There are no more excuses.
For UTA students who are dying to have a true college sports experience, the university, program, players and coaches have done everything they could.
Now it is up to the students to care about UTA basketball.
On Wednesday night, the much-hyped College Park Center opens with a doubleheader of men’s and women’s basketball games against UT-San Antonio. If that event wasn’t enough, the UTA men are doing something no other team in school history has done before.
They are now on an 11-game winning streak. The team is also a perfect 7-0 in Southland Conference play, another first for the school. At 15-5, this year’s team has a chance to be the best in school history.
But none of that means anything if no one is there to watch basketball games. On a good night, Texas Hall would have about 1,000 people watching a men’s basketball game. The College Park Center can seat almost 7,000 spectators. Students should absolutely take advantage of the new seating options and watch basketball in what men’s head coach Scott Cross has called “the best arena of its size in the country.”
The first game is already an expected sell out, but attendance shouldn’t end there. The men have four upcoming games in College Park Center and the women will play five games in the arena during the remainder of this season. Creating a strong sports fanbase doesn’t just happen overnight. It will take a student body packing this building for months, and eventually years, to come.
Think of some of the bigger schools in the country that have the prototypical “college feel” — UT-Austin, Texas A&M and Texas Christian University. And those are just the schools in the state. Oklahoma, Florida, Duke and North Carolina are all regarded as top schools with college feels and college towns. All of these schools have something in common: good sports fanbases.
Even smaller schools still have that atmosphere thanks to their sports programs. Both Gonzaga and Butler universities don’t have nearly the same amount of resources – or students – as UTA, but they still regularly pack their gyms.
And besides, we’ve already paid for College Park Center. UTA students have had a $2 per semester credit hour fee since a funding referendum was passed in 2005. You wouldn’t buy a movie ticket and skip out on the movie, so there’s no point in wasting an arena that was built sepcifically with the students and campus in mind.
UTA has the chance to have that college atmosphere now that there is the College Park Center. So be a part of history and go to games. There really isn’t a reason not to anymore.
