I realized we don't really have an ongoing thread for general athletic department developments, like staffing changes, strategy discussions, etc.

So here's a thread for all general athletic dept news that doesn't fit in a sport specific thread or need a standalone thread.

Evan is headed to Portland. Lots of talent to replace on the media side this off-season. Evan is an incredible talent.

a new chapter in life :)

thank you SFA for everything! pic.twitter.com/7MMvlQcVzZ

— evan (@evanlueckephoto) July 16, 2021

Y'all join me in trying to convince Matt to apply for the media and marketing Assistant AD job.

Yeah, tough positions to fill as we lost some very talented and creative people this summer.

Do yall think having an athletic dept app would help drive engagement? Do we have an athletic dept app that I don't know about?

I've just been spitballing a few ideas to boost engagement, not just in athletics, but across the university.

A couple stats:

• PLF Funds raised: 550k of 600k goal(for 2020-2021 I'm assuming, maybe yearly)
• 109k living alumni
• Avg annual giving: 5-10 million

Now there is probably an argument for a joint college/athletic department app. One that could share academic news and content, donation opportunities, alumni news, hiring opportunities, volunteer opportunities, along with academic content. But for the sake of brevity, I'll keep this focused on an athletics app.

Setting the stage:

So, on average, Ivey has raised somewhere in the range of 5-10% of total university donations in the average year by launching the PLF. I'm not sure what our usual athletics giving is, but 550k is no small chunk of change. From a university perspective, if you could secure $10 per alumni per month, you'd have 12 million a year in donations, higher than our average. Sure, we might not have hordes of multi-millionaire donors like Texas, but we can really up our game if we can even mildly activate the alumni base. I'm not saying everyone needs to be a fanatic like us, but if 50% of our fanbase was atleast a 1 game a year crowd, it would be gamechanging.

And if we could track that with an app, we could determine which of the fanbase aren't engaged. And run A/B testing to them to see if we can activate them.

So what would I hope to accomplish with an athletics app?

• More Engagement: From sharing posts, to attending events(both on & off campus), to donating.
• Donations: The more we can get the PLF in front of people, the better.
• Gear: Simply put, e-store on the phone. Let's sell some merch.
• Crowd: Whether streaming or in person, I think an app could boost viewers and attendees.
• Fan Environment/Traditions: Use the app to teach SFA history, introduce cheers/chants, etc.
• Benefits: An app would give you easy access to any PLF benefits & also allow you to give out prizes for sharing/interacting with content, buying tickets, etc.
• Centralization: All SFA Athletics content centralized in one place. Not split between website, social & print.

Features/Screens:
Notifications:

To me, this is the biggest feature. How many of you have Whataburger, McDonald's or another food app? Ever notice how you get a "lunch deal" email or notification most days around 10 AM? Think about how much that drives sales on any given day.

When you initially sign up to the app, we'd have a place to sign up for notifications for specific sports. Say you're a big basketball, soccer, & bowling fan. So you select those 3 sports when you sign up. Now, we send you notifications when basketball tickets go on sale, alert you to the time & channel of soccer kickoff, & give you bowling news.

This, in addition to championship news for all teams(bc, who cares if you're not a baseball fan, you better be watching the NCAA tourney game), ought to drive a hell of a lot of engagement, from more people in the crowd on a Tuesday night game to more streams. It also gives you incredible data on your fans. You know what sports they like, when they show up, when they interact with content. Incredibly valuable data for Ivey & team.

Donation Screen:

Who doesn't love a financial dashboard, especially a good one. Donation screen should allow you to easily turn on recurring donations across a number of areas.

Can also highlight special fundraising opportunities, like championship rings, nutrition efforts,etc.

I got a postcard, a freaking postcard this week, asking me to renew my PLF donation. Which is fine. But 1, I just assumed it would renew automatically. How many people will we lose by not having automatic or easy renewals?

An app can make it as easy as paying for your whataburger. Two clicks and you're done type experience. Streamline those donations to make them as easy as possible.


Ecommerce Store:

Now that we would know who likes what sports, let's sell them team specific gear. Also ties back into notifications. Want to sell Ladyjack NCAA tourney gear? Here's your chance.

