Quote:
Originally Posted by JHikka
As much as I love USports the Panda Games are 95% students only going to yell shit at the other school. I ended up walking down Bank after the game and it was a sea of students from both schools. There's more interest in supporting your school/yelling at the other school than there is actual interest in football.
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There is a lot of that at every university football game I've attended. Many of these people have never attended a football game in their lives and don't know the rules. It was on full display when Ottawa kicked a game tying field goal to end the 4th quarter and their fans rushed the field thinking the game was over.
It may largely be bandwagon support but this is how one builds interest in U Sports, the sport of football, and the CFL. Many will attend next year, may start paying attention to other regular season games, and/or try the RedBlacks.
A football culture develops over generations and it's big events like the Panda Game that are important in spreading the sport. Now if only we could get 7-8 other hyped matchups each season and then grow from there. We may never have anything that approaches the level of support a Notre Dame or Ohio State garner but we could one day get to a point where 20,000 at a U sports football game was quite common.
A good place to start: York - Toronto, Regina - Saskatchewan, Calgary - Alberta, Laurier - Waterloo, and McGill - Montreal. If Dalhousie ever re-instated football a cross town game featuring SMU and Dal would be a natural. If SFU ended their NCAA experiment and returned to the fold a SFU - UBC annual classic would be another.