SLU Women’s Hockey Season Update
The St. Lawrence Saints Women’s Hockey Team has dominated the first half of their 2023-2024 season, and they hope their winning streak will bring more fans to the stands. They currently hold a record of 7-1, are ranked tenth in the nation, and have only lost one game in their conference so far.
Despite the Saints’ recent victories, their games continue to have lower attendance than men’s games. According to Franco Bari, the Associate Athletic Director or Operations and External Relations at SLU, this phenomenon is not just limited to our university. “At the youth level, at the collegiate level, at the professional level, you’ll see similar trends,” he said. “Men’s sports draw bigger crowds than women’s sports, regardless of the success of the teams.” This is not a new development in St. Lawrence hockey, either. “Over the past 20 years, the men’s team has averaged about 1700 fans. In the past 20 years, the women have averaged 396 fans,” he said.
While Mare MacDougall-Bari, the associate head women’s hockey coach at St. Lawrence, recognizes that there are disparities between attendance at men’s and women’s games, she wants to emphasize that promoting women’s hockey should never be about comparison or division. “The context is not us vs. them or our attendance vs. ours, but how do we promote this amazing product that these amazing student-athletes are putting on the ice?” she said. She also believes that the unique culture and tradition of St. Lawrence hockey, both men’s and women’s, brings people together. “I see the way that Appleton arena is home to so many Saints, not just the hockey players. It has this connection,” she said.
Gabi Jones ’24, a player on the team, agrees that equating the women’s and men’s teams is not the most helpful tool to incentivize people to come to games. “Something that I feel like a lot of people might not know when it comes to watching men’s hockey or women’s hockey, it’s almost like a bit of a different game,” she said. She thinks it is more valuable to acknowledge the differences that make each respective game fun to watch. “Getting to watch men’s and women’s hockey and compare them and see the difference and how each of them brings different things to the table, that’s pretty special,” she said.
SLU Athletics Department staff members are also working hard to promote women’s sports to both students and members of the Canton community. For the Oct. 28 Pink the Rink and the Halloween event weekend of Oct. 27, all flyers advertised the times for both men’s and women’s games. “Our philosophy is equity. Equity in sport, gender equity. So, when we put together eventing plans, we will make sure that it’s kind of all-inclusive,” said Bari. Even though there is no sports promotion team at SLU, staff members are also paying close attention to the different variables that might be influencing fan attendance at games. “We really keep a close eye on what we can do to help the teams with that kind of spectator support, whether it’s eventing or trying to come up with other creative solutions,” said Bari.
Aside from marketing and promotion efforts, two members of the Saints team have started a mentorship program to connect Canton youth with women’s hockey players. Jones and Aly Mcleod ’24 launched their Little Saints, Big Futures initiative this year with MacDougall-Bari as their supervisor. “Our goal was to help kind of provide mentorship to young kids in the area, allow them to have somebody to look up to, a role model, and get to spend time around our awesome arena.” The program garnered a lot of interest right away, with over 50 signups, and so far, Jones and Mcleod have hosted three monthly events. Jones has also noticed how much support the team is getting back from the Canton community through this initiative. “I mean, the turnouts from them and their families have been pretty amazing, too,” she said. “So even as much as we want this to help them, they’re also definitely helping us in the process.” To MacDougall-Bari, if there is a right time to start supporting SLU women’s hockey, it’s now. “We’ve been really working hard this season. I think this team is in a special place where we really try to focus on the process and not the outcome,” she said. “I think anyone that that takes the time to connect with how amazing women’s hockey is at St. Lawrence would find a lot of what they’re getting from being a fan for any other sport.”