fans

[citygriz]

i see four parts to the equation of sport: players; management or administration; media; fans.

we know all about players. without your kobie, your lebron, there would be no pro teams. the money always goes to the talent. the players will get theirs.

management, adminsitrators, so key. you have to have an organizational framework. per usa today, several college administrators are now taking home $1 million plus a year.

media: the hype machine. think where sport would be without newspapers, radio, espn. i sometimes think espn is keeping baseball alive all by itself.

but then we've got the fans. no fans, no pro leagues, no college leagues, just the rucker league, intramural sports. fans may be the most important part of the equation. players in their egomanical zeal often forget this, but administrators seldom do. keeping the fans involved is crucial to any team. you gotta have fans.

which is a long-winded way of coming back to the montana basetball program. wayne tinkle is a model of educational excellence, always pushing his players to get bettter both in the classroom and on the court. in his own professional development, he saw the wisdom of finishing his degree, and surrounding himself with the best hires he could make. i laud him for that. his development as a coach has been outstanding.

but if he wanted to improve his program even more, he would see to it that better links were forged to the fans who support the montana basketball program--the fans without which there is no basketball program at montana.

i say this becasue from march to october, this board--a reflection of the hard-core montana fans--becomes pretty much a wasteland, supported by maybe five strong posters. the while, it seems so much more could be done during this period to promote the program to the fans. such as:

--making sure the roster is updated;
--announcing player personnel changes before speculation has run wild;
--discussing recruiting objectives;
--discussing scheduling objectives;
--finding out what fans like when it comes to uniforms (a popular topic on the football board
--communicating the latest information about ex-griz playing pro ball overseas--or in wayne's case, passing on some stories about his experience as a pro.
--any viewpoints on the seating at dahlberg.
--ask!! ask the fans. they're your customers. ask them anything. then listen! it's my first rule of busienss.

i know a coach has a lot of repsonsibilities, and many of them should be handled through the p.r. department. but when there's been an overall long-term trend of decline in attendance for montana basketball, i'd think the first thing to do would be to make a greater effort to stay in touch with the fan base.

 

[EverettGriz]

Good post, citay.

I would love to see more interaction between the staff and the fanbase. And while I hate to point fingers, there is a lot more that can be done from the SID's office. Look, I love Guff. I know him personally and really like the man. But he doesn't seem to understand the new modes of communication, particularly the internet. GoGriz.com should be a place fans want to visit every single day. There should be daily articles, polls, player profiles, etc. Instead, as far as I can tell, since June 1 there has been 3 articles posted to the BB site (Kemp signing, Owens leaving, Owens' replacement hired). And that information you can get in the Missoulian.

 

[mtgrizrule]

Citay, great post. I agree with you, and feel this should be a goal. However, for it to happen many things will have to be delegated to others beyond that staff.

I have spent several summers with the coaching staff during team camps, and each fundamentals camp. Even as someone assisting the staff at these camps, it was 3 weeks of no rest, and the camps do take their tolls on the staff. Not only are these coaches developing and scouting young kids, on and off the court, but trying to take care of their own team and players.

They work very hard on getting the best schedule possible that will cater to the personnel they have to work with the next season. Coordinating a good schedule for Montana is very time consuming, and very frustrating. I have seen the lists of tentative opponents, tournaments etc. A good majority of those tentative games do not get to our schedule due to all the BS involved. Personally, our fans do not appreciate where the program is, and don't deserve a great home schedule. With that said, I would take as many quality away games as possible to build the program (like Gonzaga, LBSU have done). The GRIZ have a long way to go to get quality teams at Dahlberg.

Not sure who has or has not seen a recruiting board at any program. That board has recruits listed at he minimum of HS Freshman through SR's, and JC's. In our case it is more important for the GRIZ to get to these kids early and get them sold (Wayne has been outstanding at that). I don't know how many phone calls,and emails are made to all these kids/families, but do know it is very time demanding.

Add in the responsibility of helping market your SR's professional homes wherever to this. Academic monitoring, off season conditioning scheduling/coordinating, and then hope for no legal issues to arise with your players.

I am not sure how other college coaches schedule their time. I know family (his, including players) is huge for Wayne. The fact that he can make time for his kids and wife, as well as he does is amazing. I don't know how much responsibility there is put on the director of basketball operations, but that is the position that would be best to get much of the other stuff done.

I do agree, something has to be done though to make it all happen.