The STU feels like Poo

[VCU Finance 2008]

Actually, the "media timeouts", the under 16, 12, 8, and 4, are always written into the script as full timeouts. The difference is we didn't have as many gimmicky promotions back then.

The good news is after the Davidson game where the band started playing immediately into a timeout while we were on a roll during a comeback only to have marketing stop us for a promo (and lecture Duane after the game), well, that got the attention of upper management and moving forward if the team is on a run, the band can keep the energy flowing and management will deal with the repercussions from the sponsors...

You could definitely tell that they got away from the script a little bit on Saturday. Hopefully that continues to be the case. I know people are critical of the band at times, but I don't think that they realize that everyone seems to be handcuffed by the scripted timeouts. There didn't seem to be any flexibility at all prior to Saturday.

 

[RowdyPkunk]

It is definitely a field with a lot of movement and turnover. We need at least a few VCU people in the department that can focus on outreach. Either former players, VCU grads, or long time fans that have some connections with the fan base and have no interest in working for another school. They are aware that turnover within the department is an issue and seem to be short staffed currently, but I don't know that bringing in more outsiders who will stay for 2 or 3 years will help with that.

At some point maybe they need to look at themselves in the department & figure out why there is so much turnover.... year after year after year. Maybe sit down with your staff and have a "clear the air" session with your staff where people can speak their mind with no repercussions to an extent.

I mean, look at the AD under Norwood for a second... For the most part... he kept the AD in tact year after year. Sure you're always going to get one person who moves on to bigger & better opportunities... and if that's the reason they left, you can't blame them for that. But we never had the turnover year after year in the AD that we have now.

 

[WestEndEd]

At some point maybe they need to look at themselves in the department & figure out why there is so much turnover.... year after year after year. Maybe sit down with your staff and have a "clear the air" session with your staff where people can speak their mind with no repercussions to an extent.

I mean, look at the AD under Norwood for a second... For the most part... he kept the AD in tact year after year. Sure you're always going to get one person who moves on to bigger & better opportunities... and if that's the reason they left, you can't blame them for that. But we never had the turnover year after year in the AD that we have now.

Pretty hard for me to like anything about Norwood

 

[WillWeaverRVA]

Pretty hard for me to like anything about Norwood

Yeah, Norwood might have run a tight ship in the AD, but he isn't exactly the type of person I'd want running pretty much anything.

 

[RowdyPkunk]

Pretty hard for me to like anything about Norwood

Yes I understand he had his issues apparently, which I'm certainly not in favor of happening, especially in the work place.

But lemme ask you this, did you ever experience the issues & troubles people are experiencing now with the AD when it came to season tickets/RAF Donations.... needing to talk to someone in the AD but not knowing who to go to because of the yearly overhaul in staff, or getting a constant run around of different answers?

My experience... the answer would be no. I always knew who to go to talk to when I had questions, they were always helpful, never gave me the run around... etc.

Again, not cutting the guy any slack for the harrassment stuff in the work place.... but as far as his staff went, there was hardly any change over on a yearly basis & they were always helpful.

 

[rambunctiousrowdyram]

At some point maybe they need to look at themselves in the department & figure out why there is so much turnover.... year after year after year. Maybe sit down with your staff and have a "clear the air" session with your staff where people can speak their mind with no repercussions to an extent.

I mean, look at the AD under Norwood for a second... For the most part... he kept the AD in tact year after year. Sure you're always going to get one person who moves on to bigger & better opportunities... and if that's the reason they left, you can't blame them for that. But we never had the turnover year after year in the AD that we have now.

