It all comes down to this: Is this University going to commit to Men's Basketball or not? Are they interested in investing, and building this program into a Top-Tier Atlantic 10 program, or are they okay with middle of the road with a few highlights along the way? In almost every case, winning is the key to improving attendance, and thus, the game environment..... sorry to any athletics marketing/game experience people out there, but your job doesn't accomplish what you think it does.... so is the department content with below average attendance and a relatively bad game experience, or do they want to make more money from tickets sales and sponsorship dollars? (not sure if their L-IMG agreement is a guarantee or a rev-share).
The next 2-14 months will tell us a lot about how the University views this program moving forward. It will go a long way in letting someone like me know if this is worth following, or if I should find something better to do with my time and money. At some point in the losing process, fans become customers, and when a customer doesn't feel like they are receiving value, they move on.
I don't have any specific insight, but I can answer in general where it is right now, but I don't know if that will change.
My understanding right now, is that the University
IS committed to Mens/Woman's basketball. Between the locker rooms, the practice facility, the basketball excellence plan (which knocked out the easy stuff, lights, scoreboard etc), theres an obvious push from Athletics Admin to get Men and Woman's basketball better and give the best resources possible to go for championships.
That being said, it has gone quiet on what the next fundraising project is. I heard some rumblings about phase 2 of the practice facility but nothing concrete. Some of the quietness is probably because of the turnover in the Patriot Club staff. I'd love nothing more for Phase 2 to be collected for and a nice rendering and announcement.
As far as other stuff that we haven't noticed, social media has improved drastically. In addition, my understanding is that they have been doing other things to get people in the seats (such as donating for armed services, cancer survivors etc) all trying to drum up interest. Obviously it's still very tough when your flagship sports are terrible.
When the new President comes in, whether how much of this stuff still goes on or more creative ideas are allowed I don't really know. If you have more specific questions feel free to send me a private message.
