CHRONICLING ECU & C-USA SPORTS
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from the 'ville
Thursday, September 7, 2006
By Al Myatt |
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'Standing room only' at
heart of Holland plan
ECU AD applies principles
of Economics 101 in plotting Pirate Club and season ticket growth
©2006 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
A number of strategies are at work in East
Carolina's football season ticket sales in 2006.
Athletic Director Terry Holland wants to
increase the demand for membership in the Pirate Club while keeping
admission within reach for recent graduates.
Holland has sought to give Pirate fans games
they want to see in his approach to football scheduling. He said the
response this year has been good in terms of ticket sales.
"We've had a strong season ticket sale," he
said. "What we've tried to do is do some new things, too, in terms of making
it affordable but also limiting the lower level to Pirate Club members. We
want to increase the value of being a Pirate Club member. We've done that
and still made it very affordable for almost anyone to attend the games.
"We've got a young graduate program that
allows East Carolina students who have graduated in the last three years to
actually buy two tickets for fifty dollars apiece. It's a great deal and a
great opportunity and we've seen a good response from that."
But Holland says until demand exceeds supply
for ECU tickets, the urgency of purchasing a season package is diminished.
"The fact of our situation is that until we
start to sell out some games, there's no reason for that borderline fan to
buy season tickets," said the ECU AD. "If we can start to sell out some
games — create that kind of interest in our individual games, then I think
we'll see our season ticket sales move accordingly."
Overall, season ticket sales are approaching
levels of several years ago when the Pirates were habitually making bowl
trips.
"We should be in the 16,000, maybe even 17,000
range by the time it's all done," Holland said. "Again, we need to get up
into that 20,000 level."
The appearance of West Virginia, currently
ranked in a tie for fifth nationally in the USA Today coaches poll, at
Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium on Sept. 23 and Virginia's first visit to Greenville
on Oct. 7 highlight the 2006 home schedule.
Memphis (first home game, Sept. 16), defending
Conference USA champion Tulsa (Oct. 14), Southern Methodist (Oct. 21) and
Marshall (Nov. 11) are the league teams the Pirates will face on their home
turf.
The Pirates will play an unprecedented five
straight home games over six Saturdays beginning with Memphis' visit.
The ECU ticket office numbers are (800)
342-5328 or 800 DIAL-ECU and, locally in Greenville, 328-2300.
Holland may well get the potential sellouts he
seeks to fuel season ticket sales in 2007 when N.C. State and North Carolina
are both scheduled to play at ECU. [View
East Carolina's future schedules through 2013.]
The Wolfpack drew the largest crowd ever at
Dowdy-Ficklen when they made their only previous appearance in 1999 as
50,092 were on hand for a 23-6 Pirates win.
UNC-Chapel Hill's only previous visit in 2003
resulted in a 28-17 Tar Heels victory before 44,040, the third largest crowd
in stadium history.
Holland's take on USA hoops loss
As a former member of USA Basketball's Senior
National Team Committee from 1992 to 1996 and current chair of USA
Basketball's Collegiate Committee, Holland took more than casual interest in
the recent performance of the USA team coached by his former ACC adversary,
Mike Krzyzewski, in the recent World Championships in Japan.
Kryzewski's collection of NBA talent lost in
the semifinals to Greece, which was beaten decisively by Spain in the final.
Team USA wound up with the third place bronze medal with its closing win
over Argentina.
Team USA must now go through qualifying
competition for the Beijing Olympics as a result of its performance in
Japan.
"The other teams play together," Holland
noted. "We send all-star teams. It's hard to put a team together that can
compete at that level of competition. I think we're on the right track. I
think Jerry Colangelo (USA Basketball men's senior national team managing
director) has a great game plan. Mike Krzyzewski is obviously the man to
coach that team."
Despite coming home sans gold medals, Holland
thinks the USA effort laid a foundation for the future.
"We made a lot of progress this year," he
said. "That team played as a team — not quite as well maybe as Greece did in
that particular game but Greece had a great shooting game. Still, we need to
become as good as we can be that even when the other team has a great
shooting game we're still able to find a way to win.
"We just weren't quite there yet but we made a
lot of progress with this team. I'm proud of 'em. I think everybody who
cares about this country can be proud of the way they conducted themselves,
the way they played. That will eventually produce gold medals again."
Running challenge changes
East Carolina football coach Skip Holtz
admitted he was disappointed that the Pirates netted only 75 yards on 25
rushes in a 28-23 season-opening loss at Navy. Holtz said that ECU will
continue to evaluate Chris Johnson, Dominique Lindsay and Brandon Fractious
to have the best running back in the game.
The challenge provided by UAB's defense this
Saturday at 7 p.m. at Legion Field in Birmingham (WITN-TV 7) will be a sharp
contrast to Navy's style.
"Totally different," Holtz said. "When you
look at Navy, they weren't quite as big but they played a lot of the three
down linemen front. They twisted. Their linebackers walked around. They
tried to create a lot of confusion. Now when you've got three new guys up
there (on ECU's offensive line) that have never played before, they were
successful.
"Sometimes we were blocking ghosts because
there were so many guys moving around. (Navy) was smaller, quick, athletic
and they did a lot of moving. UAB is a lot different in that they are huge,
they're big, they're physical. They're going to line up in a four down
linemen front. You're going to know exactly where they are. At Navy, you
never knew where they were going to line up."
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02/23/2007 12:30:40 AM
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