The Convo has 13,080 seats in its massive body.
I've been attending Ohio University for three years and have yet to see all of them filled for a basketball game.
Okay, I know we didn't have a great team my freshman year when the Bobcats went 10-20. Then last year no one knew just how talented the team was even though the Miami game drew a crowd 58 people shy of 9,000. But this year's attendance has been nothing to talk about.
Well, I am talking about it, but only because the first two home games the Bobcats have played with the students back on campus barely filled a third of The Convo.
When Ohio decimated Western Michigan 87-55, the Bobcats mustered around 4,405 fans on the MAC Championship banner rising night, then only 4,196 last Sunday against Ball State.
Now, I don't know how to put this (well, actually I do, it's just really tough for sarcasm to be effective in print form), but Ohio has a pretty good basketball team. Why can't this team draw enough fans to pack The Convo?
Well, it isn't the team's fault. I blame society, mainly the student body of Ohio University. A state institution with over 28,000 active students on its campus should be able to fill more seats with the addition of local fans, parents and alumni.
I'm not trying to badmouth my fellow peers, but come on. You can't tell me that you were too hung-over last Sunday to stumble over to The Convo to watch your school's up-and-coming basketball program. Was everyone too busy boarding the Who-Dey bandwagon? I could have told you the Steelers were going to roll over the Bengals weeks before the game was announced (quite a feat if you ask me).
What about last Wednesday? Parties don't really kick into high gear until at least midnight on Wednesday. Where was everyone? It was the first week of school, so no one has the excuse of being too busy studying (like anyone at this school does anyway).
While the O-zone has been in full-force these last two games and the players always give props to a solid student section performance (just ask Johnnie Jackson), where are all the people who have joined The Facebook's groups including the words OU MAC Champs? I'm sure they are all too busy enjoying their shower parties, secretly loving to knit and Mucking Fiami.
While most of you will just laugh me off and call me words I can't have run in a newspaper, I am going to make it crystal clear that I am calling out every popped-collar frat boy to socially petrified introvert to start coming to these games.
All I hear from people that aren't busy filling their mouth's with alcohol is there's nothing to do in Athens. Guess what? Now there is and always has been. Get to The Convo, support your school and find out what at least 4,405 people already know.
- Nick Miller is a junior journalism major who only wants to see The Convo completely filled at least once in his four years of schooling. E-mail him at nm202803@ohiou.edu
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Nick Miller
