The Athletic Department desperately wants to boost the number of Harvard students at home football games--a worthy goal. But pitting the houses against each other will probably not have much of an impact on attendance at the games.

Students go to sporting events because they want to see their friends play, because they want to see other schools lose, because they want to watch Harvard win, and because they want to support Harvard.

Students already flock to the mainstream sports that have successful programs at Harvard. Just ask anyone who has waited in line at 8 a.m. in the middle of winter for hockey tickets.

Instead of appealing to these loyalties, the Athletic. Department has chosen to focus its energies on stirring up competition between the houses. The few fans moved by the appeal to intra-Harvard competition are not the kind of people who will keep attending when the team is losing and the weather is cold.

And besides, everyone knows that the Football to Fenway competition is a farce. When a friend of mine went to the game, he was asked what house he lived in.

"Quincy," he said.

"Did I hear you say Cabot? Great!" the checker responded.

In sum, the contest provides little incentive for otherwise apathetic students to hike across the river. For those of us who aren't big sports fans, the prize of athletic tickets is not particularly appealing.

ECOLYMPICS was successful last year for reasons that had nothing to do with competitiveness, and Football to Fenway naively assumes that students who didn't go to football games in the past will be suddenly swayed by the competitive appeal of house loyalty.

There is already enough competition at Harvard. We don't need any more.

If the logic of these new contests spreads, there's no telling what awaits us. Soon we may find ourselves killing each other to win the Most Relaxed Student award, or holding betting pools for intramural games.