I am not sure who got invited and who did not but there is a kind of state of the union from the AD next Saturday. Purpose is to let people know what is happening in the Athletic Department as well as entertain ideas etc.
My gut level feeling is that they are going to lay out a plan for a practice and play facility for volleyball as well indoor practice for some sports? and this will be a kickoff for fundraising.???
But I would like to take all and any ideas anyone has for a better game experience at basketball. So if you have any ideas ...lets have them, I will correlate them and get them down on paper to get to AD Watson.
I have already started to compile some...I came up with a dirty Illinois politician race.....based on the sausages from the Brewers games....so Blogoivich, Kerner, Powell, Thompson and on and on I can hear Pat Schultz at the scorers table now " Blogoivich wins by a hair" Any way what would you do to make the game day experience better?

How about concessionaire being able to accept credit cards! I think it's absolutely PATHETIC and embarrassing that we can't hire a company to run our concessions that doesn't know how to go to square.com and set this up after 3 months!!!

pregame entertainment

ANY halftime entertainment
-jesse white tumblers
-kid dancers
-other sports teams competing against another playing some silly game (musical chairs, knock out, etc)
-jugglers

better variety/quality of national anthem singers

good ideas...I will pass them on. cant believe they do not take charge cards.....I have not used the concessions at any of the games ....how is the stuff there?

Sadly I can't make it but I have the same list I share with them every year (though adding one for this year):

-A better LU Wolf. This year, he's been terrible. Several times, he's sitting with the students seemingly hanging out with friends. Not once at the Evansville game did he wander around and pal with kids. Not once did he try to get the crowd into the game.
-Put the words to the fight song and alma mater on the big board ALL THE TIME.
-Do door giveaways every game to get students and others to the game. The 63 bobbleheads were genius.
-Big back the Mascot Game
-Make sure the bookstore is open for all the games
-Have better and more items available for purchase. You'd be surprised the free publicity that we are passing up. I rarely (if ever) see LU gear out and about, but I see plenty of ND, DePaul, NU, etc.

There are more but I can't think of them right now

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Cigarboy sucks!

I really like a lot of Go's suggestions. In particular I'd like to buy more Loyola apparel for my wife and I but the online options are very limited.

I doubt it's there for every game, but they have an apparel kiosk in the northeast corner of the arena.

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MBB Scholarship Chart

I saw it at the Evansville game. They do have some things, but it is very limited. Why they closed the shop on the south side of the arena is beyond me.

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Cigarboy sucks!

the apparel kiosk is there at every game. Very limited options.. BUT they accept credit cards.

What a bunch of ungrateful whiners!

Complaining about the unpaid student mascot and student(s) singing the national anthem. Sheesh.

Let me get into the spirit of things: I wish Sr. Jean would pick up the pace a bit. She walks soooooo slow and her pregame prayer takes, like, FOREVER! She needs to shape up or ship out!

And it's SUCH an inconvenience to pay for my hot dog with CASH. I mean, seriously, who does that anymore? I don't think my wallet even has a compartment for cash.

And do they really think we can survive for 20 minutes during halftime WITHOUT being entertained? My attention span is measured in milliseconds, not minutes. How dare they!

The problem is attendance. Are people really not coming to the games because of the concession credit card situation or the flat note the student sang on the anthem?

I would talk about geo-targeted web ads, building up neighborhood attendance (direct mail, flyers, pub nights, restaurant events), and outreach to high schools, churches, youth groups, etc. Young alumni attendance is particularly bad because there were many long stretches where it was absolutely neglected and the product was not very good. I think when Big Joe (attended 1995-99) first started going to games, there were sometimes 10 students or less for games.

Currently, student attendance varies too much. Sometimes it can be really good, sometimes bad. It needs to be more even. If I had a role, I'd give a pizza party event for students every two weeks or so in which they rehearse cheers, chants, etc. Have a trivia contest and give out t-shirts at fan rehearsals. Give awards and incentives for the 3 best/loudest/most creative fans--- it doesn't have to be enormous, something like an 8 x 10 glossy of student with Lou Wolf, or a player and coach. Ask the students about their favorite events on campus and try to create a student fan community that models those events. Have a coach (head or assistant) and a player show up, or the AD. Invite the Phoenix, and offer them an interview with the player and coach.

Reach out to local blogs and outlets like GapersBlock, [urlhttp://chicagoist.com/]Chicagoist[/url], Vocalo, DNAInfo, etc. to instigate some local college basketball coverage.

These tactics can all be extended to women's basketball and men't volleyball, and by next fall they could be in place to launch the season with a comprehensive publicity/attendance plan.

That's what I'd start with.... and I'm not even sure if the current staffing level is adequate to do half these things.