As Cleveland State University basketball’s last game of the season begins, CSU President Dr. Laura Bloomberg is walking courtside and sees a man she knows. She stops to say hello, and he says, loudly, “Lady, you’re in the way!”
Bloomberg starts to make her case about wanting to just say hi and they laugh as he gently pushes her to the side before the two exchange an actual greeting.
Cleveland State basketball fans stand on business. Even the president of the university gets pushed aside once the game starts.
Only 12% of Cleveland State University students live on campus. The rest are commuters, and many of them are non-traditional students who are older and may have jobs, families and full lives. This makes it more difficult for CSU’s sports teams to build a fan base.
But success and hometown pride have helped the men’s basketball team overcome the obstacles and fill seats. For some fans, it’s tradition.
Long-time fan Eileen Campbell says she never went to a game when she was a student here: “I went home, did my homework, and dinner, and I wasn’t gonna come back downtown.” But now she and her husband, Ross, also a Cleveland State grad, are regulars.
“When we started, it was still Fenn College,” says Ross. Eileen doesn’t want to talk about how long ago that was.
“They’re old,” pipes in Jim, the Campbells’ friend, sitting in the row below them.
The Campbells began purchasing season tickets through an alumni package many years ago. Eileen says they met Jim, a fellow season ticket holder since 2000, at the games.
“And now I can’t get rid of them,” Jim says. For him, the games are “an opportunity to watch Division I basketball at a really good price.”
Jim says a shake-up in NCAA leagues in 2013 ended some of Cleveland State’s biggest rivalries, games that saw high attendance. And since 2018, good players have the opportunity to transfer to bigger schools, another challenge to building a steady fan base.
He says CSU basketball also competes with all the other entertainment options available to students downtown.
‘They never disappoint’
Judy Kowalski went to law school at Cleveland State in the 1970s. That’s where she met her husband, Ted. The two went on dates to Woodling Gym to watch the team play. “They’re a team that has a lot of heart,” says Judy. “They try really hard, and they never disappoint.”
“As a sports fan, we just appreciate having a college program here in downtown Cleveland,” says Ted.
Judy likes that there are more dorms now; her nephew lived on campus.
“There’s more of an on-campus presence for students,” she says. “But I think, too, it’s a Cleveland school. It’s Cleveland State. So I think there’s a lot of loyalty based on that.”
Dan Hanstein and his wife have been season ticket holders for six years. Their son, a student manager for Cleveland State’s basketball team, has been a fan since high school, so they knew he would attend CSU. They plan on continuing to follow the team as a family after he graduates later this year.
‘There’s been a buzz’ at Cleveland State
Cleveland State Men’s Basketball Head Coach Daniyal Robinson says his team appreciates the support.
“The energy surrounding our program throughout the year, especially when we went on that run [a 13-game win streak last month], the support on campus, around the campus, there’s been a buzz,” says Robinson.
With a win in their last regular season game against Purdue Fort Wayne on Saturday, March 1, Cleveland State’s men’s basketball team enters the Horizon League tournament as the No. 2 seed. They’ll host a quarterfinal game against the second-lowest remaining seed in the tournament at the Wolstein Center on Thursday, March 6.
The winner of the Horizon League is automatically entered into the NCAA March Madness tournament. The first two rounds of the tournament will be played in Cleveland on March 21 and 23.
