"My rule was I wouldn't recruit a kid if he had grass in front of his house.
That's not my world. My world was a cracked sidewalk." —Al McGuire

Friday, January 05, 2007

UW-Madison paper gushing about MU fans

The end of the world is upon us I am convinced. Cats and dogs living together and all that other stuff. Yes, the UW-Madison folks are singing some MU praises today.

The Daily Cardinal, the student publication for the University of Wisconsin-Madison has an article today talking about the sensational Marquette student fans. On a personal note, I was thrilled to have them mention the general admission seating policy for MU students....it was a policy that our marketing team developed with great care and eventually was committed to by Bill Cords and the university in general (despite wide skepticism by seniors at the time). In the end, the policy has worked great as the most loyal fans are rewarded with the best seats and not based on class seniority (the old policy). It allowed for the bottom rows to be filled with no openings whatsoever. In years prior, if some of the seniors didn't show due to homework or other obligations, then those vacant seats stood out like a sore thumb. Furthermore, there was little incentive for freshmen or sophomores to buy tickets because they knew each game their seats would be in the upper deck. By implementing the General Admission policy we irked some Seniors who had waited for their rightful heir to the best seats, but we put in a system that helps the team and the university as well as increased student ticket sales.

Yes, it's a bit of personal backslapping but it should be noted that the personnel in the athletic department past and present work their butts off and put in some very good ideas on limited budgets, etc. The team's success and Crean's PR moves have helped attendance greatly...so have some other decisions during the years from the folks you never hear of. Kudos to all of them past and present...job well done.

And to the MU students, keep it up. You've been great and worth several victories a year!!

Wisconsin got the victory, but Marquette has the fans.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

congratulations students! keep it up!!!!