Where’s the crowd? A closer look at Warwick’s struggling sidelines

It’s a cold Wednesday afternoon and another match has kicked off on the University of Warwick’s campus. Look around the pitch and you will spot a handful of loyal students in club hoodies scattered along the sidelines cheering on their teammates – but that’s all, that’s the crowd.

There are not students watching on because of the atmosphere, like they do at Loughborough, or people popping by to cheer on their peers because they take pride in supporting their university, as they do in Exeter.

Rather, at Warwick, most students do not think to attend a university fixture unless they know someone playing in it or, are members of the club that is competing.

Part of the problem is a lack of awareness: students at Exeter and Loughborough told The Boar that they are aware of when their universities’ clubs are playing and where fixtures are being held, Warwick students did not say the same.

I don’t know when the fixtures are, I don’t know what leagues people compete in, I don’t know where I would even go to watch a match on a Wednesday afternoon

60% of Warwick students are unaware of BUCS and non-BUCS fixtures that the University are playing in, according to a poll by The Boar.

“I don’t know when the fixtures are, I don’t know what leagues people compete in, I don’t know where I would even go to watch a match on a Wednesday afternoon,” said an executive committee member of a Warwick Sport club

In an effort to grant students this knowledge and get them down to matches, the University launched an advertising campaign which promoted BUCS fixtures last year.

‘One Warwick’ highlighted a BUCS fixture each week through posters and social media graphics, drawing “just over 400 people” to sports fixtures across two terms.

Upon arrival, these attendees were given a slice of free Domino’s pizza – something which was advertised on posters – and encouraged to cheer on their peers.

60% of poll respondents said that they no longer know where or when matches are and that they would be more likely to attend these events if free stuff was available

Despite Marcus Henson, Warwick’s BUCS Sports Coordinator, describing this campaign as “very good”, it has not been run this year “as the funding is being distributed into alternative projects”.

Some may argue that the campaign has done its job, it made people aware of sport at the University and so now the money used for it should be redirected elsewhere – however, a poll by The Boar suggests that this is not the case.

60% of poll respondents said that they no longer know where or when matches are and that they would be more likely to attend these events if free stuff, like the pizza offered under the ‘One Warwick’ campaign, was available.

Snacks, banners, and foam fingers evidently get Warwick students to sports matches and bring support to those competing, making the decision to not run the campaign this academic year confusing.

Although, while more than 400 attendees at ‘One Warwick’ fixtures is impressive, more than a quarter of this total solely attended the final ‘One Warwick’ fixture, a rugby match against Loughborough which Warwick had to win to avoid relegation.

At Loughborough, a university known for its sporting prowess, students regularly attend multiple fixtures a week as fans.

This information was relayed to The Boar by Loughborough students who described the sports culture at their university as ‘amazing’ and a ‘big part of university life’.

The evidence points towards an obvious solution, to keep posting and promoting individual fixtures and, where possible, offer spectators an incentive to attend

Warwick students told The Boar an entirely different story; all but two of our poll’s respondents have not attended one university sports fixtures this academic year as fans despite many playing for university teams and following professional sport like the Loughborough students do.

This stark contrast highlights the difference in sporting culture between the two Midlands universities.

Hours away from these two institutions is the University of Exeter, another university where sport is placed at the forefront.

One Exeter student told The Boar that she has attended at least eight university fixtures so far this year with the social atmosphere being a factor in why she went along to see the action.

Aiming to create a buzzing social atmosphere and give students a day out, Warwick Sport launched ‘TOUCHDOWN!’, an American football match where Warwick face Nottingham Trent at Butts Park Arena in Coventry.

The day was described as “amazing” by the Student’s Union Vice President for Sport, Louis Gosling, who told The Boar that he is “hoping to stage some rugby” at the arena later this year following on from the event’s success.

Last year 317 tickets to ‘TOUCHDOWN!’ were sold with over 400 being bought this year.

One reason for this year’s ticket rise could be Warwick’s American Football Club’s initiative to give £100 to the Warwick club that gets the most spectators in the stands.

Henson described this as “tapping into the competitive nature of sports” and motivating students to support their peers.

On the day spectators have not only been able to watch quality American football but also enjoy performances from the Warwick Devils (the University’s cheerleading club).

Despite the increase in sales from last year, the “Warwick Devils’ attempts to start chants for the Warwick lads often amounted to nothing, with a rather passive crowd spectating the event,” one attendee told The Boar.

“There were also many empty seats in the arena”, they added.

Butts Park arena has a capacity of 5,250 with its main stand, which is open during ‘TOUCHDOWN!’, seating around 3,000.

Therefore, even with advertising and cash prizes up for grabs, Warwick students did not fill the seats for this event.

That being said, ‘TOUCHDOWN!’’s marketing campaign did attract a crowd which was hundreds larger than the size of the ones at Warwick’s regular sports fixtures.

This fact, alongside the spectators that ‘One Warwick’ attracted, highlight that the social media graphics, and bribes work.

The evidence points towards an obvious solution, to keep posting and promoting individual fixtures and, where possible, offer spectators an incentive to attend.

This solution, however, is not one that Team Warwick is taking.

If Warwick wants to build a sporting culture that reaches beyond players and club executive committees, consistent promotion and investment in spectators is vital

As Henson told The Boar, funds used for ‘One Warwick’ are being redirected into other initiatives, “such as Post-Graduate Opportunities and Student Disability Funding”.

Gosling told The Boar of the planned investment in a rebrand which he believes will align the brand and “have a positive effect”. This decision to rebrand Team Warwick did, however, play no role in the decision to cut ‘One Warwick’.

Gosling says that after this rebrand attention will turn to “match engagement” which “is a massive point in future phases of the strategy”.

One active member of the University sport scene has questioned the priorities of the University, “maybe they should think about how to attract more fans, advertising more fixtures on social media would be a good start”.

While Warwick may never replicate the sporting identity of Loughborough or Exeter, the past two years have shown that its students are not indifferent to university sport – in fact if they’re told where to go, when to turn up, and why it’s worth their time, they will be there.

Campaigns like ‘One Warwick’ and events like ‘TOUCHDOWN!’ did just that and in doing so created environments where fixtures felt like something to be a part of, not events that happen out of sight.

Yet these very initiatives that sparked this shift are seemingly now being scaled back, a move which some fear may reverse all progress.

The Boar’s poll shows that if Warwick wants to build a sporting culture that reaches beyond players and club executive committees, consistent promotion and investment in spectators is vital.

Without this matchdays may continue to look the same way that they did on that aforementioned Wednesday afternoon, where empty sidelines stole the show and left a lingering question in the cold air: where’s the crowd?

Warwick Sport, the University, and Team Warwick have been contacted for comment.