Well, there's a missed opportunity . . .

[Dave_Glaser]

17 hours ago, Bausfkid said:

How many people total (incoming students and parents included)?

Students and parents. I'd say probably 400-500 students and their parents. They do orientation every Monday and Tuesday for about five straight weeks.

Edited July 18, 2018 by Dave_Glaser

[Dave_Glaser]

3 hours ago, Mike Stuben said:

I'm surprised I didn't run into Dave, as I work in the Marshall Center, where most of the activities are take place. 

I worked so many orientations for Athletics over the years. 

Let me tell you about it from two perspectives:

1. Getting the students excited for Athletics

2. Selling the parents Season Tickets

 

1. We don't need the AD at this event (remember, there are about 40 orientations a year, way too many). 18 year olds don't care about the AD, and probably don't care about a coach either. Have a player talk to them. One year we had Delbert Alvarado rap about USF Football at the orientations, kids loved it. I guarantee a student going to orientation will know they go to the games for free by the time it is over. 

2. This was always a mixed bag selling event. Parents weren't there thinking about buying season tickets. We probably averaged .667 new season ticket accounts per orientation (ie - work 3, sell 1, 1, 0 accounts, each account averaging 3 seats, leads to an average of 2 new season tickets for each orientation... not horrible, but not a huge event either) 

Dave - for years I sat on a panel that did Q&A for parents at orientation, probably for 10 years. I enjoyed it, but most questions asked of me went something like this. "My Nathan is a great swimmer, how can he join the swimming team?" or "My Billy loves to lift weights, what time does the gym open on Tuesdays?" .... now of course, I would grandstand every time anyone asked me a question and bring it back to Athletics. 

All I know, Mike, is I just sat in a room full of parents through two FULL days of presentations, panels, videos - everything and the kitchen sink USF related - and there was nothing presented relative to athletics. Maybe it's meaningless, maybe not. I'd just say that a 2-3 minute video highlighting USF sports, the AAC, etc. would not have seemed at all out of place.

The students do their own orientation and I asked Sarah if athletics did any presentation for them. She said there was nothing athletics related aside from mentioning that all games are free to students.

Edited July 18, 2018 by Dave_Glaser

[Bull Dozer]

3 hours ago, Mike Stuben said:

I'm surprised I didn't run into Dave, as I work in the Marshall Center, where most of the activities are take place. 

I worked so many orientations for Athletics over the years. 

Let me tell you about it from two perspectives:

1. Getting the students excited for Athletics

2. Selling the parents Season Tickets

 

1. We don't need the AD at this event (remember, there are about 40 orientations a year, way too many). 18 year olds don't care about the AD, and probably don't care about a coach either. Have a player talk to them. One year we had Delbert Alvarado rap about USF Football at the orientations, kids loved it. I guarantee a student going to orientation will know they go to the games for free by the time it is over. 

2. This was always a mixed bag selling event. Parents weren't there thinking about buying season tickets. We probably averaged .667 new season ticket accounts per orientation (ie - work 3, sell 1, 1, 0 accounts, each account averaging 3 seats, leads to an average of 2 new season tickets for each orientation... not horrible, but not a huge event either) 

Dave - for years I sat on a panel that did Q&A for parents at orientation, probably for 10 years. I enjoyed it, but most questions asked of me went something like this. "My Nathan is a great swimmer, how can he join the swimming team?" or "My Billy loves to lift weights, what time does the gym open on Tuesdays?" .... now of course, I would grandstand every time anyone asked me a question and bring it back to Athletics. 

So 40 orientations and  2 tickets per= 80 new season tickets.  That's nice easy low hanging fruit with the possibility of keeping the parents and adding the grads down the line.  Small stuff like this adds up over the years and builds your fan base.   Considering the state of Rayjay on Saturdays we don't need to be scoffing at anything that gets more butts in seats with the opportunity to retain them.   I don't think anyone is saying this is some kind of major attendance fix but the number of red seats on game day tells me we need to take advantage of every opportunity to get new people into the stadium.  If we aren't doing this anymore as Dave (and his daughter) said it's a missed opportunity.  Every little drop fills the bucket up and we can't afford to miss those drops.....  From just a pure promoting the college experience without considering season tickets etc, i see it as a  missed opportunity (again not a huge one but still a miss).   You're essentially not promoting something your customer is paying for when you have them sitting right in front of you.    

Edited July 18, 2018 by Bull Dozer

[Mike Stuben]

Just now, Dave_Glaser said:

All I know, Mike, is I just sat in a room full of parents through two FULL days of presentations, panels, videos - everything and the kitchen sink USF related - and there was nothing presented relative to athletics. Maybe it's meaningless, maybe not. I'd just say that a 2-3 minute video highlighting USF sports the AAC, etc. would not have seemed at all out of place.

The students do their own orientation and I asked Sarah if athletics did any presentation for them. She said there was nothing athletics related aside from mentioning that all games are free to students.

There is an orientation going on right now, when I went to lunch in the food court, I looked, Athletics did have their customary table in the "expo" setting for both students and parents.

Remember, my time in Athletics ended in 2012 (seems like just yesterday, some days). So my info is dated. 

