(01-20-2021 08:08 PM)WMSportsBlog Wrote: It's a simple, yet all-important question: Does W&M have enough YOUNG fans?
To most, the answer is obvious...but just how big are the ramifications if the answer is "no?" Answer: MASSIVE.
Read our newest article, which dives deep into the topic. What are folks' thoughts on this board? Curious to hear.
LET'S GO TRIBE.
https://wmsportsblog.com/2021/01/21/does...oung-fans/
It's hard not to wonder if the public address announcer at Kaplan might look behind him at a game in the near future, temporarily lose his filter, and blurt out the line from The Paper Chase and freshmen assemblies in Blow Gym: "Look to your left. Look to your right. In a year one of you won't be here." He wouldn't be referring to flunking out.
With regard to the next generation of fans, if a poll were taken of secondary education students in the Williamsburg area it's reasonable to ask which personality would emerge with more name recognition -- Hollis Mathis, Luke Loewe, or ZooMaa. ZooMaa (aka Thomas Paparetto), I learned this week, is the 25 year old professional "Call of Duty" player who announced his retirement recently due to a career ending thumb injury.
Meanwhile, the football team last had a winning season in 2015. The men's basketball team last "knocked on the door" (made it to CAA tournament finals) the same year. Wm & Mary finds itself with no enduring all sports rivalries that have much in the way of an emotional tug. Richmond put a stake through the heart of the best one. JMU, by resourcing FBS football in an FCS wrapper left another with more of a Vanderbilt - Alabama vibe than Virginia - Virginia Tech. Delaware has some local name recognition. The CAA chose to complicate the football element of this relationship with a scheduling change. Tribe athletics competes in a league whose commissioner admits that "trying to nail down what makes a CAA school is a tricky question" and it can be "tough to identify a common bond." This backdrop isn't helpful when it comes to attracting any fans, let alone young ones.
As you have identified, the shortage of young fans is a "massive" problem. Whether this generation of college and athletic department leaders (not just in Williamsburg) has the mindset and skill set to find prescriptions is tbd. The pandemic will have made the competition for the discretionary time of the next generation of fans more difficult -- traditional spectator sports will have lost ground to digital entertainment with younger fans over this time period.
I'm hopeful. I think there will be recognition of the need to resume efforts to strengthen the sense of community among students and student athletes and with local residents. I think there is recognition that it needs to be easy to attend athletic events by simplifying parking and transportation (and not just for large donors), and that once in attendance the environment needs to be welcoming which might mean less monetizing/regulation. I think this regime understands they need to frame a competitive landscape that results in more wins and better rivalries. And some college is going to figure out how to marry analog and digital at 21st century sporting events...might as well be the one in Williamsburg. Deluge of selfies to follow...