NCAA Focusing on Growing WBB Popularity

[Charliebball]

 

[RockyMTblue2]

The NCAA is so adept at improving things. Wanna improve it, grow the ball.

 

[Jim]

You want to raise attendance? Put UCONN on your out of conference schedule instead of those cupcakes.

 

[eebmg]

You want to raise attendance? Put UCONN on your out of conference schedule instead of those cupcakes.

What's wrong with cupcakes? I might go to more games if they served cupcakes.

 

[bags27]

sounds positively dreary. more corporate speak, more commercialization of a sport, rather than focusing on the essence of the game:

Each school will be assigned industry leaders. These sports business professionals are committed to helping schools audit their marketing plans.

The mentoring relationships developed between the industry leaders and the schools will help in the evaluation of every aspect of the marketing plan. Through season-long conversations, best practices will be developed, and the effectiveness of the budget, communications, promotions, game atmosphere and more will be evaluated.

 

[BostonCanuck]

They ought create a single, high-profile leadership/spokesperson role for NCAA WCBB, and fill it with a personality like Lisa Borders. I don't think they have anything like that right now, do they? It seems to me that Borders has done wonders for the WNBA as its president. Of course, it's all about finding the right individual... you certainly wouldn't want someone like a Roger Goddell in there.

 

[CL82]

sounds positively dreary. more corporate speak, more commercialization of a sport, rather than focusing on the essence of the game:

Each school will be assigned industry leaders. These sports business professionals are committed to helping schools audit their marketing plans.

The mentoring relationships developed between the industry leaders and the schools will help in the evaluation of every aspect of the marketing plan. Through season-long conversations, best practices will be developed, and the effectiveness of the budget, communications, promotions, game atmosphere and more will be evaluated.

Sounds bloated and ineffectual.

 

[JellyBean]

Oh my goodness. The women's game is fine.

 

[mbr33ct]

You sure they're not talking about making the women's basketball the same size as the men's?

 

[BigBird]

When the NCAA says it intends to boost womens' basketball, it brings to mind another such declaration:

"Hi, I'm from the government, and I'm here to help you."

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

sounds positively dreary. more corporate speak, more commercialization of a sport, rather than focusing on the essence of the game:

Each school will be assigned industry leaders. These sports business professionals are committed to helping schools audit their marketing plans.

The mentoring relationships developed between the industry leaders and the schools will help in the evaluation of every aspect of the marketing plan. Through season-long conversations, best practices will be developed, and the effectiveness of the budget, communications, promotions, game atmosphere and more will be evaluated.

For all of that - dreary and corporate speak - I don't think "essence of the game" is the issue. Put another way - there is nothing you can do with the game itself that is going to put more fans in the seats and make the sport more popular. At least nothing that folks that like the game now are going to like.

Marketing is a big thing. Rutgers was perennially awful at it. Vivian was appalled when she arrived, I actually was part of a group of fans that her mother went off at over the poor marketing - and just to be clear, I don't mean marketing of Vivian, I mean marketing of WBB designed to put fannies in the seats. Iowa was much better at the time. While winning certainly is a factor (duh), Rutgers never grasped some basics of marketing throughout the time we were there.

Arizona is better than Rutgers at marketing their sports programs collectively (or at least they were under our previous AD that too the job at Alabama) but there are some misses as well.

Promotions are important - call it commercialization if you want - but they are also important in that they look awful when they don't work. For example, Wilbur (the UofA mascot) has an official "birthday" - and they decided to have one of the celebrations at a WBB game. While he does attend really major games, the mascot for women's games is his "wife", Wilma Wildcat. Other than that I thought it was fun watching the 2 mascots interact, it was a big lead balloon of an event.

The most important promotions are those that get students to attend (in my mind).

What I'm trying to say is I wouldn't blow up the idea out-of-hand. Just sayin

 

[tomcat]

It probably won't hurt. There are some programs that have not invested $.02 in their WCBB programs in years, if ever. And, as the previous poster suggested, getting students to attend is half the battle, and I have to believe that's an easier marketing task than just generally broadcasting outward to an often unreceptive public.

But the fact is, if you have the best marketing and social media program in the world., and you get fans to the game and they see lousy basketball, what have you accomplished? (assuming, of course, that the fans are knowledgeable enough to know the difference.) You've confirmed in their minds that you're offering a second-rate product. On the other hand, if you attract a lot of students because the event itself is fun, maybe you've go something to work with. They may not think much of the game, but they'll come back because of the experience.

 

[BroadwayVa]

The NCAA is so adept at improving things. Wanna improve it, grow the ball.

The problem with changing the game is: you may lose your base or those that were happy with the game--ala the men's college game. Marketing is essential--hold your most positive aspect and people often before the public--if you want to do it over time--start with they youngest and work your way up the in age groups---Mao, Joe S, Adolph, Churches, US Gov have done this very effectively. The selling of an idea is a bit more intricate than selling a product--and WCBB is a product. Uconn while a great local product does not reflect most programs and at times inhibit the growth of other programs--due to dollars required.

 

[Plebe]

My response to that scintillating piece of prose from the NCAA: