Touchdown! The crowd roars, bleachers tremble, and cheerleaders squeal as the Liberty football team scores yet another 6 points.

Meanwhile, the tennis courts are virtually silent throughout the duration of the matches.

Why is this? What attracts so many people to a football game rather than a tennis match? 

“It’s because it’s a Friday night. There’s the weekend, and it’s a nice place to hangout with your friends,” junior football player Josh Feren said. 

Although it is true that many of the football games are held on Friday nights, so are the tennis matches. 

The first Liberty home football game was on a Thursday, and it still filled the stands, while tennis matches, at most, have 2-3 spectators… and this is on a Friday. 

Feren may have a point. Many people enjoy going to a sports game on a Friday, but why football?

“Stuff like football, it’s a whole big production. They’ve got the band there, they’ve got the halftime, the cheerleaders, drill…,” junior tennis player Jonah Coston said. “It’s also a team sport. In tennis we have doubles and singles, so it’s only a couple people playing at a time.”

Coston highlights how the crowd dynamic of tennis is very different compared to a sport like football.

“Tennis doesn’t have that big of a crowd culture, some families might show up, but that’s usually it,” Coston said.

Coston attributes this to many different reasons. 

“Tennis, at least high school tennis, isn’t really built for crowds anyways,” Coston said. ““There’s not a lot of space for people to hang out, we’ve got a couple bleachers, but a lot of people just have to bring their own chairs… and there’s not a good vantage point to watch.”

Similarly to tennis, the girls swive team has a lower spectator attendance compared to a sport like football. 

“I think swim doesn’t have a large crowd culture because people don’t understand swimming as a sport or understand how meets work, and people don’t realize that they can be very fun,” junior swimmer Natalie Lewis said.

Lewis mainly accredits this to a generational and familial connection with specific sports.

“People have grown up with certain things like baseball and football. They don’t usually associate swimming with anything, whereas with football, they associate it with Friday nights and family memories, such as celebrating the super bowl,” Lewis said. “People go to those games because it reminds them of their childhood.”

When looking at the performance of all 3 sports – boys tennis, girls swive, and football – it seems they all have similar patterns of achievement. All have had seasons where they placed high, and seasons where they go losing more than winning.

Football went on a losing streak last year, and this year they have won 5 out of 6 games so far. 

“It’s nice having fans supporting you, but I feel like the team is more focused on themselves… they don’t let external factors affect them,” Feren said.

Girls Swive, on the other hand, sent six swimmers to the 3A State Championship last year. This year they are holding an equal balance of 2 wins and 2 losses.

“I think crowds 100 percent affect how the team performs. If you can hear someone cheering your name while you’re swimming it definitely makes you swim faster,” Lewis said. 

Last year boys tennis won 6 out of 12 meets and this year they have won a total of 3 out of 13 meets. 

“I don’t think crowds really affect performance, because there’s not that many people, and there are also other games happening around you,” Coston said.