Aug. 3, 2011

THE WILDCAT MOVEMENT IS GROWING

After a successful campaign to increase our Wildcat Club membership to 9,000 members by June 30, we are proud to announce that  --  thanks to your support  --  we surpassed our goal and reached a total of 9,592members!  Thank you to all who joined “The Movement” and made a contribution to the Wildcat Club.  Your financial support provides scholarships, state-of-the-art facilities, equipment, team travel and all the other tools that help our over 450 student-athletes succeed on and off the playing surface.

We invite you to continue your support by renewing your commitment in May, helping us reach our next goal of10,500 members by June 30, 2012, and ultimately reaching the 12,000 members mark by 2013 to put our membership on top of the Pac-12.  If you haven’t already, you can join the movement by making your contribution or encourage others to do so at www.WildcatMovement.com.

HERALDING THE PAC-12 NETWORK

A year from now the Pac-12 Network, in partnership with cable carriers and (hopefully soon) satellite TV and telco providers, will launch its inaugural year of programming. Gone are the days when some of the finest competition in the land -- the Pac-10's -- will be unable to reach a nationwide audience. Further what league commissioner Larry Scott calls a "transformative arrangement," will take so many more of our competitive events to the public through innovative platforms -- including the provision for some that haven't been invented. An annual total of some 850 live events -- on national or regional feeds -- will be produced including every football and men's basketball game that isn't carried by national broadcast partners. It means if you wear the colors, you'll be able to emphasize it by having considerably more Wildcat events on your menu. As a league, it's a phenomenal complement to the broadcast partnership announced in May and a forward-looking collaboration that will keep the Pac-12 second to none in terms of its reach. Much more information will be coming out in the next year.

You can walk around McKale Center and there's a real buzz. A quarter of our teams are assembling and getting prepared for official report dates this week and the start of a new season. The new league, of course, makes it more than the start of a new year. It's a new era. It won't be long until the fall semester commences, on Aug. 22. That same day we'll hold our annual student-athlete barbeque, which really is more of a welcome, some general guidance about our expectations and a call to arms, than a picnic. But it brings home the point. It's time to get moving. Along those lines, one of the things we're doing this week is customer service training for the entire staff.  Tomorrow our staff will be working with a gentleman named Joe Silberschlag who is a former Director of Training for the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Phoenix & San Francisco.  Many of you know that the Ritz-Carlton is one of the most customer friendly businesses around and we look forward to gaining some valuable insight from Joe’s time in our department.  We want our people to be confident in the manner with which they deal with you, the public. We don't always have the answers but we're sure willing to look for them, and represent our university in the finest fashion while doing so.

BUS TRAVEL TO FOOTBALL

A short while ago it looked as if the city bus shuttle service by SunTran to our football games would be discontinued. Not so. Details will be forthcoming but those of you who take advantage of the free parking elsewhere for a short bus ride to Arizona Stadium will be able to do so again in 2011. Of course, that presupposes that you have football game tickets... You have to be thinking, too, about the unveiling of the new, massive videoboard for the first game (NAU, Sept. 3). Down the road you want to be able to say you were in the crowd for that first game -- and mean it.  Thank you Sun Tran for your support in making this important transportation option a continued reality for our fans!

SCHEDULE NOTES

Below are the first couple of competitive events for teams this fall. Remember, you can find the complete schedules at www.ArizonaWildcats.com:

Friday, Aug. 19 - Soccer opens season on the road at San Diego State

Friday, Aug. 26 - Volleyball opens the season in Hawaii against Wichita State

Saturday, Sept. 3 - Football opens the year against NAU in Arizona Stadium

Saturday, Sept. 3 - Men's and Women's Cross Country open the year at a meet in Flagstaff

FIVE CATS AND SOME ROCKS

Our emblems are barely a century old, but they do stand out against the backdrop of 4,000-year-old monuments at Stonehenge, near Amesbury, England. Below, the May family -- Charlie, Suzie, Elizabeth, Emily and Phillip -- take a moment to show off the colors on a recent trip

Meanwhile, across the way, in Germany, father Kevin Redding and daughter, Rachel, took a moment to pose. Come on, Rachel, gear up!

Continue to do what you can to help Arizona Athletics and:

1.       Join the Wildcat Movement
2.       Buy Season Tickets
3.       Wear the Colors (Especially on Friday)
4.       Get Others to Do the Same

Bear Down with Pride,

Greg Byrne
Director of Athletics
The University of Arizona
uofaad@arizona.edu