Northridge Draws Record Crowds for Gym and Stadium

For years, Cal State Northridge has estimated the seating capacity of its gymnasium at 3,000. No one really knew for sure.

Until Friday.

When Team USA played Japan in a volleyball match at Matador Gym, 3,106 paying customers showed up. It was the largest crowd to witness a sporting event at the school gym, school officials said this week.

The following night, another attendance record fell, this time at North Campus Stadium. Northridge’s homecoming football game against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo drew a standing-room-only crowd of 7,127.

The seating capacity for North Campus had been listed at 6,000, which is probably accurate. People stood in aisles and more than 1,000 crammed into an area adjacent to the north end zone called “The Beer Garden.”

Bob Hiegert, Northridge athletic director, said Tuesday that attendance at both events is proof that Valley-region sports fans will turn out if CSUN provides a good product.

“If we’re going well and we bring in a quality opponent, people will come and support us just like we said they would all along,” Hiegert said.

Hiegert said publicists for the U. S. volleyball team told school representatives that the Northridge crowd was the largest and most enthusiastic of its four-match exhibition tour of Southern California. The United States and Japan also played matches in Irvine, Bakersfield and San Luis Obispo.

Northridge had sold 1,600 tickets to the volleyball match by Thursday morning, the largest advance ticket sale for a university-sponsored event held in the gym, Hiegert said. “We’re tickled to death that the community and the university community supported it like they did,” he added. “We had less than a month to prepare sponsors and coordinate the advertising.”

School officials received a preview of Saturday’s football turnout a day earlier when a crowd estimated to be more than 2,000 showed up for a pep rally on campus.

At the end of the first quarter of Saturday’s game, Hiegert said, more than 1,000 people were still lined up, waiting to enter the stadium. Some left when it was announced that there were no seats available, he said.

Those who stayed lined both end zones and the sideline behind the Northridge bench.

Concessions sales were brisk, although figures were not available. “There wasn’t as much as you might think because people were afraid to leave their seats because they might not get them back,” Hiegert said.

The Beer Garden, which normally closes at the start of the fourth quarter, shut down early in the third period. “It was too crowded and they were getting close to being out of (food and beverages) and we didn’t want a situation where there was a disorderly finish to things and any confusion,” Hiegert said.

Despite the limited seating availability and lengthy lines, Hiegert has received no complaints.

“I was walking around most of the game and it seemed to me that the kids were visiting and having a good time,” he said. “Most of the people standing had angles where they could see.”

Particularly pleasing to Northridge officials was the number of students in attendance--almost 3,900, or more than 60% of the crowd.

Such figures can only help Northridge in its attempt to improve and expand its athletic facilities, according to Elliot Mininberg, a CSUN vice president.

“We all take for granted that at the Division I level, after two or three years of transition, there’s going to be a need for upgraded facilities,” Mininberg said. “It’s one of our real priorities.”