Spring sports are in full swing, but in its offseason, the St. Thomas football team is already more than a week into drills, readying itself for the season opener come fall.

The question, however, is whether fans will be ready too. Despite consistently earning top Division-III football rankings and boasting the largest student population in the MIAC, St. Thomas falls short in football game attendance.

“There was a time, 10 to 15 years ago, when everybody went to the game,” Sports Information Director Gene McGivern said. “People just don’t come out like that anymore.”

After going 22-3 over the past two seasons, including a trip in 2012 to the D-III national championship game, St. Thomas has finished sixth and fourth in attendance in the MIAC over that two-year span.

“We’re not as much of a ‘ra-ra’ school as other schools are when it comes to going to every game,” McGivern said. “We’re probably never going to be one of those schools.”

McGivern said St. Thomas focuses on a few specific games that often attract the most fans: the first game of the year, homecoming and the games against St. John’s and Bethel.

Sophomore John Goltz said St. Thomas’ attendance numbers might be low compared to other schools in the conference because fans don’t expect an exciting or close contest.

“When the football team is expected to win their games by such a heavy margin, it’s hard for people to get all that excited for the games because the sense of competition is lost in a way,” Goltz said. “We consistently win games by 30 to 40 points. Those kinds of games just aren’t exciting for fans to watch.”

Junior Idee Udo said even when students do attend football games, they often don’t stay for the full game.

“We are often killing the other team, so there’s not much incentive to stay,” Udo said. “Because we are so good, we always know most of the time that we are going to win the game at halftime.”

Besides touting three undefeated regular season records in the last four years, St. Thomas’ urban location may play a role in attendance.

“When you’re at a school in the city, in that urban environment, there’s just so many options for students and young alumni,” McGivern said. “The schools that tend to draw better are in smaller towns where they can draw from the local crowds or a lot of smaller towns in the area.”

Located in the rural township of Collegeville, rival St. John’s leads the MIAC in football game attendance each year. The Johnnies also have led all of D-III in attendance per game for 12 of the last 13 years.

The Johnnies brought an average of 7,364 fans to each game during the 2013 season, 2,000 more fans than second-place Bethel – who finished second in the MIAC with an average 4,757 fans per game – and 3,000 more fans than St. Thomas, which averaged 3,965 fans.

“There are far more activities and things to do on the weekends (at St. Thomas) than there would be at a school such as St. John’s, which is not located in a large metropolitan area like St. Thomas is,” Goltz said. “In these smaller towns, the football game might be the only event an individual could go to.”

McGivern said St. John’s doesn’t provide an extensive video production for online viewing, which might be helping it maintain its attendance numbers.

“We have a great webcasting system set up here, but St. John’s is still one of the few holdouts,” McGivern said. “They think it will significantly hurt their attendance … That alumni that come from the cities to see the game every weekend might not if they can watch it online.”

McGivern said there isn’t much the university can do to increase its numbers.

“The students have to be the ones doing it. Students aren’t going to listen to adults or faculty telling them what to do. They are going to talk to their friends and do what they’re doing,” McGivern said. “All we can try and do, and all we do, is put the best atmosphere we can together.”

St. Thomas fan support may come early next season as the team’s first three games will be at home, including the highly-anticipated Tommie-Johnnie game.

The Tommies will kick off the 2014 season Sept. 6 at O’Shaughnessy Stadium against non-conference foe Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

Scott Sikich can be reached at siki3549@stthomas.edu.