Over the past two years, Binghamton volleyball home games have felt desolate; crowds have been small and lacked energy. During the 2013 season, average home attendance was just above 177 spectators per game. In 2014, that number rose to 201. But Friday’s game against Albany — the team’s 2015 home opener — was completely different. The Bearcats drew a record crowd of 577 attendees to their game, shattering the previous record mark of 383.
“I was used to big crowds in high school, but that was definitely a larger crowd then I’d ever been in front of before,” BU freshman outside hitter Erin Shultz said about her home debut as a Bearcat. “There was a lot of adrenaline. Everyone had a lot of energy.”
The record attendance was the result of a collaborative effort between the BU athletic department and the BU Zoo.
The BU Zoo, the student-run cheering section of Binghamton athletics, founded in the 2012-2013 school year, promoted the match as a part of its “Pack the House” campaign, in hopes of breaking volleyball’s old attendance record set in October 2014.
“We sort of saw this Albany game as a golden opportunity to pack the house,” said Ben Sachs, the current president of the BU Zoo and a senior majoring in accounting. “We wanted to show that we have wide support for all of our teams and all of our student athletes … It was just the perfect conditions to make things happen.”
According to Erika Merkel, the current BU Zoo vice president and a senior majoring in anthropology, the idea to pack the house and the execution of the plan came together in a very short period of time.
“We actually really did it in 24 hours,” Merkel said. “[We did] a crazy amount of social media [promotion], talking to people, networking, just getting people to come … I think it shows how much influence that we’re having [and] that 24 hours of marketing really did help us shatter a record.”
The BU Zoo combined its event with the Binghamton athletic department’s Code Green initiative. Code Green is an effort to unite the BU athletic teams and is something the BU Zoo is working closely with, according to Sachs.
“One of the things that the BU Zoo has been focusing on this year is revolving around that Code Green initiative,” he said. “Code Green is essentially the 21 [BU varsity] sports, one team mentality, where there is that game that each team has that [all other varsity athletes] will attend … [Pack the House] worked perfectly that it was going with the Code Green game.”
Along with those who were in attendance to Pack the House with the BU Zoo, members of the Binghamton men’s and women’s basketball teams, men’s and women’s soccer teams, as well as the men’s and women’s track and field program were in the stands supporting their fellow athletes.
The noise in the gym was deafening at times, with the crowd screaming and supporting the Bearcat players as the team built a two-set lead early in the contest. This was a stark change from previous seasons, when at most points there was very little fan involvement.
“It was awesome,” BU senior right-side hitter Megan Burgess said of the experience. “I think that [during] the first two sets, we really used the crowd’s energy, and that brought up our play … I think it really, really helped our play and our energy.”
Although BU dropped the match, the record turnout was appreciated by the Bearcats.
“It’s nice to see the support that we have amongst all the athletes and the school and the community,” BU head coach Glenn Kiriyama said following the game.
“The more people the better,” Burgess added. “It’s louder, there’s more energy. Everything about it is definitely great.”