If you wine them, they will come

By John Qubti

Ryerson students have their priorities and they don’t include school spirit.

Attendance at Ryerson sporting events is extremely low considering the school’s enrolment of 12,500, but that doesn’t seem to bother many students.

“I personally don’t care how the teams fare,” said first-year business management student John Wang.

It seems interest in university athletics hasn’t rubbed off from our neighbours in the United States where college sports get intense national media coverage and generate a great deal of revenue for the schools.

First-year business student Roland Morris thinks that the lack of coverage of Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union sports by the professional media makes it hard for anyone to get excited.

“When I watch CIAU sports on TV it looks so amateur compared to NCAA games,” said Morris.

Ryerson men’s basketball coach Terry Haggerty would like to see more students support the team.

“It certainly adds to the atmosphere and the team plays better as a result,” said Haggerty, whose men’s team was ranked seventh in the country at the beginning of this OUA season.

For many students, an active interest in school has taken a back seat to homework, part-time jobs and partying.

Fourth-year aerospace engineering student Josh Rowland would like to attend more games, but a tough schedule of homework and work made it difficult.

“I would like to go watch hockey games,” Rowland said. “But I just have no time.”

Even if students had the time, many still don’t even know when or where Ryerson sporting events take place.

First-year journalism student Claudia Uribe feels that the problem with the athletic departments at Ryerson is their lack of advertising for games.

“Why aren’t there any posters telling us when the games are? I don’t even know what kind of sports Ryerson has?” said a confused Uribe.

Other student need some kind of incentive to spend their free time rooting for the Rams.

First-year fashion student Blair Bugge thinks that a beer night post-game party would definitely attract more students out to the games.