Content:

Two keys to this. Pull all current SFA content into the app and also add some more long form/mobile specific content for app users, like podcasts, longer interviews, etc.

A share feature that tracks usage. You can utilize user specific links or other share tracking to see how often app users share team created content. You can also collate & share user created content.

Tickets:
Buy & Store digital tickets via the app. Reminders for when the game starts. Share to friends if you want, which will induce them to download the app.

Scan in when you arrive. Attendance feeds into score for rewards.

Gameday:
When you scan in or check in at a game, it activates game mode. This gives you a range of options. Team Rosters. Matchup overview video content, screen for food ordering & delivery.

And, most importantly, in game fan interaction options. A cue to launch a chant. Fan voting/interactive games(think dot race but mobile options) Information on which song the band just played. This can be additional fundraising, like a 50/50 raffle from your seat. A reminder to share that selfie of you & your friends you just took.


Rewards:

Create a points system based on content sharing, game attendance, & PLF donation level to offer rewards, whether coupon codes for gear, free food at events, or specialty ticket upgrades. The more engaged you are, the more rewards you earn.



Summary:

Now, this, of course, would be pricey, unless there's a fan app company creating these already. I'm thinking probably in the range of 250-350k."It's been like 4 years since I priced a project like this, so take that with a grain of salt". So you'd need more than 1000 fans to signup, you'd need like 5-10k. But I believe it would pay off across the board as you added more and more users.

You'd have bigger crowds at WRJ, more fans watching that Tuesday night soccer game at UT RGV, more people donating & sharing content. A more fervent crowd. I think you'd explode athletics fundraising and engagement.

And that means more wins, future better league opportunities, more championships, and a more spirited alumni core. That's a win for everybody involved with SFA.

TallTexan said:

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Do yall think having an athletic dept app would help drive engagement? Do we have an athletic dept app that I don't know about?

I've just been spitballing a few ideas to boost engagement, not just in athletics, but across the university.

A couple stats:

• PLF Funds raised: 550k of 600k goal(for 2020-2021 I'm assuming, maybe yearly)
• 109k living alumni
• Avg annual giving: 5-10 million

Now there is probably an argument for a joint college/athletic department app. One that could share academic news and content, donation opportunities, alumni news, hiring opportunities, volunteer opportunities, along with academic content. But for the sake of brevity, I'll keep this focused on an athletics app.

Setting the stage:

So, on average, Ivey has raised somewhere in the range of 5-10% of total university donations in the average year by launching the PLF. I'm not sure what our usual athletics giving is, but 550k is no small chunk of change. From a university perspective, if you could secure $10 per alumni per month, you'd have 12 million a year in donations, higher than our average. Sure, we might not have hordes of multi-millionaire donors like Texas, but we can really up our game if we can even mildly activate the alumni base. I'm not saying everyone needs to be a fanatic like us, but if 50% of our fanbase was atleast a 1 game a year crowd, it would be gamechanging.

And if we could track that with an app, we could determine which of the fanbase aren't engaged. And run A/B testing to them to see if we can activate them.

So what would I hope to accomplish with an athletics app?

• More Engagement: From sharing posts, to attending events(both on & off campus), to donating.
• Donations: The more we can get the PLF in front of people, the better.
• Gear: Simply put, e-store on the phone. Let's sell some merch.
• Crowd: Whether streaming or in person, I think an app could boost viewers and attendees.
• Fan Environment/Traditions: Use the app to teach SFA history, introduce cheers/chants, etc.
• Benefits: An app would give you easy access to any PLF benefits & also allow you to give out prizes for sharing/interacting with content, buying tickets, etc.
• Centralization: All SFA Athletics content centralized in one place. Not split between website, social & print.

Features/Screens:
Notifications:

To me, this is the biggest feature. How many of you have Whataburger, McDonald's or another food app? Ever notice how you get a "lunch deal" email or notification most days around 10 AM? Think about how much that drives sales on any given day.

When you initially sign up to the app, we'd have a place to sign up for notifications for specific sports. Say you're a big basketball, soccer, & bowling fan. So you select those 3 sports when you sign up. Now, we send you notifications when basketball tickets go on sale, alert you to the time & channel of soccer kickoff, & give you bowling news.

