Aug. 11, 2010

August 11, 2010

FOOTBALL TICKETS & WILDCAT CLUB

We have been impressed with our weekly season ticket reports for football.  We are definitely heading in the right direction. Not including our student tickets, we have sold in excess of 24,500 full price season tickets with about four weeks until our first home game. Our all-time record is 27,779 coming off of the 1994 Fiesta Bowl.  

For everyone who has purchased a season ticket, thank you. If you haven't, we need you - purchase here. Plain and simple, we need you to invest in our football program moving forward. The financial foundation of our department is created through the revenue from football tickets, men's basketball season tickets, Wildcat Club donations, our IMG partnership and Pac-10 Conference revenue. We have to be strong in each of those areas for long-term success. It directly impacts everything we can do as an athletics department.

I believe that the way you create more demand on season tickets and Wildcat Club membership is a multi-step approach and each step is critical:

1. CONSTRUCTIVELY CHALLENGE YOUR FAN BASE - Ask them to buy tickets and/or join the Wildcat Club and let them know that EACH person makes a difference.

2. GIVE A GREAT EXPERIENCE - Good customer service through the Ticket Office, parking and traffic experience as efficient as possible (but remembering we are bringing 55,000+ into a small area so it does take time :-), a fun tailgating atmosphere, welcome the fans when they come through the gates with a smile, efficient concession stands, clean restrooms, entertaining video board/music and thank the fans when they are exiting our stadium.

3. PROMOTE DEMAND ON THE TICKETS - Have price points and amenities that offer different options for your customers...from skyboxes & club seats to family areas.

4. PUT A GOOD PRODUCT ON THE FIELD - Everyone loves a winner and we will win. At the same time, every program will have their ups and downs and if that happens we need to show our fans that we are still competing and giving relentless effort.

We need you and appreciate you. Every one of us makes a difference; please encourage others to get involved.

TAKING THE MESSAGE STATEWIDE

Yesterday, we were in Chandler and Casa Grande to open our Arizona Road Trip. Today, it's Glendale and Pinetop.  It's an RV excursion with me, some coaches and key staff members to put our pride in University of Arizona Athletics in focus around the state. The University's reach since its humble beginning in 1885 always has been statewide, in education, research and public service, and we know there's a wealth of support for Wildcat Athletics. The visits in central Arizona were outstanding and it's been great to see how we've been received. I'm sure the Phoenix and Scottsdale (Thursday), Globe/Safford/Benson (Friday), and Sahuarita/Sierra Vista (Saturday) stops also will be special. We wind up at the 4:30 p.m. Arizona Football scrimmage at Buena High School in Sierra Vista. We hope to take more trips in the future to other parts of this great state.

SPEAKING OF FOOTBALL...

I admire Coach Mike Stoops for taking his team to the U.S. Army post at Fort Huachuca. Most of the time is spent, as you might guess, at football practice. But on Friday and Sunday, players will have an opportunity to test at a Leadership Reaction Course and an Engagement Skills Trainer session just as many of the soldiers on post do. I've heard that the stay there (in barracks) engenders some real team building.

GETTING TOGETHER TO STAY TOGETHER

We'll be having our entire staff go through a STEP UP! program training segment in a week or two. You may recall an earlier note I wrote about how peer intervention is a critical social tool for our student-athletes. We feel the training session will have a good impact on everyone connected to our program, if only to emphasize how we expect our student-athletes to support each other.

Another factor on the horizon for UA employees is a furlough system we'll have to incorporate into our 2010-11 fiscal year. It will involve some unpaid days off for everyone, and is part of President Shelton's budget strategy this year. It will not affect the department's ability to compete, conduct business or educate our young people in superior fashion...Another get-together soon on the horizon is the Welcome Back BBQ for all teams, coaches and staff the evening of Monday the 23rd. It's to be my first, obviously, and I'm looking forward to it. It's great for all of us to start the new year on the same page, so to speak. That day is also the first day of fall classes. I understand that in the past one of the questions asked of the student-athletes at the event was, "Will everyone who missed a class today please raise your hand?"  And, of course, NO ONE does so...

EDUCATING OUR TEAMS

Starting today, staff members from our Community Relations Office, Wildcat Club, and `A' Club will be meeting with each of our teams to educate them on community service opportunities, the various support groups for our teams (ZonaZoo, Arizona Allegiance Honorary, and our cheerleaders/mascots), and how the student-athletes can continue to stay involved and potentially give back after they graduate. We feel that it's important for all of our student-athletes to know this now so that they can be aware of these three organizations and the services they provide while they are still on campus.

ACADEMIC DATABASE PINPOINTS INDIVIDUALS
 
Last week the NCAA's Committee on Academic Performance issued APR data for individual institutions' head coaches in football, baseball, men's and women's basketball,  and women's indoor and outdoor track and field. In our case, that's Mike Stoops, Andy Lopez, Sean Miller, Niya Butts and Fred Harvey. The data is designed to create more transparency and make coaches more accountable for the classroom performance of their student-athletes. The Head Coach APR Portfolio does not assess any awards or penalties; it merely lays out the facts. It will expand to all Division I sports after the 2010-11 academic year. I can report that we had some good numbers and some marks that need improvement, and also that our charge as a department is to keep scholastic performance dear to our hearts, with the goal of graduation for each of our student-athletes. We did pretty well in the overall APR report issued last spring, without any sanctions, and I know we'll do better. You can count on that.

Bear Down,

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