. With a heavy commuter campus, students have not been at school for a large portion of the team’s season.
“We’ve been playing over the holidays and we played games before exams week, because you can’t play during exams week,” said Nicholls women’s basketball coach DoBee Plaisance. “It’s been tough for the students to make it out.”
Plaisance said she plans to team with Berthelot and the Colonels’ sports information directors in the coming weeks to try to draw larger numbers.
“We’ve got to do some more word of mouth things,” she said. “Getting out in the community and trying to get our name out there.”
Former Colonels player and current women’s basketball assistant coach Justin Payne agrees with Plaisance. Payne said attendance in the December months has always been low in his time in Thibodaux.
“The students will start to come out once they start to see the effort and intensity our teams are playing with,” he said. “But in the meantime, me, Coach DoBee and all the managers just have to go out and pass out flyers about when our next game is. Just something to bring that crowd in.”
The second reason for the small numbers is a lack of victories. Both the men’s and women’s teams were below .500 in their nonconference schedules.
“Everything we do works and might attract people to a game, but there is no substitute for winning,” Berthelot said. “The men’s team is a large favorite to go to their conference tournament and the women’s team is so, so close to getting some wins and they might even make their conference tournament, too. Fans will catch onto that.”
But despite the low numbers, a clear home-court advantage does still exist for the Colonels.
The men’s team is currently 5-0 in games played in Stopher Gym and just 1-11 in games played in other facilities.
The women’s team sees a similar statistical improvement and is 3-6 at home and 0-8 on the road.
But Payne said there is no substitute to playing in front of a rowdy crowd of home fans.
“It makes all of the difference in the world,” Payne said. “You’ve got the crowd on your side and it gives you more motivation and you play better.”
Plaisance said that atmosphere will return during her time at Nicholls.
“We’re going to get people to come here,” she said. “In fact, I told that to my assistants today, I said, ‘Don’t worry, they’ll come. When we build it, they will come,’ and we’re definitely going to build it.”
Fans watch from a nearly empty section of Stopher Gym during the team’s Jan. 20 game against Central Arkansas. Boosting attendance is a high priority for the Colonels down the stretch of the season. * Photo by CASEY GISCLAIR
