Lutzow10
Freshman
MILWAUKEE PROUD - PANTHER STRONG
|
Post by Lutzow10 on May 21, 2013 13:18:01 GMT -6
If you were in charge of coming up with the plan for athletics (a realistic plan that takes current factors into consideration like budget, donors, etc) layout in steps what you would do, in order of what you think is most important? List everything you think needs to be done (keep in mind if it can be done without other things done first) with as much or as little detail as you think necessary to convey your plans and ideas.
I am interested in seeing what people think are the most and least important things our school needs to do and the steps they think need to be taken to achieve these things. Basically, its your chance to layout the plan you would propose if you were in charge.
|
|
|
Post by DunneDeal on May 22, 2013 7:29:15 GMT -6
Personally I would have 1A. and 1B any IMO they are interchangeable
1A. Basektball Practice Facility - We need to un-clutter the KC.
1B. Baseball Field - The reason why is two fold. Once it is built, it should be a premier baseball stadium in the Milwaukee area, which should then inturn be rented out, to a NWL Team, Milwaukee Public Schools, WIAA Playoffs, special events, ect. I think it only helps the AD bring in more money.
|
|
|
Post by illwauk on May 22, 2013 15:29:29 GMT -6
1. Lobby to get Downer Woods razed. No one wants to donate money for facilities when they know you don't even have a place for those facilities to be built.
2A. Basketball practice facility.
2B. Baseball field
2C. BRANDING... with or without a nickname change.
3. Purchasing US Cellular Arena or building an on-campus arena.
|
|
|
Post by PantherU on May 23, 2013 10:58:52 GMT -6
Start small. Brand the program correctly. Be Milwaukee, and create a secondary brand for the city to use. UMIL seems the best to me, but there are other ideas that work fine.
Create a dynamic, multi-sport marketing plan that takes advantage of several area traits. Market soccer on the south side, which has a significant Latino and European population. Identify and work with the student body to create an effective 12th man, which will boost attendance as well - in Europe, the fans are part of the show and if you can get 40-50 to start, it snowballs from there. Billboards on the south side are cheap; a couple hundred per month in some cases. Bilingual ads can really unite the Latino community around us - a very large and growing Latino community that can afford the cheap soccer season ticket prices. Hang the national flags of every Panther on the fence next to the Architecture parking lot; we're adding some Latino players next season. To help with ticket sales and promotions, the Spanish department could give us some interns to help.
Find a way to market baseball. Make sure the strategy shows how different it is from the MLB product. Different and also as good. Add tailgating guidelines to the website, hinting that this is something we like to see at soccer and baseball games.
Meet with Mike Davis and Bill Windler at the Journal Sentinel to discuss expanding coverage of the soccer and especially baseball programs. Point out that attendance at baseball rises dramatically after MJS coverage, including at the Hank. Lobby them to assign a beat writer, or at least give the team the same level of coverage the Admirals and Wave receive. Suggest that Charlie Gardner should be covering soccer much more heavily, as the world's sport is slowly taking real strong footing in America. The 12-24 age male tv audience watches soccer more than any sport outside of football, which is going to take a sharp decline in the next 20 years as we learn more about concussions and soccer continues to become a much more physical sport with longer professional careers and pay that grows ever closer to the NFL average, which will bring youth participation, especially in the inner city, up as they become educated. It is in the MJS' best interest to get in front of the coverage and get behind our soccer program, as well as Marquette. We can work with MU to achieve that.
Grow the Black and Gold Club and Varsity Club so we increase fan participation and give potential donors the opportunity to be closer to the program. Create a stronger database that is all-encompassing of everyone involved in athletics - a master spreadsheet that truly identifies our fan base.
Sit down with Chancellor Lovell as many times as it takes to get him to see that his legacy as a Chancellor is deeply tied to athletics. Get him on board. I'd challenge him to increase the amount of money coming from university funds into athletics to at least meet the commitment that students have given - $5 million per year from students, about a million from the university today. That's also if you include tuition waivers in the amount from the school. Even if the school just boosts its contribution at a fraction of what students pay, the athletic department that has learned to live with dwindling resources can really stretch those dollars into something real.
Put high priority on securing a real, significant practice facility for the basketball programs. Our peers in the Horizon have spent between $9 million and $14 million in 2013 dollars on their current facilities; I'd at least equal what Kansas State just built ($18 million), but I think the donors would be energized and the university would benefit greatly if the school tried like hell to build a $35 million basketball practice facility and said to hell with the arena at this time. For one, you'd be building the best practice facility in the nation, which will automatically put us in the hunt for very high level recruits. We may not get a Diamond Stone, but we could be in his top 10 just based on that alone.
If it can be built easily, I'd get the baseball stadium done concurrently with the bball facility. The team needs a diamond that 1) they can recruit to, 2) they can become dominant in, and 3) they can control the gate at so we can make money. Once the baseball diamond is finished, you can cross off two of our top three teams (soccer and baseball) for facilities needs. Track and Field and Tennis are so far down the list that I'd probably never get to them within 10 years.
Moving the basketball games to the Cell is an obvious move that I expect to happen. Amanda is just too smart and too savvy to not understand what the fans want; we didn't lost 1,000 season ticket holders based on dropping Wisconsin and Butler from the schedule.
Explore the possibility of turning the Alumni House into a dorm for men's basketball. As for current rules, you have to have a majority of non student-athletes living there. The Alumni House could easily house 33 students. The NCAA is considering dropping the 20-year old ban on athletics dorms; once that happens, women's basketball can move into the building as well. You do this for a couple reasons. For one, you use the currently vacant Alumni House. Second, you can make very good cash by getting 20 students to pay for premium dorm space. Third, it is a major, major, major recruiting tool that would raise the talent on the basketball team considerably.
Put the practice facility and the Alumni House projects forward, and this is an annual top-25 basketball team with legitimate aspirations for a national championship if you have the right coach. We have too many advantages to put forward - Milwaukee, prime location, Big Ten sized enrollment, no albatross football or hockey program to drag down the basketball program, and suddenly two facilities that would be the best of their kind in college hoops.
To me, if you partner with the Bucks to build the practice facility, all of a sudden you add even those advantages that come with that - players rubbing elbows with NBA stars and access to Herb Kohl's checkbook. This state is more than big enough for three major basketball programs - since Marquette recruits Chicago well and mainly recruits nationwide, the talent isn't as spread thin as if all three teams recruited the state by itself.
That's what I'd do.
|
|
|
Post by illwauk on May 27, 2013 16:09:27 GMT -6
Regarding a baseball facility... sure it would be nice to have our own, but considering that the University of Minnesota was able to force the Minnesota legislature to make the new Vikings stadium facilitate the school's baseball team; wouldn't it make more sense to lobby the Wisconsin legislature to force the Brewers into letting our team use Miller Park?
Granted, we're not a fart-sniffing, holier-than-thou Big Ten school, but we are a state institution looking to use a facility funded by Wisconsin taxpayers. You'd have to think being able to play in a big league ballpark with a dome would not only have more appeal for recruits, but for fans who've been shut out of the Miller Park experience (or at least having it as often as they'd like) because of ridiculous MLB ticket prices.
Playing at Miller Park would also allow us to not only find a place to actually put a baseball facility, but buy us time to find private donors (RBI program?) willing to back it instead of putting it on students who already pay too damn much for tuition as it is.
|
|
|
Post by PantherU on May 27, 2013 16:19:08 GMT -6
A few things.
