As both the men’s and women’s teams continue to establish themselves in Division I basketball, more and more people are drawn to games to support them.
Support and attendance are continuing to grow, and more and more games are expected to be moved to the Tsongas Center to accommodate the numbers. However, until that point, UMass Lowell’s athletics department is working hard to promote both teams, especially the women’s team, and draw in more people to games and other events.
As of right now, five men’s games and six women’s games will be hosted at the Tsongas Center this season, and the hope is that with this upgrade and more space for fans, the numbers of students as well as local fans is expected to increase. The women’s basketball team almost always experiences less attendance than the men’s team for games, which is due to the atmosphere created at Costello as opposed to Tsongas.
For women’s basketball, the attendance for games is at about 200 to 300 fans when at Costello. “We look at attendance as a whole. We want to gear it towards everybody,” said Jonathan Boswell, assistant athletic director for marketing and promotions.
Costs for using the Tsongas Center over Costello vary greatly, but also create an entirely different atmosphere for the games. Costello has a lot less seating, but saves money because it does not require changing from ice to court.
“For Costello, if you get over 1,000 people, it becomes jam-packed,” says Boswell.
The Tsongas center can hold over 4,000 people, which can contribute to encouraging more people to attend basketball games. The Tsongas Center is more ideal for both because of the atmosphere it creates and the overall attendance always tends to be greater.
This is why more and more games are being hosted at the Tsongas Center, and it is expected that all men’s games will be hosted there for the 2017-18 season.
“The experience at the Tsongas versus the experience at Costello is just dramatically different,” says Boswell, “Everything we do in terms of gearing up attendance numbers is geared towards pushing those games that are at the Tsongas because when all the games are [at the Tsongas] that’s the experience we want [people] to remember.”
This will be the final transitional year into division one basketball for both teams and UMass Lowell’s athletics department is planning several promotional nights for the upcoming seasons. The women’s team has theme nights including themes such as Club Sports night to encourage club teams to promote school spirit, a Battle of the Bands night for bands to perform and compete, Girls Inc. Night where members of Girls Inc. get free admission, Play 4 Kay which is a night where fans are encouraged to wear pink to support breast cancer awareness and several other theme nights to help promote attendance.
In addition, the basketball teams now have a newly renovated locker room at the Tsongas Center to add to the experience both on and off the court. The locker rooms prior to the renovation were no better than those for the visiting teams. They now are nearly identical to those for the hockey team, with updated lounge areas, lighting, carpeting, and more.
In terms of future seasons and establishment of the teams in Division I, Boswell says, “Our goals are to continue to show growth and continue to build a program that people are excited about and people connect with. There’s been a lot of departments and people on campus that are really tapping in to support both women’s and men’s basketball and some of the other different teams.”
