Letter to the Editor: I want butts in those seats

I often like to attend a Rice men’s basketball game, but it appears I am in the minority, especially compared to the Rice students. I have been to many Rice games over the years, and WITHOUT exaggeration, I typically cannot count more than 50 to 100 students in the stands. With an undergraduate of population of around 4,000, I don’t need my calculator to tell me the attendance figure hovers around 1 percent. So, it begs the question, why even have a team? I understand the age-old arguments (which to my knowledge cannot be statistically proven) that sports teams help boost applications and alumni donations, but at the end of the day, shouldn’t the team be FOR the students first and foremost? And, if the students have no interest in attending, what really is the point?