[U][B][URL=http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/story/12137764]Money–Lack of–Proving Root of Evil for Mid-Majors[/URL][/B][/U]
[QUOTE][FONT=Arial, Helvetica][SIZE=2] On the surface, these are great times for the Atlantic 10. Saint Louis has a new arena, Saint Joseph’s just opened a new practice facility and George Washington is in the middle of upgrades that, when finished, McGlade said will represent “more than $140 million in renovations in basketball” for A-10 programs. Add that to the fact that the league placed three teams in last season’s NCAA tournament (same as the all-mighty SEC), and that it has reached a deal with CBS to broadcast the conference title game, and it could be argued that the A-10 has never been in better shape. [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica][SIZE=2] [/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica][SIZE=2] And yet it’s still positioned to fall behind. [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica][SIZE=2] [/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica][SIZE=2] Because it can’t possibly catch or keep up. [/SIZE][/FONT]
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He hits the nail on the head with this one, talks about coaches jumping for BCS $$$ and TV contracts. All the more reason we need football and a name change, so we can get into that group.
Couldn’t help but laugh at the Memphis fan’s comment below the article.
[QUOTE] guess Memphis may have a little less $ than some schools but I think Memphis has more money than most BCS schools. We just don’t get the respect that comes with being in a BCS conference. Our facilities are nice, too. [B]How do you lump Memphis in with all the rest? Memphis is a far ahead of 99% of the rest of the mid-majors. BOOOOOOOOO, BCS![/B] [/QUOTE]
I don’t think we’ll ever see meaningful or useful legislation from Congress that will ever reverse this trend. What we need to focus on is getting Charlotte into a position to take the best advantage of the system that we are capable of doing at the time.
Football is a super positive toward that. We have no chance of getting there without football.
What’s next? Well its a broader issue than just sports but the name change IS vital to sports as well. There are no “branch” campuses in the BCS (excluding UCLA).
We have to strengthen the overall reputation of the school ACADEMICALLY as well as athletically. The Levine Scholarship is a great start. A med school would be better still. We’ll need to shed the diploma factory reputation we have. The state won’t let us do that from the bottom, aka higher admissions standards; so we must do it from above, see Levine Scholarship.
We have to dominate the college evironment within our own Alumni Base!!! Football is step 1 to that. Websites like 49erFanatic.com are step 2. Step three will be networking. We have to get the Alums behind us and not the ACC school. Send alums free tickets. Give them free merchandise. Invite them to alumni parties. Whatever it takes to get them back on campus and thinking Green. Our alums should not be buying season tickets to other college’s sports.
We MUST make a committment to moving to FBS as soon as possible and we have to get into a conference with natural rivals. We have to get back into CUSA or whatever the equivalent is in 10 years. Wherever ECU is is where we must be! ECU is our natural rival even if neither of us want to admit it even to ourselves. Some of you may balk at this but if we played ECU in football every year we’d have one home game every other year that we’d have to play in BoA Stadium untill ours is big enough.
Next we have to take this city! We have to dominate the college sports environment INSIDE CHARLOTTE. We can’t branch out to the region without taking this city first! Free tickets to schools, sports camps for underprivleged kids. Get the youths and their parents of this city to identify UNC Charlotte as their University and the 49ers as their team! We need local TV and radio partners and that means we need to get our alums with businesses interested in advertising on those channels! We need to undermine or take over the Observer.
This is the start. We have to create a hole where Charlotte used to be in the ACC media guide. Thene we need to spread that hole to Cabarras, Gaston, Union, Iredale, and Lincoln counties. The Big East will notice that 3 million (probably larger by then) nedia hole in the middle of the ACC. THAT will get us in a BCS conference!
I don't think we'll ever see meaningful or useful legislation from Congress that will ever reverse this trend. What we need to focus on is getting Charlotte into a position to take the best advantage of the system that we are capable of doing at the time.
Football is a super positive toward that. We have no chance of getting there without football.
What’s next? Well its a broader issue than just sports but the name change IS vital to sports as well. There are no “branch” campuses in the BCS (excluding UCLA).
We have to strengthen the overall reputation of the school ACADEMICALLY as well as athletically. The Levine Scholarship is a great start. A med school would be better still. We’ll need to shed the diploma factory reputation we have. The state won’t let us do that from the bottom, aka higher admissions standards; so we must do it from above, see Levine Scholarship.
We have to dominate the college evironment within our own Alumni Base!!! Football is step 1 to that. Websites like 49erFanatic.com are step 2. Step three will be networking. We have to get the Alums behind us and not the ACC school. Send alums free tickets. Give them free merchandise. Invite them to alumni parties. Whatever it takes to get them back on campus and thinking Green. Our alums should not be buying season tickets to other college’s sports.
