It’s a shame no one cares about our uni’s sports teams, because they’re actually excellent

As a city, we go mad for sport. The Liverpool/Everton rivalry divides the city, and Aintree gets everyone’s blood pumping. By why are we all so apathetic when it comes to supporting our own university’s sports teams? The matches are free, we have some excellent sportsmen and women, so why does no one really care?

We all know they happen, we all have friends who play, or we even play ourselves. But you can probably count on one hand the number of BUCS matches you’ve been to this year, and would you have gone if it wasn’t for your one pushy friend? Let’s face it – no.

Varsity gets a lot of attention, and the rivalry between us and John Moores is thriving, but the competitive spirit is lost outside the Varsity teams themselves. Christie Cup was only the other week, but barely anyone who wasn’t involved in the games themselves knew it was going on.

In the US, they go mental with university sporting events, the standard attendance of games is in the thousands. Ann Arbor University of Michigan had an average of 112,252 fans at their games in 2012: well over two full Anfields. And it’s not just the Yanks who know what’s up. Closer to home, Welsh Varsity also has attendance reaching into the thousands. The men’s rugby last year had 13,835 fans donning red with excitement.

Liverpool painfully cowers with only just over a thousand fans attending the ENTIRE Varsity event from both teams, according to InAtTheSide.com. Liverpool University rugby union player Joe Usher told us fans at their matches ranges between 10 and 500, “depending on its popularity”.

Is this a uni match or Year 10 hockey?

It’s hard to argue there is cultural difference between the US and the UK when it comes to sport, but the gap to a place like Wales begs other explanations. The UK is internationally known for being fanatic about football, so why can’t this enthusiasm translate into support for local uni teams?

The most support our fans can provide is cheap chants like “JMWho?” and “your dad works for my dad”, as well as the odd person wearing a washed out blue t-shirt. The sad thing is, eventhough we’re better than JMU at everything, our hate for them outweighs our love and support for our own uni.

The distance to Wyncote sports ground – a good half an hour cycle and a right mission from campus  – isn’t exactly persuasive for us, when the 10 minute walk to Asda is a no-no. The fact matches are generally all on the same day doesn’t help either. It just makes it impossible to gather enough students for one particular BUCS match. Events like Varsity should be spread over a week.

Also, the people interested in uni sport will most likely be involved in playing the matches themselves, so it’s even more difficult to get non-sporty people out of bed.

It’s time for Liverpool to show its own sportsmanship. We need to big up our support for AU, for the pride of Liv Uni.