Thursday night lights out
Thursday night’s football game against Bowling Green was supposed to help CMU gain national recognition.
But ESPNU cameras didn’t capture a raucous student section or an eager crowd cheering on a team undefeated in the Mid-American Conference.
Only 11,262 showed up at Kelly/Shorts Stadium on Thursday night to watch the Chippewas easily win against the Falcons.
At least, that was the total at the start of the game.
By the time the game was out of reach, less than half of that crowd was left.
Probably fewer than 5,000 fans saw Central do something it only has done three times since it joined the MAC in 1975 — start with a 5-0 conference record.
That is too bad.
Sure the weather might have played a factor, but games on weeknights are a bad idea for a number of reasons.
First of all, weeknights are school nights. Even though Central has the reputation of being a party school, there still are a lot of students who can’t afford to cut class.
As for the students who do like to party, they do exactly that — party.
Why it matters
Thursday night football games don’t help CMU gain national respect
Unfortunately, some can’t even make it through the first quarter.
Yes, this is a problem for all games, not just night games, but compound that with a Thursday night game, when a lot of students can’t be in the tailgate lot to begin with, and those bleachers aren’t going to fill very fast.
But the biggest problem with Thursday nights is they also are work nights, which takes away a large portion of alumni who can only make it to Mount Pleasant on Saturday.
And ESPNU cameras can bet the crowd will be large on Nov. 10 when CMU hosts rival Western Michigan. Why? Because it’s a Friday night, giving students little excuse to miss out on possibly beating Western and sealing a MAC Championship game berth in the process.
Still, Kelly/Shorts probably won’t sell out because the trip will be too tough to make for some alumni.
CMU should limit night games strictly to BCS opponents and the every other year tilt against the Broncos. Those are the only games that will draw fans.
Because if weeknight games happen more often, missing out on a large alumni crowd might not just mean empty stands.
It might mean empty pockets for the athletics department as well.
