Gotta give Chun time, he didn't have much time to plan before the season started, he didn't even know what to expect. We are way to quick to judge people on here before they've gotten a chance to prove themselves.

I don't remember Angelos ever trying to do something like this. Chun knows how important the students are to athletics. I'd like to see what he has planned for baseball season, if there's a team that needs student support more than anyone, it's the baseball team.

Let's give Chun some time to build athletics and get us into a position where we aren't giving low ball offers to our coaching staff because we have no money. Let's give him some time to get donor for the naming rights of the Football stadium. He hasn't been on the job too long yet but already is doing things different things to improve attendance and get students involved

Jab979 said

Gotta give Chun time, he didn't have much time to plan before the season started, he didn't even know what to expect. We are way to quick to judge people on here before they've gotten a chance to prove themselves.

You're right - we do judge people too quickly here. I'm guilty of it too.

I'd like to call it a first impression and recognize that it's malleable. For instance, my first impression of Pat Chun is that he has a very impressive resume and he's absolutely the best person for the position right now. I expect he'll do things better over the years too.

At the same time, he's been on the job for almost two months now and I'd prefer him to stop speaking in vague generalities like "we need to connect with the community" and start hammering out specific plans. The Athletic Academic Center is a good start… I imagine a full-on Athletics Capital Campaign will follow.

Regarding the NT game, I like rally towels but I'm a little underwhelmed that, after "analyzing the data from the Wagner game", this is the only thing we're hearing to get butts in the seats for this game. There's gotta be more going on than rally towels if you want to fill up a 30k seat stadium. We can all agree on that. I know Chun doesn't control winning, which is the main thing that would bring people in. But he does control marketing.

Maybe they feel like Parent-student weekend is enough of a promotion to suffice for now?

Jab979 said

I don't remember Angelos ever trying to do something like this. Chun knows how important the students are to athletics.

Well, there were certainly initiatives under Angelos; I've gotten rally towels, artificial noisemakers, game shirts, giveaways at basketball games. I don't know specifically which were his ideas and which were Dexter LaMonts, or which of these (other than the "beat" shirts) were SGA's doing.

But you're right: I don't remember him specifically reached out to students.

Whose idea was the Rat's Mouth? SGA? Or Athletics?

BocaCoop said

I was super excited about this until TeamBeer reminded me that Im no longer a student!  ???

I received a rally towel from… Delray Acura?… before FanFest. So you never know who is going to hand out those things.

All the rally towels and tshirts before the BBall games, I feel like it was more Burdman and SGA than it was Athletics.

You're right no one really cares about rally towels but it's a first step. No one is going to say "Bro, I can't make it to the party tonight, they're handing out rally towels at the FAU game" lol.

But it's a start. Now, next season if it's more of the same I'll be disappointed because he's had a full season to examine what's wrong with athletics, especially football and come up with new and innovative ideas to get the students involved.

Jab979 said

All the rally towels and tshirts before the BBall games, I feel like it was more Burdman and SGA than it was Athletics.

You're right no one really cares about rally towels but it's a first step. No one is going to say "Bro, I can't make it to the party tonight, they're handing out rally towels at the FAU game" lol.

But it's a start. Now, next season if it's more of the same I'll be disappointed because he's had a full season to examine what's wrong with athletics, especially football and come up with new and innovative ideas to get the students involved.

I agree. He said he was going to study Georgia, Alabama, and other schools marketing plans, then get together with the Athletic Department staff to develop a larger marketing strategy. Plus its going to be constantly updated.

Jab979 said

No one is going to say "Bro, I can't make it to the party tonight, they're handing out rally towels at the FAU game" lol.

:D

Rick said

Jab979 said

No one is going to say "Bro, I can't make it to the party tonight, they're handing out rally towels at the FAU game" lol.

:D

No college party starts before 11 pm, the game is at 5 pm. I do not think anyone is going to have to give up a party to go to the game. If anything, it works out perfectly so we can go to the game, go home and shower, then go out and rage.

NJOWL said

Rick said

Jab979 said

No one is going to say "Bro, I can't make it to the party tonight, they're handing out rally towels at the FAU game" lol.

:D

No college party starts before 11 pm, the game is at 5 pm. I do not think anyone is going to have to give up a party to go to the game. If anything, it works out perfectly so we can go to the game, go home and shower, then go out and rage.

As soon as my morning class is over tomorrow morning…. I love the feeling around the Breezeway and all over campus the day before an home game.

NJOWL said

Rick said

Jab979 said

No one is going to say "Bro, I can't make it to the party tonight, they're handing out rally towels at the FAU game" lol.

:D

No college party starts before 11 pm, the game is at 5 pm. I do not think anyone is going to have to give up a party to go to the game. If anything, it works out perfectly so we can go to the game, go home and shower, then go out and rage.

The tailgate does (same difference)…and you just made the point up above that we have a challenge in itself to get people into the gate before kick off.

Which is lame!

I'm going to step in and defend the undergrads here!

It IS hard to get in by kickoff, virtually impossible for the undergrads if you ask me. None of these guys sit in the Priority/Premier club from what I gather, they're in the student section, which is dry. They are outsite, having beers, talking to women (gents, enjoy that as long as you can, it'll never be better than right now) and hanging with their brothers, it's this great, outdoor party that you can't just walk away from instantly when someone says it's almost 5pm. Hell, I have a hard time getting in for kickoff and I'm a grownass man!! Why? because even though football is fun, so is drinking in a parking lot! and if you are having a particularly good time one day, then you're not going to stop just to go inside.

"other schools" only look better because they have 80,000 of the 101,000 in the stadium for the start, they still have 20,000 stragglers. It's the reason why a lot of programs go through this elaborate opening number for their teams, if you can give us a reason to come in early, I bet more will do so. Dot the I, Rub Howard's Rock, the USC Space Oddessy thing, whatever it is, but if it's cool people will come see it. Last year, our players didn't even want to be there for kickoff, why should we?  ;D