We MUST make a committment to moving to FBS as soon as possible and we have to get into a conference with natural rivals. We have to get back into CUSA or whatever the equivalent is in 10 years. Wherever ECU is is where we must be! ECU is our natural rival even if neither of us want to admit it even to ourselves. Some of you may balk at this but if we played ECU in football every year we’d have one home game every other year that we’d have to play in BoA Stadium untill ours is big enough.
Next we have to take this city! We have to dominate the college sports environment INSIDE CHARLOTTE. We can’t branch out to the region without taking this city first! Free tickets to schools, sports camps for underprivleged kids. Get the youths and their parents of this city to identify UNC Charlotte as their University and the 49ers as their team! We need local TV and radio partners and that means we need to get our alums with businesses interested in advertising on those channels! We need to undermine or take over the Observer.
This is the start. We have to create a hole where Charlotte used to be in the ACC media guide. Thene we need to spread that hole to Cabarras, Gaston, Union, Iredale, and Lincoln counties. The Big East will notice that 3 million (probably larger by then) nedia hole in the middle of the ACC. THAT will get us in a BCS conference!
you are assuming that we can make this leap without the support of the media- the media is the biggest hurdle- I will give props to Fox for giving us some decent coverage, but it is nowhere near what it needs to be. If you can conquer the local media then the city will follow, because it is forced to- why do you think people support the ACC more? Because they are covered more fromt he time these people grow up. Conquer the media (have a 49ers column in the sports section of the O (I know its hopeless) or get a 49er sports section on the news) then you will win
[QUOTE=NewNiner;428258]you are assuming that we can make this leap without the support of the media- the media is the biggest hurdle- I will give props to Fox for giving us some decent coverage, but it is nowhere near what it needs to be. If you can conquer the local media then the city will follow, because it is forced to- why do you think people support the ACC more? Because they are covered more fromt he time these people grow up. Conquer the media (have a 49ers column in the sports section of the O (I know its hopeless) or get a 49er sports section on the news) then you will win[/QUOTE]
You will not get the media until you win enough supporters for the media to financially justify covering you. Win more fans, then the media will follow, then you can expand your reach to even more fans. The media will not cover you if it doesn’t sell their product. Get the buyers (fans) involved is critical, the media will follow them.
[QUOTE=NewNiner;428258]you are assuming that we can make this leap without the support of the media- the media is the biggest hurdle- [/QUOTE]correct. that’s one thing that’s hindered our fanbase growth. one of the reasons we were denied big east membership is because a lack of a fanbase in charlotte. resulting in lack of a tv audience. football will help and HAS to happen. but we still have to grow the fanbase. and we need the local media to do their part for us to grow the fanbase. all they have to do is give us normal hometown coverage.
[QUOTE=LakeNorman49er;428305]correct. that’s one thing that’s hindered our fanbase growth. one of the reasons we were denied big east membership is because a lack of a fanbase in charlotte. resulting in lack of a tv audience. football will help and HAS to happen. but we still have to grow the fanbase. [B][SIZE=5]and we need the local media to do their part for us to grow the fanbase. all they have to do is give us normal hometown coverage[/SIZE][/B].[/QUOTE]
:lmao::lmao::lmao::lmao::lmao::lmao::lmao::lmao:
What? :huh:
You are joking, right? Because unless you have several million to buy the Observer, a FM radio station and a TV Channel we will be SOL trying to get a fanbase together FROM media coverage. We have to build our fanbase FIRST, through other methods and THAT will force the media to give us better coverage. It won’t work for us the other way, not in this market.
I agree, if we turn our back on football now it will be a tragic mistake. I know it will take some time and patience to get to the next level but it is an absolute must if we want this University to continue in the right direction. It is up to the diehard alumni and students to see this through as the administration has proven themselves incompetent when it comes to this aspect of our University. We are finally starting to see some great resources come our way, lets no waste them. GO NINERS!
You are joking, right? Because unless you have several million to buy the Observer, a FM radio station and a TV Channel we will be SOL trying to get a fanbase together FROM media coverage. We have to build our fanbase FIRST, through other methods and THAT will force the media to give us better coverage. It won’t work for us the other way, not in this market.
There just isn’t a correct answer to this. It’s the whole chicken vs the egg scenario, that will never be resolved. You’re saying we have to grow our fan base, which I think everybody agrees with. But having media support is absolutely the best way to grow the fan base.
Let’s face it, there are going to be neutral fans to move to Charlotte. They’re never going to pick Charlotte to root for if the local media treats us as a second rate program. John Doe moves to Charlotte tomorrow. He wants to follow Charlotte. But everyday when he reads the Observer he sees a new article about ACC football and decides to follow UNC-CH instead, just because it’s much easier.
