By Lee Richardson
Editor-In-Chief
Finally, there’s some sports news going on that doesn’t involve the basketball or hockey teams. The university has recently got itself a varsity baseball team.
It’s surprising that it took this long to get one. In terms of undergrad student population, we’re one of the biggest universities in Ontario.
With the team confirmed we’re now on par with smaller universities
– like Brock, Laurier and Waterloo
– that have baseball teams.
Still, disregarding how long it took, we have a varsity team that’s part of Ontario University Athletics.
All well and good.
Except one thing. The people who worked through the process of creating the team had to prove to the university that it would be financially self-sufficient. In other words, Ryerson let the organizers know up front that it wouldn’t be interested in handing over any funding.
Not too hard to judge, as any new team is a financial risk. Though let’s remember that the teams now drawing crowds, the hockey and basketball teams, were both financial risks in their beginnings.
It’s pretty obvious that the university is putting a big chunk of its resources into the teams playing in what’s quickly turning into the PR epicentre of the campus – the MAC. Because of that building, sports has become more noticeable over the last semester. Now, there’s an opportunity to push the fact that varsity sports are getting noticed.
But the new team could struggle.
They need, and should have, a backing from the university.
Ryerson has been pushing sports in the MAC for months now, but not every sport can be played there.
It’s time for the university to give a hand to the other, smaller teams that people would be interested in if they only knew they existed.
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