Some members of Dartmouth sports teams often see more faces in the crowd at their Saturday night pong games than at their Saturday afternoon Division 1 athletic contests.
To combat this perceived imbalance, the Greek Leadership Council, the Interfraternity Council, the Panhellenic Council and others have been working on ways to employ popular Greek events to boost attendance at games.
Two members of Alpha Phi Alpha have spearheaded the crowd-boosting efforts. Clayton Smith '05 and Harold Brown '06 started work on improving athletic turnout early this winter. After attending a basketball game that barely outdrew the 2004-2005 NHL, the Alpha Phi Alphas decided that something needed to be done.
The pair decided that a party was the answer, and enlisted Theta Delta Chi to help rally the troops. The following weekend the basketball team faced off against a heavily favored Princeton squad.
Before the opening tip off, Dartmouth's hoops squad had an edge. A small army of students headed over to Leede Arena from Theta Delt to cheer on the basketball team, and the Big Green responded by pulling off a huge upset.
While attempts to draw the fraternity crowd to subsequent winter sporting events were not met with similar levels of success, the Greek organizations have not abandoned Smith and Brown's idea.
This weekend's Ivy League Championship Men's Lacrosse game will be preceded by an all-ages Chi Heorot lawn party, complete with face painting and sign making. The groups organizing the events have quite high hopes for the weekend.
"With first year family weekend and the importance of this game, this should be a big event," Taylor Cornwall '06, moderator of the Greek Leadership Council, said.
"When you look at other colleges, one of the first things you notice is the number of students who are at athletic events and are seriously excited to be there, and the teams respond to that. I think that this is something that is desperately missing from the Dartmouth College experience, and hopefully Saturday will make students realize that," Shannon Troutman '06 said.
The Greek leaders hope to make these athletic-event-focused parties a staple of Dartmouth social life.
"The idea is to make it a weekly event and make it a regular thing that everyone goes to and has fun," Cornwall said. While the plans for the fall include parties to boost attendance at football and soccer games, other teams that reportedly draw smaller crowds will not targeted.
Many athletes on campus are looking forward to the prospect of enthusiastic crowds at the games. Members of the lacrosse team, whose games have been well attended, spoke about the impact a big crowd can have on the game.
"We score a big goal, the crowd goes nuts, and it's tougher for the other team to bounce back," lacrosse player Marc Ayala '08 said.
