<p>Hey, I'm a student at Clemson and I'm looking into ways to get our student body more involved and enthusiastic about soccer.</p>
<p>I was looking at the NCAA attendance and couldn't notice your amazing numbers for soccer games. Is there a secret to getting all those people there? How do you manage to get all those people (I'm assuming a good bit are students) in the stands? Is there any reason other than the fact that they win? haha</p>
<p>Thanks in advance for any responses!
-Pierre</p>
<p>I was a student from 2005-2008 (including the 2006 championship!), which was the period when soccer really gained prominence on campus. Here’s the secret:</p>
<p>UCSB doesn’t sponsor football, so soccer is the fall sport. Since Tim Vom Steeg took over the team and aggressively recruited (including internationally), UCSB has been putting out a great product, and in fairweather California, it’s easier to get fans that way. UCSB was runner up in 2004 and won in 2006 so that increased awareness of the program.</p>
<p>UCSB is also a very residential college and most students are in town on the weekends… marquee games have been scheduled Friday and Saturday nights, so students have kind of adopted soccer games as the starting point for going out on the weekends. UCSB really markets the games heavily (including to newly moved in freshman), and the spirit group holds marches from the student town to the stadium.</p>
<p>There’s also a few demographic factors that help: youth soccer is big in the area (a high school tournament matchup this year had 8,000 attending), and the school has a higher proportion of Hispanic students than most of the other UC schools, who perhaps tend to have a greater interest in soccer than other groups.</p>
<p>At schools like Clemson, it’s always hard to have soccer compete against football. Clemson was #10 in average attendance last year so that certainly pretty good among college soccer. You should stop by the Gaucho Locos forum or the College forum on BigSoccer if you want some more college soccer discussion!</p>
<p>Probably because soccer is more prominent in California than in South Carolina. Also because Clemson has a football team with a strong and long tradition and plays in an FBS conference such as the ACC. Also the rivalry with Cal Poly San Luis Obispo helps draw interest.</p>