Do you know Nick? I hired him as an RA back when he was a FR at TU (I had to convince some higher ups that he was up to the task). He's a good guy overall. I found his book pretty interesting. He did study under Cornel West at Princeton so it's not surprising that is his take (when he came to TU he was fell to the more right side of the aisle).
Monty staying.
- Thread starter jerandlaur
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Janet is right. Even when we win, the city doesn’t support the team. I believe a great part of that lies with the responsibility of the AD and how the program was promoted (or not). You have to reach outside the alumni base to have meaningful increases in attendance.
The team has had community support issues as long as OU has had success. Attendance and affinity issues go beyond one AD. That said, this one needs to be more demonstrative about his role in attempts to promote better attendance.
Well, I was PoliSci, am military, have donated and had season tickets since graduation. So there's one data point that helps your assumption...
What are the donations like at SWOSU or U. Ark. Pine Bluff? With those as our closest peer institutions under the new strategic direction, they would be informative about what we can expect.
If we got Stoops his own parking space in that shiny new parking garage I think he'd jump at the chance to coach at Tulsa. Who needs an office when he can work from the 3 million dollar retirement RV we bought for him as the highest-paid state employee?
There kinda has always been a disconnect between the community supporting TU, I never have understood it. My family had season tickets in the south endzone for eons until 2014 & the Blankenship years. None of my immediate family even graduated from TU but we still supported them non matter what. I still remember going the Fresno State game (1st post Rader firing) , I started attending TU games in probably '93 when I was 8 years old. I have a BS from OSU and My wife got her Dr from Washington state, and this past football season was our first season as TU season ticket holders and members of the GHC. TU is the team I grew up supporting, the home town team and we would rather give our money to support TU. OSU has enough band wagon supporters. We would get season tickets to BBall, but its tough for us, running and owning two businesses and having an 8 & 5 year old, but we got a 5 game mini pack.
Thank you! Our programs need more people like you. I appreciate you and your family’s support.
We have to do better at tying the community to the university in Athletics. There are three parts to making this successful. Winning, marketing, connection.
Win because people want to see a good competition.
Marketing because you have to let people know we are here.
Connection, once they know, they have to care. Local pride, local athletes, family going there or supporting the school equals core fans.
Tulsa has been doing poor at one of them since I have been aware of them (mid 90s), often two of them. Occasionally all three.
I hope more alumni (like Dre) getting involved who are also part of the community will start to help us build those connections. While our marketing isn't the greatest ever it is much improved. Now we need to go get some W's.
Win because people want to see a good competition.
Marketing because you have to let people know we are here.
Connection, once they know, they have to care. Local pride, local athletes, family going there or supporting the school equals core fans.
Tulsa has been doing poor at one of them since I have been aware of them (mid 90s), often two of them. Occasionally all three.
I hope more alumni (like Dre) getting involved who are also part of the community will start to help us build those connections. While our marketing isn't the greatest ever it is much improved. Now we need to go get some W's.
Well, first off...there is a huge disconnect with the one group there shouldn't be. Yes, TU doesn't have a ton of alumni, even fewer that stay in the area. But I know a lot of alum who still live in Tulsa who haven't even been back to campus after they've graduated, let alone donated to the school. There's a lot of them. Problem is no one at TU is trying to even get them back. It's easy to get the alumni who have taken an active approach. Seems like TU calls them a lot, mails them a lot of stuff, sends e-mails about upcoming events, etc. Someone at GHC and alumni need to look at the list and find every last one they can't account for a communication with and then send them a post card that simply says "TU loves you" with a brief update. It's easy to maintain connection with the people who want to be connected. Make a connection with someone who feels TU let them down in some way or didn't fulfill all the promises and dreams they felt a TU education would.