[QUOTE=Normmm;428311]There just isn’t a correct answer to this. It’s the whole chicken vs the egg scenario, that will never be resolved. You’re saying we have to grow our fan base, which I think everybody agrees with. But having media support is absolutely the best way to grow the fan base.
Let’s face it, there are going to be neutral fans to move to Charlotte. They’re never going to pick Charlotte to root for if the local media treats us as a second rate program. John Doe moves to Charlotte tomorrow. He wants to follow Charlotte. But everyday when he reads the Observer he sees a new article about ACC football and decides to follow UNC-CH instead, just because it’s much easier.[/QUOTE]
Oh I agree, having local media support would be great. Having local media PREFERENCE over the school two hundred miles east of here would be the best, quickest way to expand our fanbase!
The problem: ITS NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN WITHOUT THEM BEING FORCED TO.
How do you force the media to cover you? Be too large to ignore.
How do we become too large to ignore?
Buy and operate the local media outlets
Find ways to expand the fanbase AROUND the lack of media coverage.
For us #2 would be the most likely. Every Charlotte Mecklenburg student should have a reason to set foot on this campus every year in school, from K to 12th grade. Every student in the surrounding counties should too. We have to offer more and cheaper camps for students to attend. More stuff to get their teachers and parents on this campus. Free tickets to ALL our sporting event for local schools and businesses. Whatever it takes to get people on this campus, involved in its event and sports, and thinking green.
[QUOTE=NinerAdvocate;428341]More chicken and the egg dilemma.
We need an external variable to break the vicious circular reasoning cycle.
Reminded me of when I was 15 - I need a job to afford a car, but I need a car to get to a job.
I worked a deal with a guy in my neighborhood to get rides sometimes. Other times, I walked. I wanted it that bad.[/QUOTE]
There is no chicken and egg dilemma because the chicken doesn’t give a F*** about us and never will. That skank loves the powder blue rooster and neglects the he77 out of the egg! Not till that egg travels through the adversity of chick-hood to become the big green rooster in the barnyard and kick the old powder blue rooster’s a55, will that skanky chicken finally pay it attention.
But having media support is absolutely the best way to grow the fan base.
Let’s face it, there are going to be neutral fans to move to Charlotte. They’re never going to pick Charlotte to root for if the local media treats us as a second rate program. John Doe moves to Charlotte tomorrow. He wants to follow Charlotte. But everyday when he reads the Observer he sees a new article about ACC football and decides to follow UNC-CH instead, just because it’s much easier.
This.
And THIS is exactly what happened back in the CUSA days when we consistently received no pre-game article for televised games and received Page 8 coverage after MOST wins over some pretty strong and prominent teams.
That said, we still need football with a LARGER STADIUM.
All valid points but not step 1…WE NEED TO WIN AND WIN BIG IN MEN’S BBALL FOR A FEW YEARS! Alot of the other stuff is not in our control,but putting a top 25 team out there consistently is…Men’s basketball is our 1 MAJOR comodity,face it.All those transplants and media members that are talked about here WILL come around if we win big …no disrespect intended,not in Soccer or baseball or Women’s hoops…it’s on Bobby and Judy as far as i’m concerned.
Agree with the last two posts. We need to win and win big with our flagship program.
We HAVE done this in the C-USA days (big is a relative term mind you). But, we did beat the likes of UL, Cincy, Memphis and all on a regular basis, with the exception of Cincy. And we got zippo coverage out of the Regional Rag that Charlotte calls a paper.
Someone made the best comparision I’ve seen some time ago when they set the Braves as an example- they sucked but were covered by the media so a following grew. That’s what we need.
[QUOTE=lucky57;428385]All valid points but not step 1…WE NEED TO WIN AND WIN BIG IN MEN’S BBALL FOR A FEW YEARS! Alot of the other stuff is not in our control,[B]but putting a top 25 team out there consistently is…Men’s basketball is our 1 MAJOR comodity[/B],face it.All those transplants and media members that are talked about here WILL come around if we win big …no disrespect intended,not in Soccer or baseball or Women’s hoops…it’s on Bobby and Judy as far as i’m concerned.[/QUOTE]
Is that under our control? I think if it was Bobby would be putting a team IN the top 25 each year. The point of the article is that schools like us CAN’T get the talent because we can’t put them on TV so that they will get more easily noticed by NBA scouts. If Bobby was recruiting and scoring top 25 talent then I’d be 100% behind your statement.
As a school we had the choice. When we first went to CUSA we were told about the opportunity to build a football conference and a football program, we were their we watched the others do it, and we made the choice not to. Why ?, just a really bad decision.
Then as we were in CUSA, we knew probably 5 yrs prior to BCS being put together, it was going to happen, we made the decision again to ignore it and not make a move while in CUSA to start a football program.
Just like a business, we had the opportunity and made very bad strategic business decisions.