INDIANAPOLIS – NCAA Division I member schools urged fans to “Pack the House” for selected women’s basketball games from October 17, 2008, through March 8, 2009. And pack the house, they did.
Almost two-thirds of the Division I membership – 184 institutions – participated in the effort that attracted nearly 560,000 fans.
Events at Auburn, Bradley, Central Michigan, Gonzaga, Marist, Memphis, Niagara, Notre Dame and Providence College produced sell-out crowds. Sixty-three other programs surpassed their single-game attendance highs from last year.
“Pack the House” is a second-year national effort in which conferences and institutions compete to build attendance. The 32 winners (one from each of the 31 conferences and one from a group of independent institutions) were announced last week. Selections were based on marketing plan creativity and attendance criteria. The NCAA will award prizes and donate $500 to the nonprofit organization of each winning institution’s choice.
“We believe this initiative has served as a catalyst to increase attendance, create excitement and enhance exposure for our women’s basketball programs,” said Sue Donohoe, NCAA vice president of Division I women’s basketball. “Institution personnel committed a great deal of time, effort and resources to this program and the results were extremely positive. This program provides great ‘best practices’ and examples of success for institutions that are seeking to ‘grow’ women’s basketball and these success stories will continue to strengthen efforts in the future.”
The ideas to market the games were as diverse as the membership itself.
For example, Auburn University, who was named the overall winner of the “Pack the House Challenge,” was able to draw a record 12,067 overflow sell-out crowd to its January 25th game against Tennessee.
The Auburn marketing and promotions plan targeted elementary and middle school districts in Auburn and Opelika, Alabama. Approximately 6,200 fliers, which were shaped like a popcorn box, were sent to the elementary and middle school students.
Students could detach the bottom portion of flier to gain free admission for one person, and keep the top portion to obtain a free box of popcorn at the game. Auburn estimates that more than 2,500 of the fans, who attended their “Pack the House,” game came as a result of this promotion.
The Tigers’ athletics department also targeted their students with e-mail blasts and Facebook requests. A special student section along the south baseline held almost 1,700 fans.
“A lot of that our efforts were ‘grass roots and word of mouth’ efforts,” Hales said. “We used everything we could to let them know about the game. Overall, we had a tremendous walk-up crowd for the game.”
Northwestern had 2,500 fans attend its home game against cross-town rival Boston University. It may sound like a modest number, but the single-game attendance for this “Pack the House” promotion represented a 281-percent increase over the Huskies’ largest crowd for the 2007-08 season.
“It is a great idea to get the women’s basketball team some exposure,” said Chris Marshall, Northeastern University’s marketing and promotions coordinator. “It was fun to reach that end product. Our women’s team doesn’t normally see crowds that big, so our players loved it.”
Cincinnati also chose its “Pack the House,” promotion to take place against a cross-town rival, Xavier. The Bearcats drew 11,079 fans to the game, which took place on December 7.
While this game wasn’t a sellout like a similar promotion in 2007, the success of Cincinnati’s “Pack the House,” game was through an idea of Bill Keating, who is a local philanthropist and former Cincinnati swimming student-athlete.
“(Keating) has been on a two-year mission to honor former Cincinnati female student-athletes who didn’t receive letters prior to the early 1980s,” said Leslie Wenert, the assistant director of marketing and fan development at Cincinnati. “He wanted to invite some of these women back to campus and awarded them their letter. The platform to honor these women centered on our cross-town shootout game with Xavier.”
The 2009 NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Pack the House Challenge conference winners and prize winners are:
CONFERENCE WINNERS
America East – Hartford
Atlantic Coast – Georgia Tech
Atlantic Sun – East Tennessee State
Atlantic 10 – Fordham
Big East – Notre Dame
Big Sky – Montana State
Big South – UNC Asheville
Big Ten – Illinois
Big 12 – Missouri
Big West – Long Beach State
Colonial – VCU
Conference USA – Marshall
Horizon – Valparaiso
Independents – Cal State Bakersfield
Ivy – Columbia
Metro Atlantic – Niagara
Mid-American Intercol. – Central Michigan
Mid-Eastern – North Carolina A&T
Missouri Valley – Bradley
Mountain West – TCU
Northeast – Mount St. Mary's
Ohio Valley – Tennessee-Martin
Pacific-10 – California
Patriot – Army
Southeastern – Auburn
Southern – Chattanooga
Southland – Sam Houston State
SWAC – Jackson State
Summit – Indiana/Purdue-Indianapolis
Sun Belt – Arkansas-Little Rock
West Coast – Gonzaga
WAC – Louisiana Tech
GRAND PRIZE WINNER
Auburn University
10 1ST PLACE WINNERS
Bradley
California
Columbia
Fordham
Gonzaga
Louisiana Tech
Notre Dame
Tennessee-Martin
Valparaiso
VCU
11 2ND PLACE WINNERS
Arkansas-Little Rock
Cal State Bakersfield
East Tennessee State
Illinois
Indiana/Purdue-Indianapolis
Jackson State
Long Beach State
Marshall
Montana State
Niagara
TCU
10 3RD PLACE WINNERS
Army
Central Michigan
Chattanooga
Georgia Tech
Hartford
Missouri
Mount St. Mary’s
North Carolina A&T
UNC Asheville
Sam Houston State
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