Boilers seek increased Gold Mine membership
>>Print ViewPublication Date: 11/18/2009
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According to the Purdue athletic ticket office, the women’s basketball student section, the Gold Mine, has dropped in membership every year since the 2006-2007 season.
In 2006-2007, there were 203 Gold Mine members on hand that witnessed a Boilermaker team that made it to the Sweet Sixteen and lost to No. 1 seed North Carolina, 70-68. This season, there are only 81 Gold Mine members despite the Boilers being preseason ranked No. 23.
“The Gold Mine has been great for women’s basketball for many years,” head coach Sharon Versyp said. “And we want to continue to encourage students that can come to a women’s game. It’s pretty inexpensive if you have VIP cards to join that because it just helps them get to know our student athletes and us to get to know them.”
The president of the Gold Mine, Megan Serwacki, said in order to join the student section, students must go to the ticket office. The cost to join is $10, and members will receive a T-shirt and a free road trip to a game. This year, the Gold Mine will be traveling to the Illinois game on Feb. 21. If the students already had a VIP pass, then they already have season tickets.
Versyp and Serwacki both stated a goal of at least 200 students to join the student section. Gold Mine member and women’s basketball team manager Ashley Hudson said she was disappointed that there were only 81 members.
“There’s 5,000 students out there with VIP cards who already have tickets,” Hudson said. “And they’re not taking advantage of that at all.”
As of Nov. 5, the men’s basketball student section membership totaled 2,749. Freshman guard KK Houser knows that the women’s games won’t draw as many fans as the men’s games but she’s confident it can still be as entertaining.
“They’re missing out,” Houser said. “So they should come and watch. It’s not men’s basketball, so there are no dunks, but it’s a faster-paced game for us and I think they’re really missing out.”
The Boilers are 1-0 after a convincing 70-37 win over Western Illinois and their next game will be at 5 p.m. Friday against Seattle University in Mackey Arena.
FAST FACTS BOX
Gold Mine membership
04-05 -- 54
05-06 -- 54
06-07 -- 203
07-08 -- 198
08-09 -- 129
09-10 -- 81*
*still in progress