ECU ranks No. 53 in athletic royalties, according to the Collegiate Licensing Co. Only two in-state universities, North Carolina (sixth) and Duke (45th), rank higher. Also, the Greenville Walmart ranks among the top three nationally in collegiate product sales, and ECU was second behind UNC in all North Carolina Omega Sports stores, sports information director Tom McClellan said in an e-mail.
“We’ve had about 240 percent increase in the last three years in the sales of our products,” Workman said. “There was a time when you could find product (only) in Greenville, and you can find it (now) in Charlotte and Raleigh and all over the state.”
Expansion of the Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium. Workman said the addition of 7,000 seats in the end zone is going well and should be completed by the middle of August, increasing the capacity to 50,000. Also, he added, new chair-back seats are being put in on both sides of the stadium between the 35-yard lines.
The new end zone seating will be used by students.
“They’re excited about it. They did a spring name-the-student-section vote, and they have named (it) the ‘Boneyard.’ We’re looking forward to them taking ownership in there and helping us with a home-field advantage when the opposing team got to come down in that end zone.”
Football season-ticket sales are a record pace, with more than 20,000 sold, Workman said.
Someone is doing some marketing and the students are willing to take end zone seats. Imagine that.
Well, I don’t necessarily hate ECU. My brother went there and my stepsister is attending the school now. It’s just a big school in an area of the state where there isn’t much else going on until you get to the beach. No wonder the fan base is so large.
other than baseball? You mean football? Now don’t get me wrong i’m a Niner fan to the bone but you have to give credit where credit is due. Their football team is constantly a quality team. They beat programs in recent years such as WVU, Va Tech, and App. along with plenty of others. I will give you that Greenville is one of the dirtiest cities I’ve ever been too but for a Podunk town they sure do have 1000X the support we do in athletics. Yes their basketball program is way sub-par but football IS the moneymaker. Someone over there is marketing the RIGHT way. When I go to Greeneville everyone bleeds purple and gold no matter who they are. Here in Charlotte, I feel like half of the students dont even know our logo, mascot or school colors. I see more Carolina shirts on campus than Charlotte. I think the only reason ECU is not already in a BCS conference is b/c their television market is less than desirable. We shouldn’t be jealous. We should be riding out to G-Vegas and take notes. just my 2 cents.
Amen. Also consider that the student Pirate Club is 4 times the size of the entire 49er Club. What ever it is that they have, we need it. A friend of mine has two sons in school at ECU. One of them was a die hard hard Tar Heel fan and the other couldn’t have cared less about sporting events. All that changed when they arrived in G’ville. They get those kids down there and brain wash them. We’ve got serious catching up to do.
It’s all about engaging students, we’re shitty at it. If I wasn’t a huge sports person, I wouldn’t be as driving to be a part of NN.N. The school doesn’t do enough to pull in casual students, IMHO.
I am so sick of people making a big deal when a 1A schools beat App. They are an awesome 1AA program, but a school like ECU should beat them. They should not be considered a great football program until they man up and join the big boys, and then become successful. That’s my word, and I’m sticking to it.
By the way, I know it’s not 1A and 1AA anymore, but I forgot what they are called now. I know on this board somebody would get picky about that.
I love this question. I could talk about this all day. It’s a simple question with a complicated answer.
Will football help? Yes.
Would making the NCAA tournament help? Yes.
Would making it past the first round of the tournament help? Yes.
Those are all obvious answers, but it doesn’t solve the problem entirely. We are going to have to transform our fanbase if we’re ever going to get where we want to go. Each of us bear some of the responsibility for creating the kind of environment that we need to draw in more casual fans (students, alums, etc.). We already have a good core group of fans committed to doing this, but we need more. Thousands more.
Let me use myself as an example. Myself and two other 49er fans started 49erFanatics nearly a year and a half a go. It’s a simple concept: try to make 49er gear available for fans at a reasonable price. We aren’t able to offer everything that we want to, but we’re doing what we can. Recently I was discussing our marketing plans for the upcoming year with someone when they asked the question “what does any of this have to do with selling more 49er gear?” My reply was that they had the wrong view of 49erFanatics. We’re not a apparel company. We’re a fan experience company. We want to be actively involved in helping to create an environment that will encourage greater fan involvement. If we help to create a better fan experience, will we sell more gear? Sure hope so. We also think that it will open up some other avenues for us as well.
Hopefully, we’ll get more of this year’s plans solidified in the coming weeks, so I’ll have more details about what we plan to do. Remember the trip to Knoxville? Look for more things like this to happen. Anybody remember the Winthrop tailgate? More of that is going to be happening too.
Of course I realize that the things we do will not be the final solution to the challenge, but I hope that it helps. I’ll stop there before I begin to ramble…
There SID is an idiot. You could only find ECU stuff in Greenville? BS.
I had an ECU t-shirt in ‘92 when I was thinking of going there or here. Guess who I couldn’t find a shirt of in Statesville, even though it’s right beside Charlotte (hour away,) but Greenville is on the other damn side of the state. We’ve always been infected with ECU stuff on this side of the state.’
& ChiSox17, ECU is usually pretty good in Football.
Part of the brainwashing to be an ECU fan is there is nothing else to do but go to Pirate games & party with Pirate fans. Here there is a lot to do, & plenty of Tar Hole fans to party with. We’d have more support if our school was in the boonies like ECU, Auburn, Clemson, etc.
ChiSox, you were the one who scared all of the little old ladies with your drunken outbursts. & NWA pissed off some old lawyer prick.
We need to get SOAR to indoctrinate incoming students. Didn’t Ben say his GF worked there? He needs to get her to do the hook up on impressionable 18-year-old minds. Make the girls think it’s cool, & make the guys think they won’t get laid if they’re not big Niner supporters!
Submarley, I still call it 1-A & 1-AA. FBS & FCS is stupid as hell.