Media Attention

[SpanglerFan316]

What would it take to improve and increase the media attention which WSU volleyball receives? WSU has a bunch of promotions for WBB but fewer for WVB. Sully refused to answer/address WVB questions/issues.

Example of local media coverage of WVB: http://huskerextra.com/articles/2010...3837007917.txt
Three weeks after she was honored as the nation’s top freshman volleyball player, Lauren Cook has left the UCLA program and appears headed home to play at Nebraska.

http://volleytalk.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=30872&page=8

Thanks for the help Tomclen. been at the arena for nearly six hours with men's volleyball practices and too and two was 2 2 much.

as for my getting info off VT, all I said was I rarely go on but that the posts on Cook and Gil made for interesting reading. which was a few days ago when there was only a page or 2. And then I was asked by someone about it today. Said I had read what was being said on VT, including the drama over Gil's BF .. which started out as her husband. Then I got confirmation from someone I really trust to know what's going on. which is when I posted it about five hours ago.
I'll go back and put a link up to VT. but figured everyone who drops in on my blog knows how to go to VT.

Cindy: I was just giving you a little grief. Actually, I find it very, very impressive that you're covering this at all. To me it shows the quality of your work and your paper....not to mention what a big deal volleyball is in Hawaii.

I'd be thrilled if the paper(s) in Wichita would ever provide such coverage...even in their blogs.

SN does not seem to have a "strike" (e.g. [s][/s]) option so I changed "Seattle" to "Wichita." :D

[dregn]

I don't think the media coverage we get is perfect, but in my opinion Volleyball gets good coverage locally and gets way more coverage in our local media then our WBB program does. Also I don't think volleyball has as many promotions because they have moved beyond needing those gimmicks to get fans to come. WBB doesn't have anywhere near as many fans actually in attendance as volleyball.

[SpanglerFan316]

If you ask assistant/associate Shocker ADs, you learn that they see WBB rather than WVB as the second "big attendance" Koch Arena sport. They talk about examples of large WBB attendance games without, possibly, mentioning that 7K+ elementary students were bused in for the games. http://www.goshockers.com/ViewArticl...CLID=204846083; http://www.goshockers.com/ViewArticl...CLID=204847241.

[1972Shocker]

I'm not sure it makes all that much difference what the media does or what promotions are run, although the $1 admission for VB matches we've had on a few occassions helped that. Still a crowd of 6,000 at $1 raises less revenue than a crowd of 2,000 at regular prices.

The No. 1 thing you can do to increase media attention and attendance is to put a entertaining and winning product on the court. The Shocks VB team has pretty much proven that as their recent Top 10 attendance rankings prove.

The VB team has the advantage of not having to compete with any other Shocker spectator sports of any significance in the fall. However, they do have to compete with High School and College Football.

I don't think MVC scheduling for VB is particularly fan friendly with the back-to-back matches on Friday and Saturday but I doubt much can be done with that.

Isn't the School Days thing an NCAA promotional effort for Women's BB that the Shocks participate in? I thought I heard something about that, but I'm not certian about that. In any case, I can live with giving up a Shocker Women's Basketball game to a no-name opponent on a weekday. Not sure I would say the same if they did that with one of the Volleyball matches although I suppose I could pass on a match with the likes of a team like Bradley had this year.

Clearly the Women's Basketball program is really down and needs all the help it can get. Still, as I mentioned above, all the promotion in the world won't help much unless you start winning consistently.

VB has achieved that. Now can they sustain it. Women's Basketball has a the blueprint of what needs to be done. Just win Baby!

:goshocks:

[The Mad Hatter]

If you ask assistant/associate Shocker ADs, you learn that they see WBB rather than WVB as the second "big attendance" Koch Arena sport. They talk about examples of large WBB attendance games without, possibly, mentioning that 7K+ elementary students were bused in for the games. http://www.goshockers.com/ViewArticl...CLID=204846083; http://www.goshockers.com/ViewArticl...CLID=204847241.

Your little whine fest about this topic is getting old. You have managed to turn WSU have a tradition of inviting school kids to one women's basketball game each year into a conspiracy by the athletic department to not support volleyball.

What program at any school that is top ten in the nation in attendance numerous years in a row in any sport could be accused of being ignored by the athletic department?

Coach Lamb and the athletic department have done a wonderful job building the volleyball fan base. Why do you have to begrudge the athletic department for trying to build up women's basketball attendance?

[ShockerFever]

How many fan message board sites have volleyball forums?

[SpanglerFan316]

Why do you have to begrudge the athletic department for trying to build up women's basketball attendance?

I have no objection to increased attendance for WBB; this would be great for WSU.

