Boston College Football’s Spring Game Attendance A Little Low

In this early part of 2012, the online media has caught onto the fact that Boston College football is a program in decline. Many of them do not seem to think much of our coach, and they certainly think the Eagles are in a position where they must have a solid season or else heads will roll (which may or may not actually be the case, given the program’s leadership).

Big Lead Sports threw even more cold water on BC football, poking fun at the Eagles’ extremely low spring football game attendance several weeks ago:

"Dead last [in attendance]? Boston College, which drew 200 fans. Let’s see … how are you going to spend a lovely Saturday in Boston? Watching the dreadful Eagles toss the pigskin around? I’m going to guess no."

That day wasn’t a lovely Saturday in Boston, but the word “dreadful” sums up a lot of things about this team, especially coming off of an eight-loss 2011 season where we’ve now lost our best player and the star running back is probably toast. I have never seen spring games fill up Alumni Stadium, but in my senior year, there had to have been several thousand people in attendance. Of course, the Eagles were also coming off of their best season since 1984, so why wouldn’t people go?

Times have changed, however, and fan apathy is at its highest levels since I began following the team in my freshman year of 2004. We became used to a certain level of consistency in the program, and it no longer exists. Now, we’re riding into the 2012 season with more questions than answers, and fan frustration is building. When people start to fear that the best-case scenario might be lucking into six wins and getting a fourth-tier bowl game, you know there are issues.

Despite the fact that Soaring to Glory will launch a massive football preview series prior to the start of the 2012 season, there is only so much lipstick we all can put on this pig. You can blame the weather on March 31, the lack of a Family Fun Day, the marketing, the field turf, the government, whatever — there are so many things about this program that need to be better. It needs better leadership, it needs to be more fan-friendly, and frankly, it needs to be competitive again. The non-existent spring game attendance is a mere symptom of the greater problem.

It would be intellectually dishonest of me — and probably incorrect — to say that fan apathy surrounding the program is at an all-time high, since I have not been around the program for the entirety of its existence, but it is noticeable. Drawing just 200 folks to our spring football game, coming in dead last in the nation, is simply embarrassing in any weather. Furthermore, to the “new” media like Big Lead and others, we’re a national joke and there’s nothing we can do about it.