Last week, College President Jim Yong Kim appointed Harry Sheehy as the College's new Athletic Director, filling a position that had been vacated by former Athletic Director Josie Harper more than 19 months ago ("Sheehy appointed as new Athletic Director," Aug. 6). Sheehy inherits the directorship of an athletic department that inspires little fan interest on campus and often seems divorced from Dartmouth community life.
Sheehy, along with the administration, must take this fresh start as an opportunity to forge a new path for the College's athletic department. Dartmouth athletics need a makeover, and Sheehy should focus on breathing life into the program and making sporting events more entertaining and inclusive, both for student-athletes and for the student body at large.
Dartmouth is an impressively fit campus with 80 percent of College students participating on a varsity, club or intramural team each year. Yet despite our collective affinity for physical activity, many of our varsity teams frequently play to depressingly empty arenas, fields and stadiums. Even high-stakes games for successful programs draw paltry crowds ("Empty stands at Dartmouth: Fan culture stagnates despite teams' successes," April 13, 2009). At home games, opposing fans are often louder and more visible than Dartmouth supporters are.
This phenomenon stands in stark contrast to the College's proud athletic past. Dartmouth football, for instance, still owns the most Ivy League championships although it has not won the title since 1996. Many of the school's most visible programs have been largely uncompetitive within the league for the last decade, however, and games for all sports are poorly advertised and marketed. Football and men's basketball have struggled: football hasn't posted a winning season since 1997 and men's basketball hasn't won an Ivy title in more than five decades. While Dartmouth cannot, and should not, emphasize athletics to the extent that larger schools do, the College still has a Division I program and there is no excuse not to be competitive within the Ancient Eight.
Dartmouth students do not lack spirit they routinely show incredible enthusiasm for the College as an institution in a number of ways. When the athletic department makes no effort to court students, however, their enthusiasm remains detached from athletic programs. This creates a vicious cycle in which low attendance saps the energy from our teams and fans, which makes attending games even less entertaining for those who remain. Much of the joy in attending sporting events comes from the camaraderie of cheering for a common cause, which is absent in an empty stadium.
This lack of energy at games also makes Dartmouth a less attractive destination for Ivy League recruits. Athletes, by and large, prefer environments where their talents are celebrated and cheered, and the lack of a fan culture can be draining and off-putting.
Sheehy must focus on breaking this feedback loop by better marketing our sports teams. Simply holding pep rallies on the Green could raise the profile of Dartmouth athletics, excite the community and spread information about the times and locations of games.
An uptick in fan interest and event attendance would boast immediate benefits across the board. Increased attendance would also generate more revenue, making the program more self-sustaining. Many athletic programs are also partially sustained by alumni donations, and creating a fan culture at the College would assure that the legacy of generosity will continue long into the future.
Dartmouth athletics have fallen into a rut. Sheehy needs to create a culture in which attending athletic games is not unusual, because only then will the cycle finally be broken and the Big Green can be restored to its historic prominence in the Ivy League.
