Attention UNI Athletics Marketing

[Born-a-Panther]

Re: Attention UNI Athletics Marketing

I have been saying for two-three years that the music is WAY too quiet. You can hardly hear it. I can't understand why they don't recognize that. It's the same way in football games.

[otter]

Re: Attention UNI Athletics Marketing

Just now getting an email about the game and highlighting the tip time

[06panther10]

Just now getting an email about the game and highlighting the tip time

LOL, thats hilarious.

"Hey Panther fan, theres a game in like 12 hours! Your welcome."

[hoopfan]

Re: Attention UNI Athletics Marketing

As long as we're talking marketing and in game promotions, the Rock 108 guy has to go. He's terrible and acts like the promotion is a chance for us to listen to him, not enjoy the promotion. Why not just have Bobby J handle it like he has in past years.

For students, what happened to Jake's Jungle? Why is that no longer a thing? The marketing to students was terrible 10 years ago when I was in school and it doesn't sound like it has gotten any better. Leon Costello did what he could at that time to engage students. If athletics wants to get a larger cut of student fees in the future, they need to do something other than collect the fees.

I would guess there are marketing majors or students in the MBA program who need a project and could design a marketing plan for athletics as a part of their course work and it would cost the university nothing.

The basketball team is coming off their best season in history and playing one of their best schedules ever and people only seem to know about 1 game this year. That's not acceptable.

[PantherChic]

Gotta get this off my chest...

As a student who follows UNI basketball very intently, the marketing for students has been nothing short of embarrassing. UNI doesn't have the luxury of the athletics selling themselves to students without additional work, yet the AD acts like we do. Last year, student attendance was low, and instead of the athletics dept owning up to poor marketing, they blame the students and punish us by taking away our seats. They expected us to come out to the ticket office to get a ticket when everyone else had the luxury of doing it from home. We were intermingled with families and elderly folks, and it was the lowsiest student section I've witnessed (excluding the WSU game).

The ordering system this year is certainly an improvement, but their lack of attention to the students is alarming. (i.e. free t-shirts were thrown/blasted our way a total of 0 times during the CSU game). At least 90% of students hadn't heard that there was a game tomorrow morning until today. People can get "free" doughnuts and milk at the dining center, is that really all they have to offer? That's just weak... The message is clear to me, the athletic dept just doesn't care about us. We pay plenty to attend UNI, we deserve some recognition.

On top of it all, gameday atmosphere is boring, the guided cheers are depressing, and the music is far too quiet. (The clones blast music at their sporting events, it's awesome). If I wasn't really big into bball, I wouldn't bother coming to these games either. They just flat out aren't that fun...

THIS has got to be relayed to the powers-that-be somehow. There are plenty of people on here who have connections...please share this with anyone who'll listen.

Thank you for attending the games, despite the lack of effort from the athletic department. Please continue to do so and bring your friends

Sent from my SCH-R970 using Tapatalk

[UNIdad]

Re: Attention UNI Athletics Marketing

Gotta get this off my chest...

As a student who follows UNI basketball very intently, the marketing for students has been nothing short of embarrassing. UNI doesn't have the luxury of the athletics selling themselves to students without additional work, yet the AD acts like we do. Last year, student attendance was low, and instead of the athletics dept owning up to poor marketing, they blame the students and punish us by taking away our seats. They expected us to come out to the ticket office to get a ticket when everyone else had the luxury of doing it from home. We were intermingled with families and elderly folks, and it was the lowsiest student section I've witnessed (excluding the WSU game).

The ordering system this year is certainly an improvement, but their lack of attention to the students is alarming. (i.e. free t-shirts were thrown/blasted our way a total of 0 times during the CSU game). At least 90% of students hadn't heard that there was a game tomorrow morning until today. People can get "free" doughnuts and milk at the dining center, is that really all they have to offer? That's just weak... The message is clear to me, the athletic dept just doesn't care about us. We pay plenty to attend UNI, we deserve some recognition.

On top of it all, gameday atmosphere is boring, the guided cheers are depressing, and the music is far too quiet. (The clones blast music at their sporting events, it's awesome). If I wasn't really big into bball, I wouldn't bother coming to these games either. They just flat out aren't that fun...

Ironically, lots of Cyclone fans complain about their use of Jock Jams.

And I would say again UNI has more and better cool, fun stuff during breaks than Iowa State (with the exception of some really good half-time shows during big games).

[mwatje]

Re: Attention UNI Athletics Marketing

A few years ago my wife and I did a "triple header" of basketball, then football, with volleyball to end the day. The atmosphere in the McCloud for the volleyball game was electric. They played the music much louder and seemed to engage the crowd very well. We were both upset that UNI couldn't create a similar atmosphere for the Basketball team. (We moved out of state afterward, so I'm not sure how VB game day operations are now.)

[run&blade]

Re: Attention UNI Athletics Marketing

I think the athletic department reads this board(s) all the time.

It is the only uni message board and the one my place you will read the thoughts of the very few die-hard uni fans.

If they don't they are even dumber than the marketing suggests.

[Kyle]

Re: Attention UNI Athletics Marketing

The marketing has never been the same since Leon Costello left. That guy did a heckuva job spreading the word about UNI athletics and creating a buzz around game day.

