Everyone has heard of Blue Man Group, but have you heard of Portland State’s latest addition to athletic events, the Green Man Group?
The Green Man Group will be the new student section at basketball, football, volleyball and other athletic events at Portland State. The group will be replacing the Horde as the new student section.
“We want students to come to our games and enjoy their time there,” said marketing director Kenny Dow. “The horde has not been too successful in recent years so we thought a change was in order to create some excitement.”
The Green Man Group will be introduced on Jan. 26 before the men’s basketball game against Montana State. The event will start at 5:30 p.m. There will be free food donated by The Old Spaghetti Factory, free Coca Cola products and a free Green Man Group t-shirt for the first 300 participants. The event will take place in front of the Peter W. Stott Center.
“The idea is just to make it fun and a really exciting place for people to come, socialize and cheer on the Vikings,” Dow said. “Because of the size of the Stott Center, having a really big student section will make it a really imposing venue for opposing teams to come to.”
A group of three students came up with idea for Green Man Group. They will be creating cheers, making skits and leading the student section at games. They plan on expanding the group to ten students before the new section is unveiled on Jan. 26.
The Horde has been losing popularity in recent years, and that’s why Dow and the athletic department believe it is time for a change. Attendance has been low at games, and the athletic department has not been the only one that has noticed.
“There could be more people [at games],” freshman Ryan Harris said. “We should have more support from the alumni and students.”
The hope of the Green Man Group is to better advertise games and get them out there for the whole Portland State community. The new student section also wants to create an atmosphere at games that is loud, fun and very difficult for opposing teams to play in.
“People just aren’t very involved in games,” Dow said. “We really want to create a student section where students are standing and actively involved in the game, making it difficult for the opposing team to play. Our teams have very good records at the Stott Center but we’d like it so an opposing team never gets a win here.”
The Green Man Group will start Jan. 26 at the men’s basketball home game against Montana State. This week the men’s basketball team will take on Eastern Washington this Saturday on the road. Tip-off is scheduled for 6:05 p.m. The women will be playing Eastern Washington. The game is scheduled to start Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Stott Center.