Not to mention 13 million people in Illinois, 320 million people in the United States, 570 million people in North America,, 7.4 billion people in the world, and untold trillions of sentient beings in the universe...

The advertising budget is based on what the admin has given athletics. A note: UIC spent 500k on their basketball ad campaign this year. It got them nothing. Their team sucked and their attendance dropped. Our athletics department has a limited amount of money to spend because of what the admin wants. Not sure what to do about that.

As for the students, I'm still of the mindset that they need to be bought off to attend (at least in the short term)





The department just hired two new guys for marketing (both, coincidentally, come from tOSU). I've spoken with them and they really want to make things work. I shared with them some of my ideas for the program and for attendance. If any of you have ideas, share them here and I'll pass them along for you. I truly believe that these guys (and the AD) want to make this work. They want the arena packed every game.

Unfortunately, money is a real concern which prohibits blanket advertising like UIC did. They are aware that sports information needs a complete overhaul.

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Cigarboy sucks!

You're right about buying students. And it doesn't even have to be crazy expensive. We've done it in Wichita as the student attendance has always been the most difficult. Of our 10500+ seats, I believe 1100 are blocked off for students and they rarely pick up all of the free tickets reserved for them. At a certain point, 24 or 48 hours before tip, unclaimed tickets are sold to the public. Anyway, students show up and get points. We've done free food before the game. Showing up for different events, not just men's basketball, can earn them chances at scholarship monies and other rewards that can ease the burden of being a student. Not crazy large amounts, but enough to make it worth attending. This did help build up more and more students attending and I believe much of that is now just a bonus.

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The Roundhouse

UIC probably spent $75-100k on their billboard on the Stevenson alone. Waste of money.

We could spend a fraction of that online and engage students and young alumni. Beyond that I think we need somebody pounding the pavement and phones trying to reach everyone they can think of.

I really think it's more about smart promotion and adding staff capacity than anything else.



We announced Marcus's hiring a couple months ago. That job description appeared to focus more on in-game stuff (which is also important - please get control of the music volume!). Who is the second person?

Thanks Go.

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MBB Scholarship Chart

From my perspective the key is the club sports scene at Loyola. I know that Rugby and Frisbee both have large social circles that make it a point to attend games and show support. If the Athletic Department can leverage the many student groups into attendance they will bring in kids by the droves.

I shouldn't say "just." I should say in the last year. Marcus is going to be working on in game stuff but he is also working on corporate sponsorships. Another thing I heard was that coaching staffs (of all teams) were the ones doing the corporate sponsorships. The Insomnia Cookie promotion with volleyball? That was because of the volleyball staff. That's how bad it's been around here.

The other person is Tom Sorboro. He is working with Marcus on corporate sponsorships but they are both also looking at ways to reengage alum and students. Another thing they are doing is to engage with the community...something that our contract with the Indy firm was supposed to do. They acknowledge that games over break are sparsely attended and hope to get all the neighborhood groups to come out during that time. They also want to try and get alumni members of the band to come back during break so that there is a band presence during that lull.

As for the advertising, they were also aware of being more strategic. They want to engage with the media (something they acknowledge hasn't really been done much in past years) and they want to find other ways to get the word out. I know a lot of that is talk...with proper budgeting, there can be more for advertising. But this all (taken together) is indicative of the way things have been done in the past. They want to tear it all down and build it back up. I don't blame them at all.

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Cigarboy sucks!

Yes, ahunte1 has what I was suggesting. I'm not talking about going after non-alumni eyeballs in Joliet, Downers Grove, or Waukegan, I'm talking about highly-targeted, mostly online promotion to people who show some affinity for the school, the sport, or the community. That's alumni, current students, and local area residents. If you get only 3 percent of current students, 1 percent of alumni, and 1/10 of one percent of residents within 5 miles, you've almost filled Gentile. That doesn't even count other types of attendees-- families, college basketball nuts from the region, fans of the opposing team, etc.

In a perfect world, I'd want to blanket radio. UIC and NU had a huge presence on ESPN radio this year. Most likely didn't work in part because people don't care but also because of the type of campaign they did (UIC focused on the new head coach).

You'd hope that folks might say "man, I can see "affordable" college basketball in my back yard? Sign me up!" Doesn't always work that way.

Alumni relations has done a good job putting together certain events to get folks out. There is no reason we shouldn't have some event at EVERY game.

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Cigarboy sucks!

Go and JCT,

I know it's not much, but I have a simple suggestion that would increase attendance for the majority of our games by two...

I like the idea of targeting families with kids (5-14 years old). Have fun, memorable activities for the kids during half time and post game.

-musical chairs
-oversized jersey layup competitions
-meet and greet with the players
-shoot around on the court
-ice cream social
-pizza party
-kids tshirts (I think my 6yo son got 12 tshirts at the games...but ALL of them are adult large).

Get these little kids active... Give them an opportunity that they can't have anywhere else... I want them to be begging their parents next weekend to go BACK TO LOYOLA. If you do this type of thing for 15-20 years... You'll have these kids bringing their kids to Loyola. It's a culture that you have to build and nurture for years and years.

I hate to be negative... But I just don't see them filling the Joe on a regular basis next year or the year after that no matter what they do!