What a basketball game that was on Saturday night. I really hope that what we saw there was a true sign of improvement for the Big Green and not just a result of the Crimson's abysmal shooting from three-point range 11.8 percent. Either way, Harvard beat the Big Green by 29 points two weeks earlier, so losing by just three points is a significant gain.
And what a day to be a Dartmouth fan: huge wins from a bunch of teams, and most of them at home. The sad part about it, though, is that many students will probably respond to this news with surprise. "Dartmouth won something?" they'll say, because if there's something that we lack in Hanover, it's a culture of winning and a large fan base that feels invested in Big Green athletics.
When sitting at Dartmouth sporting events, it often feels like too many of the fans the student fans don't particularly care about the outcome of the game. This lack of engagement comes in part, I think, because students don't pay to attend athletic events.
At many schools, tickets are sold because their teams' venues can't hold the number of students who want to attend each game. Demand outweighs supply.
At Dartmouth, the opposite is usually true. There are far more empty seats than students, but I believe in this case ticket sales could actually serve to draw bigger crowds to games crowds who want to get their money's worth.
I haven't done the analysis on how much these tickets should cost, but the fee could be quite nominal. Here's a practice case interview question for the juniors: How much should Dartmouth charge for tickets? Say student tickets to the College's revenue sports football, soccer, basketball, hockey, lacrosse and baseball were $5 each or $25 for a season pass.
That's right, for the low, low price of 3.5 Ranch Chickens you can attend countless Dartmouth sporting events.
Will people pay? That depends on how the College markets this initiative. Think back to your freshman year Orientation. I'm willing to bet that most new freshmen, amped up on the allure of finally attending a college sporting event as a member of the student section, and without yet hearing the narrative perpetuated by current students that nobody bothers with sporting events, would likely buy a season ticket.
As more people buy the tickets, more students will start to recognize buying season tickets to Dartmouth athletics as something people "just do."
Now, armed with your $25 investment, you want your money's worth from the Big Green. You're going to go to at least five games so you can break even, and while you're there you want to see your team win. After all, you paid to come cheer for Dartmouth, so the least Dartmouth can do is put on a good show.
And when you're not getting a good show, you'll demand that something changes. You'll complain to your friends that the basketball team looked inept on the boards Saturday night and pray that Cole Marcoux potential Big Green quarterback recruit decides to put a '14 at the end of his name. You'll cheer loudly at sporting events, and not just when the cheerleaders are giving EBAs to their friends or during the game's final 25 seconds.
If 2,000 people buy a season ticket each term, that's an extra $50,000 for Dartmouth athletics. I'm not a huge fan of the College finding more ways to take money out of students' pockets ($50 for not clicking a button on Bannerstudent at the beginning of every term has always struck me as a little ridiculous), so I would hope that the Athletic Department would find a way to use this money to directly benefit fans.
Maybe give a portion to the Mean Green club to buy better prizes and hire a consultant to come up with a better name, or use it to fund promotions like a free seat cushion for the first 1,000 students to show up to each football game.
Get creative. Get Dartmouth students invested in the outcome of sporting events. Get the expectation of winning back in Hanover.