If you ask assistant/associate Shocker ADs, you learn that they see WBB rather than WVB as the second "big attendance" Koch Arena sport. They talk about examples of large WBB attendance games without, possibly, mentioning that 7K+ elementary students were bused in for the games. http://www.goshockers.com/ViewArticl...CLID=204846083; http://www.goshockers.com/ViewArticl...CLID=204847241.

Your little whine fest about this topic is getting old. You have managed to turn WSU have a tradition of inviting school kids to one women's basketball game each year into a conspiracy by the athletic department to not support volleyball.

This is not a conspiracy; it is a "business plan" (although nobody used this term.) Talk to people in the Athletics department and they will agree that their efforts are focused on WBB. Their justification is not that WBB is down and needs the help; such a justification would apply to softball and other women's sports. Their justification is to point to previous high attendance figures for WBB, without mentioning the existence of special events like busing in 7K+ students which might have inflated the quoted attendance figures and negated their argument. (A $1 WVB night does not come close to comparing with bringing in 7K+ people for WBB.)

I applaud Athletics for inviting school kids to a WBB game; my objection was never to this event but to the lack of similar efforts for WVB. If WSU drew 10K WVB fans, the Shocks would easily pass Hawaii (6K or 7K per match) and be #1 in WVB attendance; this would help Chris Lamb and bring serious attention to WSU in the "WVB world" and among WVB recruits. If WBB averaged 10K, this would be great but be behind Tennessee at 13,999 per contest in 2009 (and 15,796 in 2008.) I don't think 10K is a reasonable average for WVB or WBB but 7K would probably make WSU #1 in WVB and "back in the pack" in WBB. My point is that the "return on investment" in WVB is greater than in WBB.

What program at any school that is top ten in the nation in attendance numerous years in a row in any sport could be accused of being ignored by the athletic department?

Coach Lamb and the athletic department have done a wonderful job building the volleyball fan base.

Just as Gene built up baseball, I think Chris Lamb (& staff) largely did the work to increase attendance. They are active in club WVB, hold "junior spikers" and other "training" events, have national connections, have summer camps, make public appearances, etc.

Your little whine fest about this topic is getting old. You have managed to turn WSU have a tradition of inviting school kids to one women's basketball game each year into a conspiracy by the athletic department to not support volleyball.

You sound like you work for WSU Athletics. I'm an outsider and don't work for WSU Athletics. I don't understand why you are so defensive. I am asking questions about the use of resources and I think my questions are reasonable. Rather than attacking me ("Your little whine fest") or some straw man you made up (e.g. opposition to WBB or kids), why not address the merits of my argument?

[The Mad Hatter]

I don't work for the athletic department, but your accusation that I would only oppose your viewpoint if I was part of the athletic department the very straw man argument you accused me of making.

You asked why I didn't address your arguments. It is because you don't have any. You only have assertions. You assert that the athletic department has not worked to promote volleyball attendance, in spite of numerous ticket deals, tv ads, etc. run every season. You claim that Lamb by himself is responsible for the attendance because of his club activities, while ignoring that other coaches do the same things without the same attendance results.

As I said before, the only tangible thing you offer is the fact that women's basketball has had a single game the last several seasons where they invited school kids to show up and they haven't done that for volleyball.

In every other respect, I have seen far more advertisements for volleyball than for women's basketball (and I follow both sports). There is no evidence to support ANY of your claims other than your own assertion.

For example:

If WSU drew 10K WVB fans, the Shocks would easily pass Hawaii (6K or 7K per match) and be #1 in WVB attendance

What does this have to do with anything? The only claim you can make is that volleyball should have one game per year where students are invited. Having a single match where 9,000 kids show up would not get us close to Hawaii's attendance numbers.

I don't have any personal knowledge, but I can think of plenty of practical reasons why a kids game wouldn't work for volleyball. The non-conference part of the season coincides with the beginning of the school year, and I would doubt that school administrators would want to take a day off from school that soon in the semester. Once conference play starts, there is less flexibility in volleyball schedule times than in basketball. It is pretty much exclusively Friday and Saturday evenings, which wouldn't work for the kids game (at least not the way they run it for women's basketball). I would also image that they don't want to have a conference match on a weekday afternoon that many of the season ticket holders couldn't attend because of work, especially since these matches are likely to have conference championship implications.

Finally, since volleyball draws higher attendance than women's basketball at WSU, even with the one and only promotion that you have named as evidence of WSU boosting women's basketball attendance, I would say it suggests one of two things. Either:

A) As you have argued by claiming that efforts by the athletic department could help us surpass Hawaii, the athletic department is able to alter attendance numbers in substantial ways through their efforts, in which case the higher volleyball numbers would suggest that they department is doing more for volleyball than women's basketball.

or

B) There is only a limited amount that the athletic department can do to change attendance numbers, which will mostly be driven by the teams' success, in which case you can't make any claims that a change in the level of athletic department support would make much difference in attendance.