Re: Tech Game Tonight - You Would Never Know from the Website...
Re: Tech Game Tonight - You Would Never Know from the Website...
What? There is a hockey game tonight? Does Tech even have an SID anymore? Who is running the website? Seriously, we're undefeated in the first time in forever and playing our biggest rival and they can't even throw a story up that says "Hey, the hockey team plays tonight. Oh and by the way, it's our biggest rival we could really use the support."
Packing the rink might start with telling people when the games are going to be played or at least giving them a little bit of hype. If nothing else you could hire a communications student and give them an "A" to write a paragraph each week promoting Tech hockey that they could paste into the web site...
Ryan J
There isn't much of a buzz around campus today given the magnitude of tonight's game.
There are table tents in the MUB, but they are only indirectly related to hockey. Apparently someone (Tech Experience?) is having some attendance competition for the dorms and greek people. That is where all of the free tickets went. They are doing all of their counting by 6:45, so we hope that everybody stays for the game.
When the Rosza has an event, they put door posters on every building on campus. The hockey team does not. You have to be up at the SDC to see if anything is going on.
I have seen one Husky hockey jersey on campus today.
Usually for games of this magnitude, the Huskies Pep Band does a "call to stripes", where band members wear their stripes around campus and to class all day. I have not seen a single pair of stripes today, and the requisite request email did not come across the list. Apparently, in some cases, tradition graduates and doesn't get passed on.
The athletic department's marketing arm has failed so many times. Even when you get a name or rival school in here, you still have to market the game in order to sell. Yes, a lot of tickets have been sold, but we should sell out a game like NMU when the team is 2-0.
There have been commercials on 93.5 about the "whiteout" for the last week.
But really, a Whiteout?!? White isn't even a Michigan Tech color. Are we Penn State football now? Black out? yeah. Gold rush? sure. A crowd of silver? Would be a logistical nightmare, but would look sweet. Whiteout? not so much. I realize that this is a ploy to give out those ridiculous "I AM HUSKY!" t-shirts, but still. I see "I AM HUSKY" and I think about a group of feminists screaming "I AM WOMAN!". Not that intimidating. Sorry, epic marketing fail.
There was a time when hockey would sell on its own in Houghton. Years of losing and the loss of affordability has caused the days of an event marketing itself to be gone. People need to be entertained and feel that they are getting their money's worth. The diehards will be there, but you have to SELL to the audience to get a crowd.
And the ticket policy at Michigan Tech is absolutely ridiculous. They talk about creating a family-friendly atmosphere at the events, as noted by the reaction to some of the cheers. Yet they do nothing to promote a family to attend a game. There is no family pack, there is no reduced K-12 and Under 5 ticket price. Here are two excerpts from the ticket policy:
"And please do remember that every audience member (including small children and infants) must have a ticket."
And
"Anyone that is not an MTU student must pay the general public ticket price for a reserved seat for any MTU athletic event."
Thus, if you are a family of four, having children that are something like 7 and 1.5 (and would sit in their parent's lap), you have to shell out $64 ($16*4) for your family to attend the Tech/NMU hockey game. For most other games, it is still $52 ($13*4). And really, the 1.5 year old isn't taking up a seat, and isn't aware of what is going on. The 7 year old may or may not have the attention span for the game. But that is $32 wasted for the family right there. What family is going to pay for that?
And then gouge another $3 to park. And forget concessions.
So, Michigan Tech fails to build a fan base in the community. Many young people in the Copper Country do not get the chance to grow with the team and become attached as fans. Tech loses out on a great selling point for local kids to attend the school, because they didn't foster that attachment from an early age. A local hockey talent isn't going to feel a huge desire to play here because they didn't grow up coming to games. And the families of Houghton/Hancock are going to look elsewhere to spend their limited entertainment dollars, especially when the team has consistently lost for 20 years.
There is so much that Tech does wrong in trying to run its marketing department. Everyone can see that. The student will still go because it is free and the alumni will go when they come back, but you don't get the community loyalty to the program. And that, as they should realize, hurts the bottom line.
But, that won't change now. And it is time to focus on other things, like spaying a Wildcat! GO HUSKIES!!!
P.S. Someone should bring a McDonald's application for Walt tonight. He might need it if his team loses another game.
