The Boston University athletics department has doubled the number of home hockey games students must attend during the 2025-26 season in order to receive a free jersey.
As reported by The Daily Free Press student newspaper, students now must attend 16 home games instead of eight, with women’s games now counting toward the total.
"The men’s hockey team has 19 regular season home games, and the women’s team has 17, meaning a student would need to attend just under 50% of all home games to achieve the 16-game mark," Cornelia Nisbet of The Daily Free Press wrote.
In an email to The Daily Free Press, Brian Kelly, BU Athletics’ associate athletic director for communications and brand services, wrote that in recent years, the jersey program has been “very successful with a high number of student fans taking advantage.”
“This year we wanted to include our nationally ranked women’s program as part of this incentive to help increase their attendance,” he wrote.
Josh Mester, president of the BU Dog Pound, which represents the student section at Agganis Arena, said BU Athletics and Agganis originally considered eliminating the jersey program entirely, since the university is enrolling large numbers of students and many are attending games regardless.
Mester told The Daily Free Press that while some students may be discouraged by the new requirements, he believes the increased game count won’t make it impossible for students to earn a jersey. “If people just go to the women’s games, it’s not a problem at all," he said. "That’s something we really want to encourage.”