This, in addition to championship news for all teams(bc, who cares if you're not a baseball fan, you better be watching the NCAA tourney game), ought to drive a hell of a lot of engagement, from more people in the crowd on a Tuesday night game to more streams. It also gives you incredible data on your fans. You know what sports they like, when they show up, when they interact with content. Incredibly valuable data for Ivey & team.

Donation Screen:

Who doesn't love a financial dashboard, especially a good one. Donation screen should allow you to easily turn on recurring donations across a number of areas.

Can also highlight special fundraising opportunities, like championship rings, nutrition efforts,etc.

I got a postcard, a freaking postcard this week, asking me to renew my PLF donation. Which is fine. But 1, I just assumed it would renew automatically. How many people will we lose by not having automatic or easy renewals?

An app can make it as easy as paying for your whataburger. Two clicks and you're done type experience. Streamline those donations to make them as easy as possible.


Ecommerce Store:

Now that we would know who likes what sports, let's sell them team specific gear. Also ties back into notifications. Want to sell Ladyjack NCAA tourney gear? Here's your chance.

Content:

Two keys to this. Pull all current SFA content into the app and also add some more long form/mobile specific content for app users, like podcasts, longer interviews, etc.

A share feature that tracks usage. You can utilize user specific links or other share tracking to see how often app users share team created content. You can also collate & share user created content.

Tickets:
Buy & Store digital tickets via the app. Reminders for when the game starts. Share to friends if you want, which will induce them to download the app.

Scan in when you arrive. Attendance feeds into score for rewards.

Gameday:
When you scan in or check in at a game, it activates game mode. This gives you a range of options. Team Rosters. Matchup overview video content, screen for food ordering & delivery.

And, most importantly, in game fan interaction options. A cue to launch a chant. Fan voting/interactive games(think dot race but mobile options) Information on which song the band just played. This can be additional fundraising, like a 50/50 raffle from your seat. A reminder to share that selfie of you & your friends you just took.


Rewards:

Create a points system based on content sharing, game attendance, & PLF donation level to offer rewards, whether coupon codes for gear, free food at events, or specialty ticket upgrades. The more engaged you are, the more rewards you earn.



Summary:

Now, this, of course, would be pricey, unless there's a fan app company creating these already. I'm thinking probably in the range of 250-350k."It's been like 4 years since I priced a project like this, so take that with a grain of salt". So you'd need more than 1000 fans to signup, you'd need like 5-10k. But I believe it would pay off across the board as you added more and more users.

You'd have bigger crowds at WRJ, more fans watching that Tuesday night soccer game at UT RGV, more people donating & sharing content. A more fervent crowd. I think you'd explode athletics fundraising and engagement.

And that means more wins, future better league opportunities, more championships, and a more spirited alumni core. That's a win for everybody involved with SFA.

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Well done.

VERY impressive, Texan! A ton of thought and time went into this.

SELL THIS IDEA TO IVEY AND THE ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT IMMEDIATELY!

SFA Jack Fanatic said:

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VERY impressive, Texan! A ton of thought and time went into this.

SELL THIS IDEA TO IVEY AND THE ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT IMMEDIATELY!

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Lol I sat down to write a 10 minute post on an idea that had been in the back of my brain since the Tyler event and an hour and a half later hit post once this was done.

Y'all go offer your suggestions to KB.

Hey @SFA_Athletics faithful:

What kind of items would you like to see this year at concession stands?#AxeEm#RaiseTheAxe

— Kory Blandford (@LumberjackKB) July 28, 2021

PurpleOut said:

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Also, unfortunately we should be hearing of another employee loss this week.

The good news is everyone that has left has A) left on good terms, and B) left their position better than it was before they arrived. Which I think speaks well for where we are as an athletic department. Just hard to do a lot of work when you have to keep working harder to find replacements.

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We need good news Matt.

PurpleOut said:

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Thank you @SFA_Athletics and ‘Jack Nation for everything 🙏 excited for this next life chapter with @ToledoRockets 🚀 #AxeEm#GoRockets pic.twitter.com/1aXIWmvcwb

— Tyler Boone (@tylercboone) August 2, 2021

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Dang it, something just told me it was gonna be Boone.

PurpleOut said:

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Was only a matter of time, he's got a very bright future ahead of him. We will miss him for sure.

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Yup. Wasn't expecting the double news drop though.

