This season, for the first time, the NYU Abu Dhabi football team made it to the finals of the Abu Dhabi Inter-University Sports League. Purple-painted faces occupied an entire section of the football stadium chanting “Let’s go Falcons! Let’s go!” from behind speakers blaring loud hip-hop music. On the other side of the stadium, in stark contrast, a much smaller group of around ten boys in kanduras clapped as UAE University from Al Ain scored the first goal of the night.

The NYUAD football team eventually lost the match 0-3 to UAEU. But even then, students marched into the grass fields to hug the players and cheer them on. Compared to other games during this season, the night attracted a larger crowd than usual.

School spirit takes different forms at other universities, where thousands of students flock to sporting events and pep rallies. NYUAD, in comparison, consists of less than one thousand students. Stadiums and courts have been largely empty during previous NYUAD sporting matches, scattered with a few fans here and there.

Freshman Gabby Flores feels that schoolwork and other commitments make it difficult for students to commit their time to sit and watch a sport game.

“For me, [there is] just so much work … that I run out of time to go and watch,” she said. “Athletics does a good job [of] reminding [us] by posting on Facebook pages and the Student Portal, but I don't see a permanent solution to this problem.”

Global Vice President of Student Government Benjamin Jance echoed similar concerns.

“There is so much event saturation in this university and it’s difficult,” he said. “Student Government, Athletics, Student Life and all stakeholders in the community should be working together to figure out the best times to have matches and games so that we can fit as many students as possible.”

According to Jance, a student-led initiative, the Happiness Project, aims to build school spirit through outreach and community activities. There may also soon be a revival of the now dormant Spirit Committee, which was established in 2012.

“Currently the role of the Spirit Committee is with the Happiness Project. We decided to delegate the task to the Happiness Project so that we wouldn’t have two teams working on the same goals,” he said. “But we do have to revisit that and see if it’s worth bringing back the Spirit Committee or maybe having both to maximize the potential.”

Senior Anirudh Sood speculated that the student body’s lack of interest in sports activities could be a result of the university’s admissions process, which focuses more on academic achievements when selecting students.

“There is a selective bias in [NYUAD] with regards to students who come in because sports is not the main focus,” he said. “I was surprised by the turnout during the football finals.”

He mentioned, however, that fan presence should always be thought of relative to NYUAD’s small student body. After taking into account the available pool of people who can actually come to matches, he said, the turnouts are quite pleasing.

Football player and senior Ilya Bozhenkov, who was on the team before and after the formation of ADISL, feels there has been a huge growth in fan support throughout the years.

“These things take time to build, and I think as the league continues to grow, and the student body increases on campus, more people will show up,” he said. “In the beginning, when we were playing at the Zayed stadium, not many would show up because it was time-consuming just to get there. But now with the stadium on campus, it’s more convenient for students to come and watch.”

Bozenkhov also highlighted the role of competitive tournaments like ADISL in raising school spirit.

“With competitive matches, the fans are more energized to cheer on,” he said. “Because there is always something to look forward to.”

The ADISL is currently in its third year and involves 14 participating universities from Abu Dhabi.