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Dear Mr. Rick George - Student Section Problems and Solutions

BuffDog

Club Member
Club Member
Dear Mr. Rick George - The students that have been showing up to the games have been great but we really need a full student section. When the student section is packed the place gets really loud and they are like a 6th man. As you saw yesterday, the student section for the Washington game was only about half full and we didn't have the energy we could have.

PROBLEM - Not enough students are showing up for the games and we desperately need them make the CEC the most difficult venue in college basketball for the opposing team. With Arizona and Arizona State coming to town next week and a 4th place or better finish (and a first round bye at the P12 tournament) on the line, the time to act is now.

SOLUTIONS - SHORT-TERM
We need students at the games (before it starts) in a little over a week. I am guessing the athletic department already sends emails, please give pizza to the first 2,000 (or how many seats plus a few hundred standing) to the final games. Thrown in t-shirts for the first 500 for the Arizona game.

LONG-TERM
Bring back the award system where students get burritos, t-shirts and other goodies for attending home games. Send 4 -10 students to the P12 Tournament as was done in the past. Hire some students to lead the student section in organized clean chants. (take his whistle, fun-da-men-tals, you can't do that, left-right left-right sit down, and airball) With the right leadership, a player from the opposing team who throws up an airball early in the game will be reminded of how elevation can impact his shot throughout the game. I hear that CU has a pretty good Business School. Tap into that talent and use some of the marketing students to come up with ways to draw the students in.

HOW YOU PAY FOR IT
SHORT-TERM
I know that funds are tight. For this year, I am counting on Coach Boyle stepping up and telling the students that he really needs them next week and he wants to buy them a meal to show how much he appreciates their support. Since he is in the top incomecar tax bracket, if he chooses to reduce his salary by the amount used, it will only cost him 50 cents on the dollar.

LONG-TERM
Have a check off box on the season ticket renewals where I and other CU fans can make an extra $10, 20, or $100 donation to pay for the above. I think you may be surprised to find that people are willing to chip in for a better atmosphere. Coach Boyle may still need to help out the first few years. As we win more games that should mean more revenue and it will become self funding.

Sincerely yours,
CU Basketball Fan
 
It's clear that the students have been the forgotten group in the RG revolution. I would actually support them hiring somebody whose sole job was to engage student involvement. Todays students are tomorrows season ticket holders and major donors. It's a process. Mike Bohn, for all his faults, understood this. He started the process and it has, unfortunately, been abandoned.
 
Hah. I like the idea of making Boyle pay for it since he is in a higher tax bracket. I'm sure Snow and others will agree. Just joking. Carry on.
 
I'm not a fan of Tad paying for it but I like the idea of engaging with RG on how to energize the students.
 
I'll say it again - why not hire somebody whose only job is student involvement? Somebody who sets up the promos, interacts with student groups, and works on creating a long term culture of passion for CU athletics?
 
Outside of food or monetary incentive of some sort, I don't think there is a great way to engage the student body. You can't manufacture true enthusiasm; it has to be led by the students themselves, and some classes have it while others don't.
 
I hadn't planned to actually send the letter figuring that Rick George was already a member here and he would read it. :)Coach B paying for it seems like a no brainer from a PR perspective as well as how he would personally benefit when the team won more games. An investment of $10,000 for the Arizon and ASU games would represent .0067 of his salary. Seems like a great investment.
 
I'll say it again - why not hire somebody whose only job is student involvement? Somebody who sets up the promos, interacts with student groups, and works on creating a long term culture of passion for CU athletics?
I mean, it sounds great, but I'd imagine they have people that have some of those responsibilities already. Maybe it's more a need to provide focus to people already on staff. A management issue, if you will.
 
Outside of food or monetary incentive of some sort, I don't think there is a great way to engage the student body. You can't manufacture true enthusiasm; it has to be led by the students themselves, and some classes have it while others don't.

Agree. Games are fun, though. So the idea would be to get them to a game & they will decide to come back. And for some, the points is what tips the decision in bad weather or against SE Directional A&M.
 
I'll say it again - why not hire somebody whose only job is student involvement? Somebody who sets up the promos, interacts with student groups, and works on creating a long term culture of passion for CU athletics?
Because that would require CU to be PR savvy, which of course, they aren't.
 
Agree. Games are fun, though. So the idea would be to get them to a game & they will decide to come back. And for some, the points is what tips the decision in bad weather or against SE Directional A&M.
I also believe it has to do with the sport itself. Basketball is just not big in CO, and until CU proves that they are a Sweet 16 capable team year in, year out, they will never garner the student backing in basketball that even a perennial 7 or 8 win football team will.
 
I also believe it has to do with the sport itself. Basketball is just not big in CO, and until CU proves that they are a Sweet 16 capable team year in, year out, they will never garner the student backing in basketball that even a perennial 7 or 8 win football team will.

The thing is, there are so few of those types of programs. Maybe a dozen in the nation. 25 or so if we loosen up the criteria to making the Dance every year. Against all odds, Tad has us on the cusp of that second tier and it still doesn't excite people. I don't know what the answer is.
 
Perhaps this is the appropriate incentive to fill the joint up (so to speak)....

