I renewed mine before the deadline to renew last Friday. In case anyone in the athletics department reads this board...and I'm told that they do...what
are some marketing suggestions you guys would recommend the school adopt in order to sell more tickets and generate more community excitement for basketball?
For me, it'd be this...
1. ONLINE TICKET SALES!!!! We're still selling tickets the same way we did in the 70's. Fans should be able to click on tickets at msueagles.com and have a diagram of Johnson Arena showing them what each section costs and they should be able to select their seats and pay for them via credit card. As it stands now, you have to send a check in the mail or go to the ticket office on campus to buy them.
2. Sell tickets earlier for Pete's sake! I remember reading an interview somewhere after our appearance in the dance, where Hutch said that they were being flooded with season ticket requests already. I'm sure they took people's contact information and mailed them the season ticket materials recently, but by waiting this long to start selling tickets, they've lost some of that eagerness to buy. Why can't tickets go on sale in the summer right after the schedule has been announced? If people are eager to buy, then the school should be eager to take their money. I would have renewed my tickets a lot earlier if that were an option.
3. How about a little advertisement. How much can it cost to run season ticket adds in the papers? I think you'd want adds in the Morehead News and the other local papers in the area, with a weekly add appearing in the Herald Leader and Daily Independent on Sundays. One billboard, strategically located in the city limits with a picture of Faried dunking over some poor guy would be a plus too. Run radio adds on all the area stations. Try some TV adds with local cable providers....its not that expensive. I priced some tv adds for my business a couple years ago with the local cable provider and the package was 144 spots per week, spread over 6 networks (including ESPN) for $75/week. That would only be for the local cable subscribers, but that's cheap!
Maybe I'm expecting too much. I don't know. I have no training in marketing, but it seems to me that the people in charge of such things don't do very much of it. What frustrates me most, is going to a game when there's a whopping 800 people in attendance. Of course, the official attendance would be reported as something like 1,300. We've got a good team and they deserve to play in front of more people than that. The Big Johnson should never be any less than half full this season, even for the games against the NAIA schools. With the excitement and momentum that last season's postseason run created, we should be drawing big crowds this year and if we don't, then can we really expect to keep our coach long term?
My angry ramblings are done. What ideas do ya'll have?
For me, it'd be this...
1. ONLINE TICKET SALES!!!! We're still selling tickets the same way we did in the 70's. Fans should be able to click on tickets at msueagles.com and have a diagram of Johnson Arena showing them what each section costs and they should be able to select their seats and pay for them via credit card. As it stands now, you have to send a check in the mail or go to the ticket office on campus to buy them.
2. Sell tickets earlier for Pete's sake! I remember reading an interview somewhere after our appearance in the dance, where Hutch said that they were being flooded with season ticket requests already. I'm sure they took people's contact information and mailed them the season ticket materials recently, but by waiting this long to start selling tickets, they've lost some of that eagerness to buy. Why can't tickets go on sale in the summer right after the schedule has been announced? If people are eager to buy, then the school should be eager to take their money. I would have renewed my tickets a lot earlier if that were an option.
3. How about a little advertisement. How much can it cost to run season ticket adds in the papers? I think you'd want adds in the Morehead News and the other local papers in the area, with a weekly add appearing in the Herald Leader and Daily Independent on Sundays. One billboard, strategically located in the city limits with a picture of Faried dunking over some poor guy would be a plus too. Run radio adds on all the area stations. Try some TV adds with local cable providers....its not that expensive. I priced some tv adds for my business a couple years ago with the local cable provider and the package was 144 spots per week, spread over 6 networks (including ESPN) for $75/week. That would only be for the local cable subscribers, but that's cheap!
Maybe I'm expecting too much. I don't know. I have no training in marketing, but it seems to me that the people in charge of such things don't do very much of it. What frustrates me most, is going to a game when there's a whopping 800 people in attendance. Of course, the official attendance would be reported as something like 1,300. We've got a good team and they deserve to play in front of more people than that. The Big Johnson should never be any less than half full this season, even for the games against the NAIA schools. With the excitement and momentum that last season's postseason run created, we should be drawing big crowds this year and if we don't, then can we really expect to keep our coach long term?
My angry ramblings are done. What ideas do ya'll have?
