Columnist comments on crowd at Gola Arena

By Andrew Neumann
Collegian Staff
January 31, 2007

Home sweet home? I don’t think so.

In covering La Salle men’s and women’s basketball for WEXP for the last three years, I have been to almost every home game and every away game within driving distance. I’ve seen lots of different arenas, crowds and atmospheres, and honestly, the Tom Gola Arena falls flat in all three categories.

In terms of arenas, La Salle faces some obstacles that are unavoidable in nature, but some that are not. Obviously, La Salle is a small school with a mostly regional following, so a small arena is fine to accommodate the fans. However, it’s the layout of the arena that I just can’t embrace. In 15 years of going to college basketball games, I have never seen an arena that does not have seating behind the basket.

Rose Hill Gymnasium, the oldest arena in the country, has its student section behind the basket. So does the Palestra. So does every other Division I school in Philadelphia. Even the schools I have seen games at near my home in New York have all had it. These programs play in lower ranked conferences than the Atlantic 10, and some are even Division II or III schools.

Seating is needed behind the basket. Most schools put their student section there for a reason: it’s low and close to the court, and students can try to distract the opposing team when they are shooting free throws. I will admit to not having extensive knowledge of the construction process of Tom Gola Arena, so I will give the school the benefit of the doubt that it would have been architecturally/financially impossible to put seats behind the basket. My goal is not to assign blame, just to illustrate the point that the layout makes it tough for the crowd to have as big an effect as it should.

The second issue I have with Tom Gola Arena is the size of the crowd itself. Against Fordham, there was a very sizable crowd. Fordham, located in the Bronx, brought enough fans to take up about 40 percent of the East Side of the stadium. La Salle fans practically filled the rest. However, this is much more often not the case. The student section, which should be full every night, is often at about half capacity. This is a basketball school. If you’re a student, you should be at most of the games. I know people are busy, but a lot of the games are on weekends, and every game is over in about two hours.

Some people don’t like basketball, and that’s fine, too, but if a student were to go with a group of friends, a good time can still be had without knowing a whole lot about the game (I know this is the case because I do it with hockey). On the other side of the arena, the alumni section is often too small, with the same regulars making up most of that side of the gym. Here, I can allow for a little more leeway because many alumni may not be living in the Philadelphia area any longer.

However, too often I hear the excuse that “if the team starts winning, fans will come” given as the reason alumni don’t come to the games. That excuse holds no water with me. True fans support their teams when they’re struggling. It’s easy to be a die-hard fan when a team wins all the time (I would know, I’m a Yankees fan). What makes a fan a true fan is supporting them when they’re losing (I would know, I’m a Knicks fan).

My final problem with the Tom Gola Arena is the atmosphere. A crowd can overcome a small turnout and an arena that’s not laid out all that well if the people that are there are loud. Unfortunately, this is very rarely the case at Tom Gola Arena. Even when there is a large crowd, most of the fans are not loud and, when they are, it is to chant generic things. Too often I get the feeling that the average La Salle fan isn’t knowledgeable about the game of basketball or the current team.

Fran Dunphy will be bringing Temple into our building Feb. 14. This is the same Fran Dunphy who spurned his alma mater in their darkest hour to stay at Penn for “the rest of my life” and then bolted to Temple for more money a few years later. I doubt the average La Salle fan will recognize this and give him the savage booing he would get if he did this to another school.

However, it is likely that even if they did recognize this, they would not be allowed to chant anything creative. The security would stop them from creating any kind of home-court advantage. Last week against Penn, two students were thrown out of the La Salle student section for using foul language. They were thrown out for using offensive language and reportedly for being intoxicated.

They were chanting something that, while somewhat offensive, is used in every arena in the country. The word was not one of the “seven dirty words,” but the students were tossed anyway. Meanwhile, against Fordham, several students from Fordham started a chant that was slightly more vulgar (it was one of the seven words), but no one got ejected.

Later, a La Salle student was challenged to a fight by a clearly intoxicated Fordham fan who looked to be about 60. The student notified security about the incident and was told, “We’ll keep an eye on him.” That same student was later challenged to a fight by the same man with no action taken by security. This to me is inexcusable. If a La Salle student chants something, he or she gets ejected, but if a Fordham fan does something far worse, he is ignored. Somehow the priorities seem out of order.

La Salle is 5-8 at home this year. Five of those losses have been decided by less than 10 points. Sure would have been nice if some of those teams missed a few free throws because they were rattled by the crowd.

neumanna1@lasalle.edu