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What Has Happened to Our Fanbase?

+19 HS
RocknRollover's picture
March 24, 2022 at 7:38pm
272 Comments

This is something that has been irking me for a number of years now and I was wondering if others shared the same sentiment.  

It seems like our fanbase, in both football and especially basketball, has been noticeably absent/quiet during most games lately.  
 

My freshman year at OSU was the year Tressel won the national championship.  When thinking back to those years in school, the fans in almost every single football game seemed to be rocking.  Specific examples include ‘02 Penn State, ‘02 Michigan, ‘05 Texas, ‘06 Michigan, ‘09 USC, I’m sure there are many more too. During all of these games, the fans were very passionate, loud, and into the games.  Needless to say, the ‘Shoe was known to be an extremely intimidating place to play.

Fast-forward to today and you’d be hard-pressed to recall a recent game where the fan noise compared to any of those games mentioned above. One very recent example was the Oregon game, which I attended.  During this game, the fans were barely making any noise, until the end, which at that point it was too late.

Additionally, I think this also caries over into basketball.  I often see many on here complain about the Schott not being an intimidating place to play.  However, I was fortunate to get season tickets during the Oden/Conley year, and I remember the place being sold out and crazy loud for almost all of the home games that year.  But again, fast-forward to today, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a game where 3/4 of the seats are occupied.

I’m concerned that the lack of energy and disinterest from our fanbase is becoming an issue and pushing some recruits away. Why is this trend happening at a university which has one of the largest alumni populations and values sports more than most schools?

It may be the fact that we have been so spoiled over the last couple of decades and expectations have become exceedingly high, but it just seems weird to see such a steep downtrend in stadium/arena atmosphere.  

Is it possible that our fanbase will ever return to it’s glory years?  I wish I could say yes.  But considering the recent downtrends, I have my doubts that we see improvement anytime soon.
 

 

 

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