<p>How many fans are there usually for say a volleyball match? What's uchicagos most popular varsity sport/what's the sport (m or f) that gets most fans?</p>
<p>U of Chicago is a Division III school. At most D III schools there are very, very few people watching regular games. Maybe some come if it is homecoming weekend, parent weekend, or if a team makes the playoffs. Don’t go to U of C because you want a rah-rah sports school, you won’t find it there.</p>
<p>With sports like volleyball, it’s probably mainly friends of people on the team. It’s a women’s sport only at Chicago, as an official varsity team (I’m sure there’s a men’s club team), and even at colleges with a great sports culture women’s sports usually attract much smaller crowds. I had a relative on a top-10 Division 1 women’s volleyball team, at a college with a great volleyball tradition, and getting a good seat at regular season games was never much of an issue.</p>
<p>Chicago does not have a super-great sports culture, but there is definitely a sizable portion of the student body that wishes there were more sports culture. I think a fair number of people do come out to support the football team and the basketball teams (men and women’s). There is an official costumed mascot who shows up at a lot of games, if not all of them.</p>
<p>To put JHS’ analysis another way, sports at UChicago are meant to benefit the athlete, not necessarily the spectator. This being said, as with many other parts of campus life at UChicago, the culture is changing. UChicago’s new AD (from Princeton) is quite forthright in her efforts to make sports more of a centerpiece on campus (note, I didn’t say “THE” centerpiece, just more of a focus point), and there has been talk about adding a varsity sport or two. </p>
<p>Further, this past year, UChicago finished 16th in a ranking of D3 sports programs, much higher than usual, and the AD has targeted high finishes as a priority. A few sports in particular are flourishing, and they include men’s and women’s tennis (with great, highly ranked recruiting classes coming in), women’s volleyball just hired a D1 coach, the women’s soccer team (traditionally strong) hired an ass’t coach with US Nat’l team experience, and the men’s basketball team have a couple D1 prospects on the team. </p>
<p>For attendance figures, just look at game box scores, all available here: athletics.uchicago.edu. Most sports games only average a few hundred fans, but a big basketball game can draw around 1500. </p>
<p>All this being said, no one will confuse UChicago for a D1 sports environment, or even for an Ivy League or Little Ivy sports environment. At the same time, sports seem to be rising in prominence at Chicago, and in the next 3-5 years, it’s possible the school could have a perennial top 10 D3 sports program in place. I’ve always been in favor of increasing the prominence of sports on campus (and would have no problem seeing UChicago field D1 teams in the non-cash cow sports, such as soccer, tennis, crew, etc.). This won’t happen any time soon, but there’s change in the air around Chicago’s sports culture. </p>
<p>Here’s an article summing up the 2013-14 athletic season for UChicago:</p>
<p><a href=“UChicago scholar-athletes make history with NCAA titles, record school ranking | University of Chicago News”>http://news.uchicago.edu/article/2014/07/09/uchicago-scholar-athletes-make-history-ncaa-titles-record-school-ranking</a></p>
<p>Notice they always call their athletes “scholar-athletes,” and this was the most successful season for UChicago sports in history. Success begets success, and I imagine the caliber of Chicago athlete is improving. </p>