An empty feeling in SECU Arena

By: Jordan Cope, Senior Editor 

Walk into SECU Arena on game day for Towson Athletics, and the place is packed and fans are going absolutely wild! Oh, wait. Silly me, that’s the game day experience for the Baltimore Blast.

I had the opportunity of covering the first Blast game at SECU Arena, and the atmosphere was electric. The arena was at capacity, fans were interested in the game — and believe it or not — they were making NOISE. Yes, you read that correctly, noise.

Now, I’m going to be serious here. Walk into the $85 million SECU Arena on game day for Towson Athletics, and you can hear the sound of a pin dropping.

Towson Athletics’ supposedly “big, money-making sports” — men’s basketball and women’s basketball — are lucky if the stands are half full.

SECU Arena has a capacity of 5,200. Just keep that number in mind. In the 2016-17 men’s basketball season, the largest crowd was 3,431 people. In the 2016-17 women’s basketball season, the largest crowd was 1,357. Uh, yeah. Yikes.

Want to hear something even more horrifying? Please brace yourself. The smallest crowd in the 2016-17 men’s basketball season was 1,004. In the 2016-17 women’s basketball season, the smallest crowd was 167 people. Yes, you read that correctly. Just 167 people!

Now, don’t get me wrong. This isn’t just game day at SECU Arena. This is game day at Johnny Unitas Stadium for football. Of the 11,198 people that can fit into Johnny Unitas Stadium, the largest crowd of the season was 6,563. That is only 964 people more than half full.

I flash back to the Blast game on Nov. 17 inside of SECU Arena, and I picture a buzzing crowd. But at Towson University Athletic events, that is simply not the case.

The University and towsontigers.com can put on a facade that students and members of the community care about athletics, but the truth of the matter is they don’t.