I really don't have any insight into how things work now. I just know that back in the day, we did have a presence, as a person who worked in ticket sales it was worth being there, but never lucrative. Some years the athletics presence was big, some years it was subtle, depending on the thoughts of both the person in charge of marketing for athletics and the person running orientation. (for example, when the Marshall Center was under construction and the Special Events Center had already been torn down, orientation moved to the Sun Dome for a year or two. Athletics had a big presence, basically a mini pep rally each time that was choreographed - right up to the point in time I/a ticket sales person was to walk out on the Sun Dome floor and wave to the crowd as the MC plugged season tickets for the parents).  

[Mike Stuben]

Just now, Bull Dozer said:

So 40 orientations and  2 tickets per= 80 new season tickets.  That's nice easy low hanging fruit with the possibility of keeping the parents and adding the grads down the line.  Small stuff like this adds up over the years and builds your fan base.   Considering the state of Rayjay on Saturdays we don't need to be scoffing at anything that gets more butts in seats with the opportunity to retain them.   I don't think anyone is saying this is some kind of major attendance fix but the number of red seats on game day tells me we need to take advantage of every opportunity to get new people into the stadium.  If we aren't doing this anymore as Dave (and his daughter) said it's a missed opportunity.  Every little drop fills the bucket up and we can't afford to miss those drops.....

There is an issue with the math, which is my fault for not explaining better. 

40 orientations include - about 20 that weren't selling opportunities, things like transfer student orientations, or the ones for students who start in winter or summer. There are about 20 orientations that are the big productions, those are the ones for Fall, first time in college students. so we need to cut the number in half (my fault for not giving better details)

Now - you are right, 40 season tickets are still good and useful. but, as a sales guy back in the day, each orientation would take 3 hours out of my day -  many of those orientations were during the most prime time to be selling, so what would often happen is that I would spend 3 hours at orientation and sell 2 tickets on average, when if I spent those 3 hours in the office I would have sold 4 on the phones. It is no one's fault, but late summer orientations are right up against the busiest time to be selling tickets. 

 

Now this data is probably dated, in that with more and more being sold online, there would be new dynamics on how to best spend the day as a sales person. 

[Dave_Glaser]

6 minutes ago, Mike Stuben said:

There is an orientation going on right now, when I went to lunch in the food court, I looked, Athletics did have their customary table in the "expo" setting for both students and parents.

Remember, my time in Athletics ended in 2012 (seems like just yesterday, some days). So my info is dated. 

I really don't have any insight into how things work now. I just know that back in the day, we did have a presence, as a person who worked in ticket sales it was worth being there, but never lucrative. Some years the athletics presence was big, some years it was subtle, depending on the thoughts of both the person in charge of marketing for athletics and the person running orientation. (for example, when the Marshall Center was under construction and the Special Events Center had already been torn down, orientation moved to the Sun Dome for a year or two. Athletics had a big presence, basically a mini pep rally each time that was choreographed - right up to the point in time I/a ticket sales person was to walk out on the Sun Dome floor and wave to the crowd as the MC plugged season tickets for the parents).  

Mike: I appreciate the info - and the history lesson. That's all great, and I appreciate you being a "company man" But I'll say it again, I started the orientation on Monday morning at 7:30 a.m., finished it Tuesday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. I heard brief presentations from representatives of the financial aid office, counseling center, university police, housing, faculty, you name it. Athletics was absent. Maybe that makes no real difference. Fine. I just expected they'd be in there somewhere with all their other colleague departments on campus.

Yes, there was an athletics table in the expo on my way out the door to head home exhausted.

And I'm not even concerned with the sales aspect of being there - just the visibility aspect and maybe a little cheerleading to get first-time in college students thinking.

Edited July 18, 2018 by Dave_Glaser

[chapelbull]

It seems silly  that there wouldn't be some sort of athletics presentation as well as an effort to sell season tickets. And not just a table at an expo.

[Dave_Glaser]

Just now, chapelbull said:

It seems silly  that there wouldn't be some sort of athletics presentation as well as an effort to sell season tickets. And not just a table at an expo.

Yes, it does seem silly. It wouldn't have taken much time or effort. It didn't even have to be anything more than a brief video that they slotted into one of the series of "Living Life as a Bull" sessions that the student orientation leaders presented. Not trying to make a mountain out of a molehill, but it seems like a true no-brainer. Why wouldn't you do it?

Edited July 18, 2018 by Dave_Glaser

[puc86]

43 minutes ago, Dave_Glaser said:

All I know, Mike, is I just sat in a room full of parents through two FULL days of presentations, panels, videos - everything and the kitchen sink USF related - and there was nothing presented relative to athletics. Maybe it's meaningless, maybe not. I'd just say that a 2-3 minute video highlighting USF sports, the AAC, etc. would not have seemed at all out of place.

The students do their own orientation and I asked Sarah if athletics did any presentation for them. She said there was nothing athletics related aside from mentioning that all games are free to students.

A highlight of the AAC would definitely be a short segment of a video, “here in the aac we pride ourselves on being the best of the worst”.

[Dave_Glaser]

And just to clarify, USF orientation was very well done overall. So much info, and if you're an old timer like me and haven't been on campus in a long time outside of coming to hoops and baseball games - WOW! The Village is turning into quite a showplace! The dorms (Summit, Horizon, Beacon, etc.) look amazing, The Hub and The Fit are fantastic, and Publix will be right there. The Marshall Center is dynamite. You can feel that it's a campus/university that is on the move. Go Bulls!