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I hadn't planned to actually send the letter figuring that Rick George was already a member here and he would read it. :)Coach B paying for it seems like a no brainer from a PR perspective as well as how he would personally benefit when the team won more games. An investment of $10,000 for the Arizon and ASU games would represent .0067 of his salary. Seems like a great investment.
RG: hey Tad I got some fan input on how to boost student attendance at basketball game.

TB: oh great I love are fans they are great. How can I help?

RG: Great you are on board. You know we as an organization give you a salary as compensation to coach our basketball team. Well as your employer we think, why don't you pay $5000 a game back for free fan promotions.

TB: Yeah um...Rick, do you still have the phone number for Illinois? I may give them a call.


Seriously dude I hope your boss comes to you Friday and asks you to fund the company happy hour after work.
 
All the Bernie supporters will love the FREE EVERYTHING! proposal here but unfortunately free pizza isn't always the solution. Tough to change apathy
 
All the Bernie supporters will love the FREE EVERYTHING! proposal here but unfortunately free pizza isn't always the solution. Tough to change apathy
Bull.

You have to make it worth their time, though. CU has a history of attracting students from out of state. The types of students that won't have any connection to their athletic department. Every year, over 5,000 students enroll as Freshmen at CU. Get them involved early. Get them passionate about their school. Do that, and apathy isn't an issue.
 
Bull.

You have to make it worth their time, though. CU has a history of attracting students from out of state. The types of students that won't have any connection to their athletic department. Every year, over 5,000 students enroll as Freshmen at CU. Get them involved early. Get them passionate about their school. Do that, and apathy isn't an issue.
I can tell you from first hand experience that a lot of kids simply do not care and are almost obvious to the fact that we even have a team. Throwing pizza at them isn't gonna change that. After all it's not like they came to CU for the sports. Not saying it can't be changed / used to snag some kids but I think the apathy runs deeper than you would think. Lack of marquee opponents I.e Kansas and parity in the PAC may be contributing as well. Oregon is good but not exactly a blue blood and with Arizona so late in the year we haven't really had a big game to generate buzz
 
I never said throwing pizza at them would make a difference. The trick is to incentivize them to show up in a positive way (no more tricking them into going to a women's game just to get tickets to a men's game against a marquee opponent.)
 
They should be going through the dorms on game days to advertise promotions / get people excited for the game or even remind them that we have a team playing tonight. After all there's no reason for freshman to not to be going to the games as a way to meet people, try it out, etc. They might decide it's not something they enjoy but at least that way you get some people to bite early and hopefully sustain when they live off campus and have to think a little bit harder if they want to make the trek to CEC. So yeah I think that's a good point sackman
 
They should be pumping the next home game every day for the next week and a half through every media outlet. Have chip and the cheerleaders wander around campus and giving away prizes. There is absolutely no reason that any student on CU's campus should not know that there is a game next Wednesday night against a marquee opponent. None.
 
They should be pumping the next home game every day for the next week and a half through every media outlet. Have chip and the cheerleaders wander around campus and giving away prizes. There is absolutely no reason that any student on CU's campus should not know that there is a game next Wednesday night against a marquee opponent. None.
I don't think not knowing there is a game is the problem. Students just don't care about basketball. Sad but true.
 
Guys...there are 30,000 undergrads at CU. Of that, at least 6,000 live in the dorms. We are talking about getting 2,000 to go to a basketball game. It shouldn't be that hard. It just takes a little effort.
 
Guys...there are 30,000 undergrads at CU. Of that, at least 6,000 live in the dorms. We are talking about getting 2,000 to go to a basketball game. It shouldn't be that hard. It just takes a little effort.

And it wasn't to long ago that there was discussion about not having enough room in the student section. It isn't as if we are talking about something that hasn't been done before.
 
Guys...there are 30,000 undergrads at CU. Of that, at least 6,000 live in the dorms. We are talking about getting 2,000 to go to a basketball game. It shouldn't be that hard. It just takes a little effort.
Absolutely right. It shouldn't be this hard. CU has twitter, facebook, instagram, snapchat, youtube, and email at its disposal, along with various on campus outlets. With the next home game being against a (likely) top 25 opponent, there is no reason that advertising for it shouldn't have started yesterday.

C-Unit needs to decide on its "theme", which I am hoping is a black out because the students will show up for those. Then the AD needs to pump that info through every source they have available.

Its on ESPN for crying out loud. Throw some money at the problem in the form of shirts or Half Fast or Chipotle or whatever and get the students in the door early.

One thing they stopped doing, that I thought was a great idea was the cash drawing based on student ID number. If you were there, you won a cash prize, if you weren't the value increased for the next game. It got pretty high if I remember correctly the last year they did it.
 
Guys...there are 30,000 undergrads at CU. Of that, at least 6,000 live in the dorms. We are talking about getting 2,000 to go to a basketball game. It shouldn't be that hard. It just takes a little effort.
No, we're talking about getting 2,000 to go and care about a basketball game to the point where the crowd makes a difference. You can't manufacture enthusiasm
 
They are almost all within 1/4 mile of the CEC - and they mostly don't give a sheet. Half-time: pick 4 -8 kids from the student section and have a 5 minute video game contest, shown on the big screens. Do another 10 minutes after the game. Also, do a huge amount of cunit game video, with lots of student close-ups, and broadcast it many times during the week, on whatever CU video network there is.These are pretty ego-driven kids
 
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