TL20070927-01 "www.thetowerlight.com Published by and for the students of Towson and Baltimore -- twice-weekly Thursday Tiger pride on the rise Attendance for athletic events grows 52 percent since 2004; football draws record numbers Students, administrators and Aramark discuss going green News, page 7 Senior Robert Selman directs �All in the Timing� Arts, page 16 Patrick Smith/The Towerlight Last Saturday�s football game against Delaware drew 10,668 spectators to Johnny Unitas Stadium. Athletic events have seen a 52 percent growth in student attendance since 2004. Now on TheTowerlight.com: View video of last weekend�s tailgate before the Tigers took on Delaware... Kiel McLaughlin Sports Editor Prior to the scheduled 4 p.m. start time for tailgating Saturday, cars lined the roads leading up to Johnny Unitas Stadium. From both ends of Osler Drive, fans of Towson and Delaware flooded Auburn Drive in anticipation of the night�s rivalry game. Three hours of tailgating later, fans emptied the parking lots into Unitas Stadium, filling the stands to a capacity unseen at any previous Tiger sporting event. The North side of the stadium was crammed tight, and the majority of the South side was filled with members of local high school marching bands, Delaware faithful and students who overflowed the assigned student section. The crowd totaled 10,668, a Unitas Stadium record. Approximately 2,900 were Towson students. Saturday�s record crowd is only the latest in a series of improve-ments made by the athletic depart-ment, which has seen student seat-ing increase 52 percent since 2004, according to Towson President Robert Caret�s fall address. �Athletics in many ways is a com-mon denominator,� Caret said in an e-mail. �Teams belong to the entire University, even if you don�t happen to be a fan of a particular sport. So the Towson Tigers bring us together as a community to focus on one event, and we can be exuberant and have fun. It�s not the only thing that happens on a campus that compels people to be unified, but it is one where a sense of healthy competition and University pride emerge.� Caret attributes the increased sup-port to several factors, including mar-keting efforts by the division of stu-dent affairs and the athletic depart-ment, as well as higher enrollment numbers. �As the growth institution, we have admitted a greater number of stu-dents in the past two years, which enhances the odds that more will be in the stands,� Caret said. While overall fan support, includ-ing non-students from the commu-nity remains important, the athletic department holds firm that stu-dents are their most cher-ished constituency. �Students support our teams through student fees, so we want to make sure they have a great experi-ence here while they are students,� athletic director Mike Hermann said. �Our fans, those in the community, love to see a large and involved stu-dent crowd at the game, so that adds to the experience. Also, engaged stu-dent fans are more likely to come back and support the team as alumni.� Last season the football program averaged 1,444 students per game. In this year�s season opener against Central Connecticut State, approxi-mately 3,400 of the 7,276 in atten-dance were students. Hermann said the department�s goal is to exceed 7,000 total fans per game while reserving 3,241 seats for students. �I�ve been pleased with the student attendance since I�ve been here,� he said. �That being said, we have open seats available.� The greatest turnouts the depart-ment has seen in the last three years have come when added incentive was available for students. The most high-ly attended men�s basketball game each season is the final home game, no matter who the Tigers are playing, ht See RISE, page 22 Sept. 27, 2007 The Towerlig "
