With Wichita State leaving, we'll have the highest recruiting star rating, 2.364 compared to Illinois State's 2.306 and SIU's 2.256.

Now it is crucial that we put together a marketing team, with adequate funding to build a fan base for the long run. This area has been neglected for so long that it's not going to get to a respectable level for a couple of years. But the longer you wait to get the ball rolling, the longer it takes to realize the potential that's there. There is NO REASON we shouldn't be averaging 2800-3000 for every game, even given the overall attendance decline for college basketball.

LU won't spend the money.

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Cigarboy sucks!

It's the little things. For instance, anyone know why there isn't an LUC license plate with the Secretary of State's program (https://www.ilsos.gov/pickaplate/pickaplate)? Of course every state school has one--but Northwestern, UofC, DePaul and even damn Notre Dame, not even in the state, are also options.

Little things like this add up to big things.

totally agree.....The word I heard is that they have been waiting almost a year now to get the OK to hire the marketing position guys. When the plan to increase the athletic department got the kabash....there was also a freeze on certain hires.
But on the other hand there are things we can do...like try and be a presence on talk radio.......even texting those radio shows.....Les G?????? on the SCORE at night will take about any call.......also comment on article sites like the ones in the TRIB and SUNT on Lucas W...........

I don't know why it's not on the menu page you linked to, but Loyola plates do exist....

http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/depar ... oyola.html

I had a conversation with the AD about increasing marketing in Chicago. He immediately said they aren't willing to spend the money to buy ads on the radio like DePaul, NU and UIC. He also noted that we are unlikely to get much discussion on air since the stations have a bit of a quid pro quo. Unless something has radically changed, they don't believe in marketing that way.

They canceled the contract a few years back with the "marketing" firm that was supposed to drive up attendance. Perhaps they'd be better served hiring one guy to reach out to groups, companies, etc. to drive up attendance. Then again, Kelly doesn't care about the program so it's unlikely he'd allow that.

LU is in a bad spot because they are unwilling to spend the money. They feel like things will just work out. They won't.

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Cigarboy sucks!

Thanks for that...now I need to make a swap!

Did not see Dr. Kelly at Basketball banquet.....but President was there????

I could not agree more about just hoping things will work out. When our head coach has to beg people to come to games it's nothing short of depressing. When we sucked I understood more. Now that we don't suck it's just infuriating.

How can we not come up with one unique idea to get people in the seats and create a buzz around this program ?

From my conversations, they just don't want to spend the money. Unfortunately, you HAVE to spend the money to get results.

One of the take aways for me was that they believe they will just find corporate donors to cover all the costs. Perhaps that will work on a micro level, but it's not covering the entirety of what should be the marketing budget.

Now, I can't say that I've had a conversation about this in the past half year, but I still believe it to be true. Kelly wants to do everything on the cheap and the department is trying not to upset the apple cart.

This is not going to end well and the department is going to scratch their heads and ask "why didn't this work?!"

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Cigarboy sucks!