After noticing the lack of excitement surrounding Billiken athletics this season, we – the UNews editorial board – began asking, which comes first: poor athletic performance or poor fan attendance?

First, let’s talk about men’s basketball. At 9-8, losing to teams like Rhode Island and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, it’s safe to say we are not as talented or successful as teams from the previous three years. This conference schedule will not result in a record winning streak like last year. We think it’s perfectly fine to say that this team is having a mediocre year.

Women’s basketball is having an almost equally mediocre year at 8-8, but they have improved each year of coach Lisa Stone’s three-year tenure at SLU. Suffice to say, the women’s basketball program is looking up, and people need to pay attention.

Women’s volleyball had a very solid year, finishing 21-10 and beating Mizzou in Columbia.

What we mean to say is that some of our teams are doing well, some are improving and some are having down years, but all of these teams share poor student attendance and a generally lackluster Billiken spirit.

We recognize that attendance for men’s basketball was very good at the start of the season, no doubt aided by the athletic department’s promotions for free T-shirts or pizza. However, once Winter Break fell upon the University, attendance, especially among students, significantly declined.

We expect attendance to increase for the conference schedule, especially when we play teams like VCU or Dayton, but we seriously doubt people will need to figuratively camp out at the BSC or at Chaifetz for tickets. It’s important to note that many of the men’s basketball team’s stars graduated, but for a program in the top 25 for three straight years, I’m sure many of us were hoping for a reloading period rather than a rebuilding one.

Of course, having any fans at all would be a luxury for women’s basketball and volleyball. When SLU volleyball played against Nebraska in 2013 (frequently a top program), there were less than 30 people in the student section. Student attendance is just as paltry for women’s basketball, despite the team’s improvement over the past three years.

So how do we get student spirit back for men’s basketball and started for these other programs? The first aspect is a greater focus on catering to SLU students. The University of Kansas holds “midnight madness” for their first practice of the season, which students may attend. While SLU has their own event to start their season, it mainly caters to families with balloons and face painting. It’s important that the athletic department places a premium on creating student attention and hype at the start of the season, which could include exclusive access to a scrimmage for students.

At the end, we discussed the viability of SLU student support for athletics and none of us knew how that could be achieved. Very few, if any, of us came here for the sports culture, and while the enhanced school spirit was fun for many of us, many of us weren’t heartbroken when the success was gone. Getting students invested in SLU athletic culture from their introduction to this university could create a larger and more stable student presence in all SLU sports.