Hopefully we can backfill him well. That's an important role.

first video in the books as the director of creative video @SFA_Athletics! super excited to get to work!#AxeEm #RaiseTheAxe https://t.co/nJhbThUTyv

— Charles (@chrlescrwfrd) August 24, 2021

He's got big shoes to fill!

Last one out, turn out the lights. Seriously, who's left? Beyond Ryan and Brandi of course.

Finished one chapter, but onto the next one soon. 📚 pic.twitter.com/jIu3dJSlhB

— Kevin Meyer (@Kevin_MeyerSFA) October 29, 2021

Unfortunately that is the price of success. Good people get hired. Frankly it should be considered a huge opportunity for newly minted Sports Business graduates.

Athletic facilities need to be locked, secured, and monitored. Softball, baseball, and football have all had damage. Those are the ones I know about. There is too much investment, and too many people that don't respect others.

@SFA_Athletics is constantly trying to maintain/improve facilities. I guess the community doesn't care. My brand new Coke cooler. Destroyed by a stranger. There was nothing in it. I have a strong stance that all facilities should be locked 24/7. Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/a2Cm8dTxhM

— Kory Blandford (@LumberjackKB) November 23, 2021

Wow.

Is that at Homer?

Are those not locked up into concession stands?

I find it hard to believe, but also do believe, that we don't have security cameras inside the stadium…

Another departure coming in the athletic staff. I don't think it's really secret, but not my place to make it public. Revolving door.

SFAJack_76 said:

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Another departure coming in the athletic staff. I don't think it's really secret, but not my place to make it public. Revolving door.

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Is this money related? Something else?

BigJack85 said:

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SFAJack_76 said:

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Another departure coming in the athletic staff. I don't think it's really secret, but not my place to make it public. Revolving door.

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Is this money related? Something else?

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No doubt money is better, but it's an opportunity that is a better fit for what the individual wants to do.

Congratulations to @DennyDriscoll on being named Associate Athletic Director of Strategic Communications for @SFA_Athletics!#AxeEm#RaiseTheAxe pic.twitter.com/Sy35sL0bFj

— Endebrock Talent Management | ETM (@ETMagency) February 3, 2022

This is a really good read on how expanding "tuition revenue sports" actually makes more more for the entire university.

This is the future of mid major sports. Let's ride that wave before the big guys catch up.

At the start of the pandemic, lots of colleges cut varsity sports teams, trying to save money.

But a few schools did the opposite and wound up better off. They understood that some "non-revenue sports" aren't that at all.

My latest at @GlobalSportMtrs https://t.co/q9ia88s8PZ

— Leander Schaerlaeckens (@LeanderAlphabet) March 11, 2022

I've always thought mens tennis would be a natural fit for SFA. We have a Division 2 National Championship from the mid 80's. (I play in the same tennis league as one of the SFA guys that won the trophy. We already have a decent facilities for tennis. Probably just add a building for mens locker room (maybe $500,000). I think the number is 4.5. That's doable.

BigJack85 said:

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I've always thought mens tennis would be a natural fit for SFA. We have a Division 2 National Championship from the mid 80's. (I play in the same tennis league as one of the SFA guys that won the trophy. We already have a decent facilities for tennis. Probably just add a building for mens locker room (maybe $500,000). I think the number is 4.5. That's doable.

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Tennis/Lacrosse/etc are gonna bring in a lot of private school kids with resources on average.

We could also add some easier add on teams too, like rifle or triathlon. We've already got a pro-am level coach in town.

Would love to see athletics breakdown both the AD costs & college gains of any given athlete in a sport. I'd imagine most of them would make us money as long as we're not adding too many facilities.

🧩 of fan engagement is a FAST redemption process.

A true token transfer of social tokens OR NFTs allows for redemption for merch integrated into your existing POS.

Everyday convos in our office🤣

Purple Lights Vault Browser Demo: https://t.co/u6uRBdfshT

Fan App 🎟 Demo: 👇 pic.twitter.com/SQJ3RUIUoL

— Wally Crittenden (@WallyballSFA) March 31, 2022

SFAJack_76 said:

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Another departure coming in the athletic staff. I don't think it's really secret, but not my place to make it public. Revolving door.

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Was this ever announced?