Letter to editor about WNMU athletic program

Category: Editorials Editorials
Published: 04 March 2017 04 March 2017

To the Editor:

Now that we're near the end of the year it might be a good time to take a realistic look at the Western New Mexico's athletic program. In the six years since the 2011-12 season the five programs; football, men's and women's basketball, volleyball and softball have had only 4 winning seasons; three by the volleyball team and one by women's basketball. This year football was 3 and 8, volleyball 16 and 16, men's basketball 2 and 24, women's basketball 5 and 22 and right now the softball team is 0 and 22. It appears that the athletic program is uncompetitive.

But that's not the only problem. Total attendance has dropped from 27,880 during the 2011-12 season to only 8,487 this season. That's a drop of 70%. Average attendance at men's basketball has dropped from 1,266 a game in 2011-12 to 184 this year (that's not a misprint). That's a drop of 85%. Every team is down: football down 61%, women's basketball down 66% and volleyball down 33%. It appears that some kind of disconnect has developed between the University and the local fans that used to attend the games.

Western's athletic program is not inexpensive. There are over 200 athletes. The program costs over $5 million a year. Students through their student fees contribute over $600,000 toward the athletic program.

Now is the time for the University to do something about the uncompetitive program and the collapse of the fan base.

Alfred Milligan
Silver City, NM

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