The Ohio State University

onCampus

• Help
• Buckeye Link
• Map
• Find People
• Webmail
• Search

  Search Ohio State Go

It’s good to be a Buckeye

Posted on | October 21, 2009 | 500 views |

New fan appreciation program aims to enhance game-day atmosphere for everyone

By Adam King

Drawing more than 100,000 loyal football fans to Ohio Stadium is part of the Buckeyes’ inherent home-field advantage. That was not so much the case for the women’s volleyball team, which usually averaged about 150 fans per match — hardly intimidating to visiting teams.

But the Oct. 7 Big Ten Network-televised home match with No. 1 Penn State drew 2,080 fans, including620 students, to the 8 p.m. start. Filling more seats at  St. John Arena did not result in an Ohio State victory this night, but it was a win for the Athletics Department’s Fan Experience and Promotions staff, which since April has been looking into new ways to enhance the game-day atmosphere for those attending as well as those playing.

Fan Experience and Promotions is the rebranding of Athletics Department marketing, which divested itself from selling sponsorships when Ohio State signed a 10-year, $110 million rights agreement with IMG College in March that officially began July 1.

“That allowed us to take a look at our operations, what we can do better and how we can expand on our enormous tradition,” said Diana Sabau, associate athletic director for external relations, who oversees the Fan Experience operation. “From a fan engagement level, we weren’t consistent with the atmosphere. Sometimes it was really good and sometimes it wasn’t there. What we wanted was for people to walk away from the games saying, ‘You need to come to the baseball game or the soccer game because it was fantastic for our family.’”

Every aspect of a game was put on the table for scrutiny, and what emerged were new approaches and new programs.

In order to generate instant fan support this fall, women’s basketball and men’s hockey games will be free to students, and men’s and women’s soccer, previously ticketed sports, are now free for all fans.

Having the Fan Experience staff, which includes Director Brian Flenner; assistant directors Erin Sauter, Carrie Snyder and Beth Malafa; two full-time interns in Laura Waters Brown and Ludence Smith and a bevy of student volunteers, means athletics can engage fans’ interest more extensively before game days. To promote the free hockey tickets, the staff is going to the dorms near the Schottenstein Center to talk up the season and create contests to see which floor and which residence hall will have the best attendance. They also have used Facebook and Twitter as successful marketing tools.

For soccer, which has such a strong youth following in central Ohio, the Fan Experience staff wanted to reach out to the community teams. On Oct. 2 the men’s soccer team held a youth clinic before its game for 200 kids, and youth teams are invited to play mini games during halftime.

Rewarding fan behavior also is now part of the equation. Every athletic event students attend will earn them one point with a swipe of their Buck ID cards. They can turn in those points for prizes at different tiers, including T-shirts and behind-the-scenes tours of Ohio Stadium.

And all fans who attend athletic events besides football and basketball can be rewarded when they purchase concessions. For every $10 spent, they receive a stamp on a card, and earning 10 stamps is good for $10 in free concessions.

There have been and will be subtle changes as well.

During football, it has meant having the band, cheerleaders and Block “O” students all on the same page and engaging the fans during timeouts or while a play is under review. Music is now played during down times to keep the excitement level high as well.

“If we can say from start to finish that you the fan weren’t looking at your phone because there was always something to do, we were successful,” Sabau said.

Football games used to be unbreakably scripted from beginning to end, but now there is flexibility when unforeseen circumstances arise. During the USC game, for example, the script had just two plans to fill dead time. But four plays ended up being reviewed during the game, which called for creative on-the-fly thinking.

“The perfect scenario is when Block ‘O’ is not doing a chant over the band or we’re not playing canned music while O-H-I-O is going on around the stadium,” Sabau said. “It sounds like a simple premise, but when you don’t have that open and complete communication between the different entities like we do now, the end result is not harmonious.”

During volleyball, hockey and basketball, subtle changes mean pushing the excitement button before the game even begins, said new cheerleading head coach Leneé Buchman. Her group has instituted a “meet and greet” to welcome fans as they come in the door in addition to its usual floor cheering duties.

“It’s a different sense of excitement you can add to a game day no matter where the game is,” Buchman said.

The early success is only anecdotal thus far, but Fan Experience will be measuring its effectiveness through surveys.

“It’s early in the game and we’ve made some great first steps,” Sabau said.

“We have to build on that momentum and not let the rigors and duration of our season wear us down. With 36 sports here, things happen very fast. We have to be able to keep that pace.”

Comments