I remember getting frequent emails from Leon about all kinds of UNI athletic stuff. I also received regular emails from Coach Mac on game day and thought it was cool that he frequently bought pizza for the student section and had it delivered directly to the stands.

This was also during the time of Rick Harzell pricing and when students just flashed a student ID to get into the game, so I might be comparing apples to apple pie.

[panther-state]

Re: Attention UNI Athletics Marketing

Gotta get this off my chest...

As a student who follows UNI basketball very intently, the marketing for students has been nothing short of embarrassing. UNI doesn't have the luxury of the athletics selling themselves to students without additional work, yet the AD acts like we do. Last year, student attendance was low, and instead of the athletics dept owning up to poor marketing, they blame the students and punish us by taking away our seats. They expected us to come out to the ticket office to get a ticket when everyone else had the luxury of doing it from home. We were intermingled with families and elderly folks, and it was the lowsiest student section I've witnessed (excluding the WSU game).

The ordering system this year is certainly an improvement, but their lack of attention to the students is alarming. (i.e. free t-shirts were thrown/blasted our way a total of 0 times during the CSU game). At least 90% of students hadn't heard that there was a game tomorrow morning until today. People can get "free" doughnuts and milk at the dining center, is that really all they have to offer? That's just weak... The message is clear to me, the athletic dept just doesn't care about us. We pay plenty to attend UNI, we deserve some recognition.

On top of it all, gameday atmosphere is boring, the guided cheers are depressing, and the music is far too quiet. (The clones blast music at their sporting events, it's awesome). If I wasn't really big into bball, I wouldn't bother coming to these games either. They just flat out aren't that fun...

As solid of a first post as we'll see. Thank you for your input and welcome aboard. Feel free to actually send an email or letter to the AD with that exact message. Can't hurt right?

[vbfan19]

Re: Attention UNI Athletics Marketing

atmosphere at the VB games seems to have dropped off too.
part of that could be due to the lower than normal winning percentage,
but the music is alot quieter too.

almost wonder if it is a tech issue. maybe the sound system is shot and they can't crank it up as much as before without it sounding like crap (or even more like crap)

[Born-a-Panther]

Re: Attention UNI Athletics Marketing

atmosphere at the VB games seems to have dropped off too.
part of that could be due to the lower than normal winning percentage,
but the music is alot quieter too.

almost wonder if it is a tech issue. maybe the sound system is shot and they can't crank it up as much as before without it sounding like crap (or even more like crap)

No. The McLeod just got a new system within the last month.

[Gocats15]

Re: Attention UNI Athletics Marketing

Here are some of the key problems that I've noticed.

1. They send students one e-mail each week detailing upcoming athletic events, and include every single event, so most students don't read it, as its a fairly long document. If they separated the football basketball, it would probably be more likely to be read.

2. Lots of students are frustrated with the online ticket system, as it hasn't always been working properly and recognizing accounts as students. It asks for accounts to be "activated" without telling them how to do it.

3. The T-shirt cannon needs to go or be adjusted, it launches them way too far, and basically ignores the students.

4. Lots of students have resentment about the way things are ran in terms of seating. People who get there early but aren't a part of the "Pep Crew" can't sit in the front. Also, for big games the last few years one of the fraternities "reserved" the second row, and didn't show up until way after everyone who waited in line, which is completely ridiculous. Another issue is that while selling general admission tickets that used to be for students to the general public is fine for most games, many students who want to go to the UNC game aren't able to because of this.

5. There recently has been a little bit of tension between regular students and athletes around campus lately. While most athletes are down to earth and act like regular students, there are some that think they are better than everyone else, which rubs regular students the wrong way. This happens at every big school, but without a homegrown following (most students at UNI didn't grow up as Panther fans), it results in poor student/fan support.

6. The Pep Band being right next to the students can get kind of annoying during games. They rotate between the same songs, and many of the band members aren't actually interested in the basketball game. I'm not saying the Pep Band should go, but I think we need to look into some changes surrounding it. I don't know if its required or not for band students, but many do not look like they even want to be at half the basketball games, which kind of hurts the atmosphere of the whole area. I think at times we'd be better off just playing music over the speakers, which is what a lot of the bigger conference schools do.

[BCPanther]

Re: Attention UNI Athletics Marketing

I'm down with everything except #4. You don't get to not go any games and then cherry pick the marquee games. They lost those seats because even in a top 10 year the corner sections sat empty. If going to the Big games is so important, get your ass across the street for Bradley on a Wednesday night.

Plus, by selling those as season tickets they've added some extra revenue in what was basically dead space.

And #5 is every campus everywhere.

[jegbomb52]

Re: Attention UNI Athletics Marketing

Speaking of Rock 108 guy can we please get him a freaking purple and gold Rock 108 shirt? Does he have to walk on to OUR court in Black and Gold every time he steps onto our court / turf.

Also, football related, not basketball related, but people were mocking UNI at the football game last week around us pointing out that the people sitting in the end zone suites were watching the Hawkeye game on their tv. TV channels can be restricted to the game being played, do it. I guess Troy might have been in there watching