Whose home is UB Stadium?

By ANTHONY SYLOR and JENNIFER GILLAN

Sports Editors

Judged by EVAN PARKER PIERCE

Managing Editor

The recent success of the UB men's soccer team has raised the question in the Spectrum office over what UB team truly owns UB Stadium. Has the soccer team taken over the stadium or does it still belong to the football team? Sports editors Anthony "Sarge" Sylor and Jennifer "Still loves Bortz" Gillan debate the question.

Winning is all that matters

By Anthony Sylor

To the victor go the spoils, and there is no doubt about who the victors are in this case. Although UB Stadium may have been built for the football team, the men's soccer team has moved in to become top dog.

The soccer team has won five games in the stadium this season. That is more W's than the football team has tallied in front of a home crowd in the last five seasons combined. The soccer team has also scored 16 points at home. This is the same amount as the football team, with a six-point handicap per scoring opportunity.

Yes, the football team draws more of a crowd and generates more revenue but who cares. Attendance is a reflection of the popularity of the sports not the quality of the team. Couple that with the fact that the football team has a 102-man roster verses a 25-man roster for the soccer team, it is easy to see that four times as many players draws four-times as many friends and family members, thus making up a good portion of the difference in the crowds.

And not to mention, many of the soccer players are foreign. I mean how are Lee Catchpole's mom and dad supposed to fly all the way from England for every home game?

The soccer team is ranked 20th in the nation. They have already won ten games this season-four more than the football team has had since joining the Mid-American Conference in 1999. Five weeks into the season they are still out-scoring the football team 33-31, and they have a shot at bringing home a MAC championship.

This may be their first year playing in UB Stadium, but with the success they have had versus the obvious lack of success the football team has had, UB Stadium is, hands down, the home of the soccer team first, and everybody else second.

The call is obvious

Jennifer Gillan

Men's soccer has accumulated five more home victories than the football team, garnered national attention by way of ranking and is currently outscoring the football team 33-31; but there's no question who's home UB Stadium is.

It's new turf that the soccer games are played on is in reality, a football field.

When watching a soccer game from the stands of the stadium, the bold, white lines of the football field are what truly stand out, even in comparison to the hyped up Bulls.

Off the turf and into the stands, the number of fans highly differs between men's soccer and football. Soccer, including figures from both men's and women's games, have brought in a total of 3,650 fans in 12 games this season, while the football team has averaged almost four times as many fans per game in its two home losses, with 12,950 coming out to support the gridiron combatants on average. The soccer team may be winning but obviously it's not wins that attract fans to their seats.

On top of the fan support that the team brings in, the money that the university receives from ticket sales in completely in favor of the football team seeing there's no charge for anyone to attend a soccer game. The soccer team may find it hard to bring in a consistent fan base, yet football draws in season ticket holders as a part of its crowd.

The men's soccer team offices aren't even in the stadium; they're nestled next door in Alumni Arena, arguably the home of the men's basketball team. UB football pictures, paintings, memorabilia and offices decorate the halls of UB Stadium, staking the team's claim to the venue that holds 29,015. I wonder how the soccer team feels when exiting the stadium to a huge painting of a football huddle.

So sure, it's easy to place a vote against the football team because it's the cool thing to do right now, but no one can deny the fact that the stadium is meant for football, sees the most action during football and will always belong to the hundred plus who gear up on Saturdays to play football.

EPP's Final Call here

Actually, Jen, sticking it to the football team has been the cool thing to do for about six years now, but I'm not going to do it here, though I do have to argue against them. I came into this seriously believing UB stadium was still the football team's house, but Tony convinced me.

Success begets success, and now that it's good, I'd bet the soccer team is going to be good for a while, and more people will take notice as they play longer into the playoffs. Sorry, football Bulls.