Women's college gymnastics fights to gain notice

LINCOLN, Neb. -- The NCAA women's gymnastics meet is coming to the Devaney Sports Center this week, and the overwhelming majority of the 13,000 seats will be empty.<br /> <br /> Only 1,900 all-session tickets have been sold as of Monday. Sure, the host Nebraska Cornhuskers didn't qualify for the team competition, and the economy is tough. But Nebraska coach Dan Kendig said he predicts he'll be embarrassed by the turnout at the Thursday-to-Saturday meet.<br /> <br /> "I take it personal," he said.<br /> <br /> Unless there's an uptick in sales, the Lincoln championships could be the least attended since the 1989 meet drew 9,078 in Athens, Ga.<br /> <br /> Even without Nebraska in the field, Kendig set a goal of drawing 5,000 a day, or 15,000 total.<br /> <br /> To break even financially, Nebraska needs a total of 10,000, assistant athletic director for events Butch Hug said.<br /> <br /> Last year's meet in Athens, where the hometown Georgia Bulldogs won their fourth straight national title, attracted 34,148. That came after the 2007 meet in Salt Lake City drew a record 36,655.<br /> <br /> But Utah and Georgia, along with Alabama and Florida, are college gymnastics hotbeds. The sport receives scant attention elsewhere.<br /> <br /> Greg Marsden, in his 34th year as Utah's coach, said college women's gymnastics must achieve more widespread appeal if it hopes to grow. He said that will be difficult unless the season's most important meet, the NCAA championships, becomes more fan and TV friendly.<br /> <br /> The rub, he said, is the format.<br /> <br /> The competition is made up of 12 teams split into two six-team sessions on the first day, with the top three in each advancing to the finals the next night.<br /> <br /> Because there are four events in women's gymnastics, only four of the six teams are on the floor at one time during a preliminary session.<br /> <br /> Marsden said it's difficult for spectators to know which team is leading at a given time because not every team is at a comparable point in the competition.<br /> <br /> "For the casual observer, maybe someone who has come to the event for the first time, it can be a long and tedious and frustrating experience," Marsden said.<br /> <br /> Said retiring Georgia coach Suzanne Yoculan: "Our sport is too hard to follow. Even I get frustrated with it."<br /> <br /> Marsden is calling for the NCAA to reduce the number of team qualifiers from 12 to eight. Each session would have four teams, with all four competing simultaneously. Two teams from each session - four in all - would advance to the finals.<br /> <br /> Nebraska's Kendig supports Marsden's proposal.<br /> <br /> "Schools and people need to be willing to give up something for the betterment of the sport," he said.<br /> <br /> Alabama coach Sarah Patterson said she's against any change that would reduce the number of teams, thus gymnasts, competing for a national championship.<br /> <br /> Women's gymnastics proves extremely popular in Olympic years. Olga Korbut, Nadia Comaneci, Mary Lou Retton, Kerri Strug, Shawn Johnson all have captured the hearts of fans the past four decades.<br /> <br /> At the college level, name recognition is hard to come by.<br /> <br /> Courtney Kupets of Georgia will be going for her third NCAA all-around title, and though she won the bronze on the bars in the 2004 Olympics, she isn't widely known outside gymnastics circles.<br /> <br /> And it is a small circle. There are just 63 Division I programs, and only eight draw better than 3,000 a meet.<br /> <br /> Marsden's Utah program is the perennial national attendance leader, averaging 13,800 this year, and he has built a reputation as a tireless promoter of the sport in the Salt Lake City area.<br /> <br /> He said he worries about the future. Because of Title IX, women's gymnastics used to be among sports widely regarded to be safe from getting cut. But Marsden said even those sports once thought untouchable are now vulnerable because of the economic downturn. Rhode Island, in fact, dropped its program just last year.<br /> <br /> Maybe not surprisingly, the programs with the nation's strongest fan bases - Georgia, Utah and Alabama - enter this week's championships as the top three qualifiers.<br /> <br /> Marsden says the bigger the crowds, the better for the gymnasts.<br /> <br /> But Alabama's Patterson said she's not overly concerned with how many people are in the stands.<br /> <br /> "It doesn't matter if there's 15,000 or 500 fans there," she said. "It's the fact you're there competing for a national championship."