[Sly Fox]

Upon further review, I'm taking down the other thread regarding marketing so that we can start from scratch. If you have suggestions on how we can improve the marketing of basketball or any other sport then by all means bring it here. But calling out anyone by name working on school staff and callling for their head will not be tolerated. Please be part of the solution and not the problem. I'm going to bring some of the more civil posts here to build on discussion:

Don't criticize the perceived snails pace of any marketing or game management skills until you have walked a mile in their shoes. Affecting change at Liberty is about as speedy as glacier calfs crossing the continents.
Finally, attendance figures have NEVER been accurate here at LU. Look back at your posts this year. When there were about 15 people in the stands and the attendance was reported as 500+ No one complains when we have inflated figures, so don't be suprised when the numbers may be a little bit lower. In all honesty, those are probably more accurate numbers, but since you are used to inflated numbers it just seems low.

#1 -- I think we need to list a grievances before posting something like this. It's not fair to someone to just go out there and start calling for someone to lose their job. That's a tough thing to stomach.

(I think that I should know this field, because my first post on Pro Boards -- and I was one of the first members -- was a treatise on why Ken Karcher should be fired).

#2 -- What does Prototype advertising think about this? They're the ones who develop a lot of the ideas for marketing. Have they felt stifled?

#3 -- Attendance in football because the team was winning. But even at that, they did cool things (before the game that I went to, they had skydivers deliver the game ball). Was that a KK decision, or JB?

#3a -- Whoever came up with the idea to have the announcer say "and it's another Liberty..." followed by the crowd saying "first down!" should be demoted. That's really lame, especially when it takes half the people in the stands half the game to understand what's going on.

#4 -- If everyone has enough faith in Barber to run an athletic program at a Division I level (and so far it seems as if it does), then we should give him the benefit of the doubt to allow his marketing program to develop the way he wants it to develop. If Barber is frustrated with the lack of effort on KK's part, I'm sure he'll let him know.

there is an over-arching issue here, and that's the fact that most LU students are completely apathetic to a competitive sports atmosphere. Because there is absolutely nothing "wholesome" to do in Lynchburg at night, many students decide to attend the basketball game, the hockey game, etc. The problem is this: our attendance is growing but we aren't building a true fan base. Sure, there are some that are die-hard LU supporters, and to those people, I say "keep it up". Student support is the MOST crucial base in terms of creating a dynamic atmosphere and wide base of support. While big time donors are important, and help provide for better facilities and a more attractive University, students will be the driving force behind the move to become a major sports institution (one of Jerry's goals).

My suggestions(which pertain mostly to football):

Make the Student Flames Club more accessible, at the same time give it greater benefits.
- Change your cost from $25 to $20.
- Include a pass to football games with this price (every other school has student tickets, why not us?)
- Instead of a catered tailgate, create an atmosphere where students can come hang out before the game, including grilling out (which is cheap when done in bulk). Several tents, music, get clubs and honor societies from LU to be a part of Gameday Festivities.
- Continue to promote games using a sponsor (alliteration stickers were AWESOME "Pound the Pioneers"), pom-poms, etc.
- Allow students to be creative...although the ADept would like to see red through-out the stadium, don't penalize the people who show up in hand-painted white Liberty shirts, or blue-clad kilt-wearing crazies. If we want to see a red-out, then we should get shirts done(cheap at $2.50) and sell them two weeks before the game. Promote it....make it BIG, put emphasis on it at every gathering...make every student aware, regardless of whether they are a football fan or not, that on Saturday, this is what's happening.

Continue to build excitement through cutting edge design, videos, promotional items, etc. for the sports programs.
- Maybe introduce each sports season with a highly-professional video of that sport with the accompanying theme for the year (last year football: Revival of Liberty Football). Most professional sports teams do this to advertise...we could do the same thing to build excitement.

I agree with most of your stuff. Here's how I change it:

SFC: Make it $10 for football and $10 for basketball. Two different shirts. Or change it to $10 fall semester, $10 spring semester, two different shirts.

No catered tailgating but make lower P1 (by the religion hall) the official student tailgating lot. Make it a party atmosphere down there. Encourage tailgating and let the kids be kids. No LUPD being stupid and taking away footballs and all of that.

I want a "red out" next year. We could call it "The Flames Are Red Hot" or something like that. Break out the red alternate jerseys, and sell the shirts cheap if they need to do shirts.

One idea we had was call it "The Red Sea." Sell t-shirts at the beginning of the year (or these could be the SFC football shirts) that are red and have a nice "The Red Sea" logo on it. If you sell college kids t-shirts cheap ($5ish), they'll buy em like friggin hot cakes.

I'm sure everyone at the school would appreciate any good ideas we can generate that could be reasonable within our budget structure. Bring it all here.

[PAmedic]

here's a thought- and it may already be happening.

1. LET THE MARKETING STUDENTS HAVE AN ACTIVE ROLE IN THIS.

they will have energy- and their grades depend on success

2. Loosen the reins a little (think outside the box) I know thats tough at LU but its being done already, keep it going!

[Purple Haize]

PAMEDIC - While I can not speak for the current regime, I do know that we had the students intimately involved in the athletic department. However, it was more for "boots on the ground" game management and ticketing etc. As time marched on they were utililzed to offer solutions to several capital projects and how to fund them. This eventually branched out to the community. I am sure all grads remember "THE PROJECT"!!! What the administration did with that is exactly what they do with just about everything - it went in the black hole.
You also have to keep in mind that there are ALWAYS issues with budgets etc. There are a ton of things that could be done, but it does take some money to get them done. Once again I do not know what the current regime's budget breakdowns look like but i know for YEARS the number was ZERO. Things either needed to be "traded out" or if any money was raised it went into THE BLACK HOLE on the mountain never to be seen again. Several vendors no longer want to do business with us b/c of EXTREME late payment, broken promises (Good song by Resurrection Band to rehash an old thread) etc. It is very easy to say "Gosh, this is a great idea we should do it" but another thing to actually have the money and resources to do it.