Worst attendance award
Gee-Gees spirit lacking, but those who came remain faithful
10,523, 8,074, 7,565, and 7,022.
What is this group of descending numbers? Is it the number of pizza slices sold at Scotiabank Place during the Capital Hoops Classic? Is it the number of tweets accumulated throughout the games? No, it isn’t any of those things. In fact, it is the number of fans in the stands since 2009.
Every year the attendance record at Capital Hoops drops significantly; however, they usually drop in favour of the Carleton Ravens. This year, the fans seemed balanced, almost perfectly divided between Garnet and Red.
Regardless of the turnout, most of the students in the crowd were diehard fans, rooting for the Gees all the way through.
“Capital Hoops [hosts] our cross-town rivals the Carleton Ravens,” said Matt Scott, a second-year U of O health science student after the women’s basketball game. “We’ve got to see them lose, like we did with the women’s team.”
“You know what, it doesn’t matter who wins and who loses, they’ll never have the heart of a Gee-Gee.”
For Stephanie, a first-year student in the education program, the Capital Hoops Classic was one of the best Gee-Gees games she has attended in a while.
“I came to support the Gee-Gees. This is my first time at Capital Hoops, but it’s already 10 times the crowd that they usually bring in. This is great. People should always come here.”
While the physical attendance may have been low, social media exploded with excitement. Whether people were in class following the many blogs that reported live from the event, watching it on Streaming Sports Network, or checking Twitter for play-by-play updates from the court, people were engaged and interested in the Gees’ performance tonight.
The only disappointing aspect of the evening was the absence of the Gees mascot, who appeared every once in a while for a photo opportunity in the stands.
With our first win against the Carleton Ravens in five years, this was by far the most exciting game for Gee-Gees and Raven fans alike—let’s just hope that next year we see a few more of those fans in the stands.
—Katherine DeClerq