1. The Brewers don't want us. 2. I don't see a Republican-controlled legislature (especially under Scott Walker) bending over backwards to help a public school and hurt the private team. 3. We prefer our own facility.
|
|
|
Post by ghostofdylan on May 28, 2013 12:07:47 GMT -6
Fans (have) been shut out of the Miller Park experience (or at least having it as often as they'd like) because of ridiculous MLB ticket prices. I attended all three games of the series against the Dodgers last week for $15, including concessions. It's really not hard to afford games if you're smart about it.
|
|
Lutzow10
Freshman
MILWAUKEE PROUD - PANTHER STRONG
|
Post by Lutzow10 on May 28, 2013 14:18:35 GMT -6
Brewers have cheapest tix in baseball and the cheapest beer if i remember right.
|
|
Lutzow10
Freshman
MILWAUKEE PROUD - PANTHER STRONG
|
Post by Lutzow10 on May 28, 2013 14:20:42 GMT -6
Thats cheapest available not cheapest average ticket price.
|
|
|
Post by illwauk on May 28, 2013 15:36:10 GMT -6
A few things. 1. The Brewers don't want us. 2. I don't see a Republican-controlled legislature (especially under Scott Walker) bending over backwards to help a public school and hurt the private team. 3. We prefer our own facility. 1. I don't think most taxpayers would care if they felt it would save them money for the Panthers to play at Miller park. 2. I think it's worth a shot to hammer point #1 home to such a legislature... although considering how the tail (tea party) is wagging the dog on the Republican side, expecting consistency out of them might be asking a bit much. 3. Indeed... but I would imagine our own facility would need a roof for our baseball program to get to College World Series level. That's probably going to cost significantly more than the $1 million we current have to spend on a new ballpark. Thats cheapest available not cheapest average ticket price. That's an important distinction... the entire upper deck at Miller Park is useless unless you want to have vertigo and not be able to distinguish between a fly ball and a grounder.
|
|
|
Post by ghostofdylan on May 28, 2013 17:35:05 GMT -6
Fellas, most games you can buy a Uecker seat for $1 and sit wherever you want in the loge level. It really isn't all that difficult.
Couple that with the Spring Madness or Five Day/Five County food/drink specials and a day at Miller Park is much cheaper than a matinee movie.
|
|
Lutzow10
Freshman
MILWAUKEE PROUD - PANTHER STRONG
|
Post by Lutzow10 on May 28, 2013 18:42:48 GMT -6
I don't mid the upper deck seats at all.
|
|
|
Post by PantherU on May 28, 2013 20:17:59 GMT -6
In any case, I think soccer is the future. Unlike every other sport we have, our soccer program is relevant nationally, has a deep and storied history, and has been undoubtedly successful for most of its existence.
For those who haven't been paying attention, this program is just coming out of its dark ages (The Jon Coleman/Chris Whalley years). This sport needs to be shepherded for the day when college soccer is a major deal in this country.
|
|
mwu
Sophomore
I am U-Dub U-M
|
Post by mwu on May 28, 2013 21:07:02 GMT -6
Thats cheapest available not cheapest average ticket price. That's an important distinction... the entire upper deck at Miller Park is useless unless you want to have vertigo and not be able to distinguish between a fly ball and a grounder. Yeah MP is a mixed bag when it comes to the Terrace Level. Between the bases, MP has some great sight lines. But once you hit sections 414/430 your ease of visibility drops exponentially the further into the outfield you go. That doesn't mean you can't easily find affordable tickets in good sections. Stub Hub has seats as cheap as $7 in good-decent terrace sections. BP, I look forward to the day when soccer takes over the US. Time to think about upgrading Englemann one of these days.
|
|
|
Post by PANTHERfan on May 29, 2013 8:34:26 GMT -6
In any case, I think soccer is the future. Unlike every other sport we have, our soccer program is relevant nationally, has a deep and storied history, and has been undoubtedly successful for most of its existence. For those who haven't been paying attention, this program is just coming out of its dark ages (The Jon Coleman/Chris Whalley years). This sport needs to be shepherded for the day when college soccer is a major deal in this country. Agreed. I'd love to see the seating at Englemann redone to expand capacity, comfort, and experience. This field is a gem and the men's program is likely headed back to where it belongs. Why not invest in one of the best things we have going for us (after already investing in a world-class field along with lights)? Soccer is only going to get bigger.
|
|