Every basketball season, Duke fans spend countless hours waiting in line to see the team play in Cameron Indoor Stadium, often enduring cold temperatures, rain and even snow. But when it comes to Duke’s non-revenue sports, most Blue Devil supporters are fair-weather fans in every sense of the word.
Although most Duke teams are competitive with other schools, the majority of fans only flock to events when the team is playing against a rival, the weather is tolerable, the date and time of the event are accommodating or the team is doing particularly well.
Highly-ranked Blue Devil programs like men’s and women’s lacrosse, field hockey, men’s and women’s tennis and women’s soccer have yet to see a larger crowd at home than the one that was present during the men’s soccer game against North Carolina in Koskinen Stadium Oct. 3—a contest that boasted all of the prime fan conditions.
“It was on a Sunday evening after a beautiful day,” head coach John Rennie said of the game. “The team was doing extremely well and that’s always a factor for any sport. You play that game on a Wednesday afternoon at 3:00 and you’ll have a different group of people watching.”
Duke’s sports promotions department has attempted to increase fan attendance and interest in non-revenue sports but has been unsuccessful in generating the ideal Blue Devil fan community.
“Overall we do pretty well in getting students, fans, people on campus to the games,” said Bart Smith, director of sports promotions. “But I don’t think we’re satisfied with that.”
Efforts have included a promotion day co-sponsored by adidas during soccer season and T-shirt giveaways at men’s and women’s tennis matches. When the women’s lacrosse team plays Virginia Tech April 22 at Koskinen Stadium, the Athletic Department will host an event during which each player invites a favorite professor or University staff member to the game to be honored in front of the crowd.
Still, limited financial resources restrict the department from promoting non-revenue sports with the pre-game events often held for the basketball and football programs.
“You have to be a little bit more creative with the Olympic sports,” Smith said. “It has to be more grass-roots oriented.”
In addition to the efforts of Smith and his staff, The Inferno, the official student club for Duke Athletics, was formed earlier this year with the goal of increasing student spirit for all Blue Devil teams, not just basketball.
Perhaps because of fan organization brought about by The Inferno and the Athletic Department, attendance figures at non-revenue sporting events are on the rise for several sports—but are still not on the level with those of other schools, coaches have said.
“When we played Maryland in February there was a huge crowd,” women’s lacrosse head coach Kerstin Kimel said. “People up there are huge lacrosse fans. We’re starting to get more of that down here and more of a following.”
The field hockey team, the 2004 NCAA runner-up, may also see an increase in its fan following next year when the new Bell Tower Dormitory across from Williams Field on East Campus begins to house students.
“You can look out the window and see the game,” head coach Beth Bozman said. “It can’t hurt. Some people have never seen a field hockey game. Now they will.”
As more fans begin to take advantage of opportunities to support Duke’s non-revenue teams, the promotions department hopes to continue to encourage attendance at their events and improve upon this year’s numbers.
“I’ve been very pleased with all the different pockets of fans coming out for our sports,” Smith said. “We have a lot of different Division I sports, and there’s always a different mix of sports going on. We have a lot of fans, both Duke fans and sports fans in general. There’s a lot to come out for.”
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