EDITORIAL: Support of the football team should not be exclusively during times of success
It is easy to be a CMU football fan when the team is at the top of the Mid-American Conference. Support should be perennial, however, and not only when the sailing is smooth.
Now, when the team is 1-2 in the MAC and 2-3 overall, is not the time to give up on them.
After several stellar seasons and being ranked nationally for the first time in school history last year, the rocky, middling start to this year hurt the large fan base the team built up over the last few years. Other factors, such as continually unpopular tailgating rules and the tendency for attendants to leave in droves at halftime also detract from potential attendance.
Supporting the football team is both a matter of pride at this school and a financial decision. If football games go poorly-attended, millions of dollars will have gone wasted — tuition and tax dollars the university uses to promote, advertise and run the football program.
Attendance has not been affected too negatively yet, but the mixed messages of the university — encouraging people to go to the game while discouraging them from tailgating outside Kelly/Shorts Stadium, may end up hurting the football program in the long-run.
This publication often tries to stay away from horn-tooting and flag-waving for the university when it is not necessary, but the football team is such a major part of the local economy, its floundering could be potentially disastrous for the community.
The simple way to keep this situation from becoming a problem is to continue going to football games. If football attendance continues to be high, it is more a testament to the fan community of CMU than the university, which has been handling the situation unimpressively.
If the football team continues down a losing path, and CMU sees less national media attention, it will be interesting to see if attendance takes a dip due to the loss of “fair-weather fans.”
