Those of you who were in attendance at the UC Davis sporting events this Halloween weekend got to see UC Davis football in their dominating performance in a convincing win that put them on top of the Big Sky Conference.
And how about the baseball team taking down the Oakland Athletics in an exhibition match that preceded the iPhone 5 giveaways?
For those of you that know the Aggies football team actually got dispatched by Portland State by a score of 49-21, good for you. And you who don’t feel like you missed out on the baseball game and the iPhone giveaway, 10 points for Gryffindor.
Everyone else that is confused and guilty right now, that’s about as good of a Halloween trick as I can get in writing. Mischief at its finest.
Still though, even if football pulled out a victory against Portland State, it would have been a hollow win on Halloween weekend. Why?
The stadium was shamefully empty on the beautiful late October day — an attendance of 7,826 in a stadium that has a capacity of over 10,000. When this was scheduled as Parent and Family Weekend, I don’t think I’m making too big of a leap to assume that students were also supposed to attend the game.
The Aggie Pack section, roughly, amounted to a whole 200 students, less than my biochemistry class. Now, I have nothing wrong with biochem, but things do seem odd when my class about enzyme structures and biochemical reactions — I might add that it is also right in the middle of prime nap-time — fills up, while the football stadium had enough empty seats to house all the people that cried in Toy Story 3 (I’ll never admit to whether or not this number includes myself).
I walked by the Aggie Pack stand and was confused as to why they weren’t swiping ID cards to keep track of who gets a shirt and who doesn’t.
That mechanism is to prevent them from running out of shirts so everyone who shows up can get a reward, rather than just permitting people like me from hoarding.
Could this be because they don’t even have to worry about people returning multiple times because, judging by the attendance, there isn’t a shortage of shirts? That’s my theory — someone please correct me if I’m wrong.
I am one of the people who can be seen frequenting career fairs, etc. just to get all the free stuff they are handing out, but for some reason getting an Aggie Pack shirt then leaving without even making it into the stadium seems like it’s on a different scale.
Could it really hurt that much to stay for some of the game? If not for your enjoyment, then at least out of respect for the players, coaches and staff that put on the game to represent your school.
The football season attendance hovers around 40,000 over the season, which probably means around an average home attendance of 4,000 per game. Remember the capacity of Aggie Stadium? Whoops.
The whole experience of college at UC Davis is different from your typical university. The frameworks for athletics are unique. You can’t go through your college career being embarrassed by your school’s athletics program if you don’t know anything about it.
All in all, it was a pretty rough weekend for UC Davis. The Aggies sustained losses in women’s soccer, football and swimming and diving all at home before Sunday’s games.
There are things to look forward to in Aggie Athletics, but you have to be present to witness them. My suggestions would, of course, be the men’s soccer team for starters. See where that takes you.
UC Davis athletes are probably something like Lumiere, inviting you to their place to put their service to the test. You showed up and oopsie-daisy.
Just remember, we’re all in this together. And it is now that I realize that Troy Bolton and the East High Wildcats pull in bigger crowds than the UC Davis Aggies, and my suggestions turn to begs, to please not let this happen.
Your next chance will be men’s soccer against Cal Poly. It will be a battle, guaranteed. UC Davis is fighting for first place in the Big West Conference. Fill up the stands to prevent a hollow win on Halloween.
MATTHEW YUEN knows it’s midterm season. If you’re stressed, it’s fine dining we suggest. RSVP to Be Our Guest at sports@theaggie.org.