VCU in general is known for not liking to hire its grads. VCU athletics use to be more of an exception. Kind of strange tbh. I bet you wouldn’t see that with UVA or Tech. I know for a fact Mason likes hiring it’s grads. I know some who worked actively with athletics for years including myself that would have jumped at the idea after finishing of helping the outreach as we were already very intertwined in the workings at that point. That was never put on the table even a lower starter position to work your way up. They just wanted us to keep volunteering while they took the credit for all the ideas. I’d love to know if people actually knew where RAF, SRAF, etc actually started. It wasn’t athletics. It was a group of Rowdy officers that wanted a plan based on donating but also rewarding your loyalty year after year. SRAF was to have students involved by donating (generally through the Rowdies. With great benefits though.) a little to encourage them to be RAF when they graduated. What athletics inevitably turned it into was nothing like what the original vision was. Yes the high donors stuff would have still happened but the original plan was to still provide perks and unique benefits to fans who stayed year after year and were there for many years. Instead the plan was used to chase out long time people to put bags of money in the seats.

 

[WillWeaverRVA]

Yes I understand he had his issues apparently, which I'm certainly not in favor of happening, especially in the work place.

But lemme ask you this, did you ever experience the issues & troubles people are experiencing now with the AD when it came to season tickets/RAF Donations.... needing to talk to someone in the AD but not knowing who to go to because of the yearly overhaul in staff, or getting a constant run around of different answers?

My experience... the answer would be no. I always knew who to go to talk to when I had questions, they were always helpful, never gave me the run around... etc.

Again, not cutting the guy any slack for the harrassment stuff in the work place.... but as far as his staff went, there was hardly any change over on a yearly basis & they were always helpful.

No, although at the same time, his job was probably a lot easier for the first 4-5 years of it.

VCU in general is known for not liking to hire its grads.

You can say that again. I think I've applied to like 30 jobs at VCU and got maybe one interview.

 

[WestEndEd]

No, although at the same time, his job was probably a lot easier for the first 4-5 years of it.


You can say that again. I think I've applied to like 30 jobs at VCU and got maybe one interview.

50 % of what a school does for you is helping you network, and VCU in general does a bad job at this.

What I am picking up is that the AD turns up it's nose at VCU grads, then has high turnover and poor performance by people who don't care about the school, and just want to make a quick buck n the way out and don't care about leaving a mess.
So pretty much we have the Will Wade of athletic departments.

 

[ShoeSh1ne]

"Ante Up" in Brooklyn was the BEST (...where M.O.P. is from). Coolest thing too was seeing the stunned/amazed/excited looks on the faces of all the ushers and local fans when y'all started playing that.

Related note: I give myself 50% credit for that one because that was my recommendation! Thank you for actually playing it!!!

Also just considering the point of that song and a pep band playing it...it was the perfect song for our team and players. How many of our players do you think knew that song? Likely all of them. It's like the ultimate "WE'RE ABOUT TO FIGHT" song and if the point of a pep band is to fire up the players and crowd, well then you go with a song like Ante Up.

Also just peep this video. This stuff was special. Hear the crowd losing their mind for the band AND HAVING FUN. And peep the massive student section that surrounds them. This whole vibe is completely gone and that is a major loss. It shouldn't be considered acceptable. Instead of this we get, "hey, who's smile is that? By Richmond Dentistry" or whatever. VCU games just aren't nearly as fun as they used to be and IMO, that is a major part of it. Even if the team was struggling, we had those insane people in the corner of the store helping us get through tough games that otherwise weren't enjoyable, but they also I think truly helped fire up the team as well.

Sheesh I could just cry watching that knowing how far we've dropped off.

 

[Ramlove81]

