Athletic department to blame for shrinking crowds in Cameron

As a freshman in the Fall of 2003, I can recall a time where students were turned away at the door for a home game against the University of Detroit, a school whose biggest claim to fame in the world of basketball is having Dick Vitale as head coach. That was at a time when undergrads owned considerably more real estate in Cameron than they do now. We were loud, enthusiastic, knowledgeable and original. Ruby red slippers awaiting Roy Williams at his seat upon his first visit to Cameron to remind him he wasn’t in Kansas anymore immediately come to mind. And now, as a grad student in my ninth consecutive year at Duke, the undergrad section has deteriorated into a shadow of its former self. The undergrads do not know the game or the team and what few cheers they remember are dull and uninspired, to put it mildly. While there is no doubt that this current batch of undergrads are at fault for not attending games and reacting with relative apathy when rarely in attendance, Kevin White, Mike Forman and the brass at the University Athletic Department should assume the lion’s share of blame in this scenario for creating a culture in Cameron Indoor Stadium that is like every other arena in college sports.

Cameron used to have a worn, nostalgic patina that separated itself from all other arenas. DJ Khaled and Taio Cruz weren’t piped in the PA system to “create” a buzz. There wasn’t Michael Buffer doing player introductions or a press announcer whose voice was redolent of an over-caffeinated drive time morning disc jockey. There weren’t advertisements plastered over seemingly every available inch of the arena. And, there weren’t jumbotron screens showing the same old cliched pregame video highlight reels before every contest. Sure the old scoreboard was a relic with burned out light bulbs and dated graphics, but it had something that is noticeably missing in Mr. White’s current makeover of the Duke basketball experience: character. It was a building with the look and feel of a bygone era. That unique environment, which resonated with so many, is now gone, turning Cameron into the college basketball version of Everytown, USA, brought to you by Fidelity Investments. If White and Forman think that turning Cameron into an NBA arena will draw students, they are sorely mistaken. If we wanted that staid, overproduced atmosphere, we all would have gone to UNC. Me? I just want my old Cameron back.

Matthew Novak, Pratt ’07, Ph.D. candidate in biomedical engineering