This is all a revelation to someone who hasn't lived in Richmond since 1995 and couldn't afford season tickets, even without RAF donations. My support is watching every game I can on television, driving down for a game in Richmond a couple times a year when I live close enough, and an occasional donation which I always wish could be more. Some of you, maybe most on this site, have been VCU fans and supporters since I was in high school (early 70's) or before. VCU built it's reputation on being a blue collar, over achieving program with a lot of grit and attitude. I have to wonder if we are on our way to black and gold sweater vests and hanging on to a Coach Moody clone because we just can't do any better.
I know an athletic program cost a ton of money, it has to come from somewhere, but a 1000 $1000 donners is just as much $1,000,000 as one $1,000,000 donner. We can't be running off the small donners who have been faithfully supporting the program for decades.
Some of you know that when football season starts my loyalty lies 3000 miles away in Eugene, OR. I assumed that the program was pretty much bought and owned by Phil Knight. I was only partially right. Phil didn't become involved at all in Oregon athletics until a lot later than a lot of people think. Before that the department was improving by leaps and bounds with a lot of smaller donations (at least smaller than Phil's) and Phil Knight was actually something of a bandwagon fan. He saw his old school doing good things and wanted in on it. Yes, since then he has poured a ton of money into Oregon athletics and the AD asks Phil about any big decision that is made, but it started with multiple small donation givers and doing things the right way.
Until we have an Uncle Phil (as some Oregon fans affectionately, sometime through gritted teeth, call him) we are mostly a small donation program trying to do things the right way.
Seems to me the right way is to create the most exciting product we possibly can, not just on the court (extremely important of course), but in the stands, with the band, with cheerleaders and dancers drumming up excitement for the game during timeouts, not corporate spots seemingly created to bore everyone to tears. When that excitement is created the rest won't necessarily come automatically, but I think it may come a lot easier.
My probably totally uninformed 10 cents worth.

 

[enonram]

Promotions at games need to be giveaways, not sponsoring some lame game that nobody is going to remember who sponsored. Give away something useful -

- black and gold mask with VCU and sponsors name on it.
- I liked the towels they used to give away with VCU and sponsor on it (I still have a number of them in my car for cleaning/wiping down).
- plastic windshield scrapper with VCU and sponsor name on it
- black and gold toothbrush
- discount coupons to sponsors' business
- ink pens
- etc, etc

Give this stuff away to people on the way out after games. Pu the sponsors' name in the program and rolling ad on courtside screens.

Items like these, people will see the sponsors' names over and over again months after the game.
It frees time up for the Peppas, which is what the fans really want over some stupid game nobody is going to remember who sponsored.

This isn't that difficult.

 

[Wolfpack Ram]

Promotions at games need to be giveaways, not sponsoring some lame game that nobody is going to remember who sponsored. Give away something useful -

- black and gold mask with VCU and sponsors name on it.
- I liked the towels they used to give away with VCU and sponsor on it (I still have a number of them in my car for cleaning/wiping down).
- plastic windshield scrapper with VCU and sponsor name on it
- black and gold toothbrush
- discount coupons to sponsors' business
- ink pens
- etc, etc

Give this stuff away to people on the way out after games. Pu the sponsors' name in the program and rolling ad on courtside screens.

Items like these, people will see the sponsors' names over and over again months after the game.
It frees time up for the Peppas, which is what the fans really want over some stupid game nobody is going to remember who sponsored.

This isn't that difficult.

Unfortunately, VCU did away with individual game programs. They did have a non-game specific program at the beginning of the year, but I did not see any last Saturday.

 

[RowdyPkunk]

Promotions at games need to be giveaways, not sponsoring some lame game that nobody is going to remember who sponsored. Give away something useful -

- black and gold mask with VCU and sponsors name on it.
- I liked the towels they used to give away with VCU and sponsor on it (I still have a number of them in my car for cleaning/wiping down).
- plastic windshield scrapper with VCU and sponsor name on it
- black and gold toothbrush
- discount coupons to sponsors' business
- ink pens
- etc, etc

Give this stuff away to people on the way out after games. Pu the sponsors' name in the program and rolling ad on courtside screens.

Items like these, people will see the sponsors' names over and over again months after the game.
It frees time up for the Peppas, which is what the fans really want over some stupid game nobody is going to remember who sponsored.

This isn't that difficult.

the problem with that is you're assuming people are going to take them.

Sure some people will take em, might even take extras of certain things.... but other people will walk out & not think twice because either they're in a hurry to get out... or they just don't care about another pen, toothbrush, windshield scraper, mask, towl... etc. Items they might already have enough of.

I do agree there needs to be more peppas during time outs.... Absolutely. And depending on the promo... you can play peppas music during it instead of playing other random radio music over the speakers. Like when you have the kids out there doing the Kroger dash for w/e.... you can EASILY have the Peppas play in that 30 secs to a min time frame.... then playing some song over the radio.

You have the timeouts where the cheerleaders & dancers are on the floor doing their thing.... again, easily play the peppas there.

The Woodfin Parachute drop... again you can play the Peppas during that.

I don't think getting rid of all the promos/games is the way to go.... Just get rid of the dang "Hype" Girl Bree.... cause she's not very Hype. Sorry, Not Sorry.

 

[rambunctiousrowdyram]

This is all a revelation to someone who hasn't lived in Richmond since 1995 and couldn't afford season tickets, even without RAF donations. My support is watching every game I can on television, driving down for a game in Richmond a couple times a year when I live close enough, and an occasional donation which I always wish could be more. Some of you, maybe most on this site, have been VCU fans and supporters since I was in high school (early 70's) or before. VCU built it's reputation on being a blue collar, over achieving program with a lot of grit and attitude. I have to wonder if we are on our way to black and gold sweater vests and hanging on to a Coach Moody clone because we just can't do any better.
I know an athletic program cost a ton of money, it has to come from somewhere, but a 1000 $1000 donners is just as much $1,000,000 as one $1,000,000 donner. We can't be running off the small donners who have been faithfully supporting the program for decades.
Some of you know that when football season starts my loyalty lies 3000 miles away in Eugene, OR. I assumed that the program was pretty much bought and owned by Phil Knight. I was only partially right. Phil didn't become involved at all in Oregon athletics until a lot later than a lot of people think. Before that the department was improving by leaps and bounds with a lot of smaller donations (at least smaller than Phil's) and Phil Knight was actually something of a bandwagon fan. He saw his old school doing good things and wanted in on it. Yes, since then he has poured a ton of money into Oregon athletics and the AD asks Phil about any big decision that is made, but it started with multiple small donation givers and doing things the right way.
Until we have an Uncle Phil (as some Oregon fans affectionately, sometime through gritted teeth, call him) we are mostly a small donation program trying to do things the right way.
Seems to me the right way is to create the most exciting product we possibly can, not just on the court (extremely important of course), but in the stands, with the band, with cheerleaders and dancers drumming up excitement for the game during timeouts, not corporate spots seemingly created to bore everyone to tears. When that excitement is created the rest won't necessarily come automatically, but I think it may come a lot easier.
My probably totally uninformed 10 cents worth.

Fans are fighting that to the death but that’s exactly where it’s been heading for awhile. VCU athletics tries to downplay it.

First step in addressing a problem is acknowledging there is one.

Arguably one of the toughest arenas in the A10 has been wrecked. If athletics isn’t part of the solution then they are part of the problem. You inherited a well oiled machine with a hot shot charismatic coach back then. Since then the fanbase has been alienated. You only get away with that when you are very successful because winning cures all.

You can tell that the mentality was as long as we keep flowing along no one will raise a fuss and even if we lose some we will fill those holes. Like some mentioned when long time ticket holders dropped out not even a call. heck get calls from Mason for tickets to the VCU game every year and that’s with them knowing I’m a VCU fan lol.

Quite simply VCU athletics takes the fans for granted unless you are one of their big dogs. It’s not as simple as having one of their university of Hawaii folks calling saying hey don’t you want to get tickets and donate thousands to us? The fans don’t view them in a good light. The fans accept that our program requires a lot of money to get where we want to be in the college basketball world but they don’t want us to forget where we came from and how we got to where we are. We became a household name due to our resilience and work ethic.

The moment we stop caring about where we come from that’s the moment we lose our program.

 

[rammed]

Unfortunately, VCU did away with individual game programs. They did have a non-game specific program at the beginning of the year, but I did not see any last Saturday.

That’s too bad. I used to collect them all back in the day. They did away with hard copy annual media guides too. I have several decades of them going back to 1968. No I am not that old. I paid good money for many of the early ones and they are great documentation of our early program history.