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View the ECU Student Pirate Club
Website. |
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FOOTBALL |
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2nd half feeds into 2nd half |
The extended break between
games for the 2014 East
Carolina team amounts to
halftime in the regular
season for the Pirates, who
are 5-1 and ranked as high
as No. 16 in the major polls.
Halftime marked a
significant juncture
Saturday night at Raymond
James Stadium ...
More from Al Myatt... |
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FOOTBALL RECRUITING |
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Future looks bright at RB position |
The pass-centric “Air Raid''
offense that Ruffin McNeill
and Lincoln Riley brought to
East Carolina from Texas
Tech back in January 2010
has from the very start
attracted talented recruits
at the quarterback and wide
receiver positions. ...
More from Sammy Batten... |
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FOOTBALL |
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Swamp Monster a dominant force |
Shane
Carden is “The Captain.”
Justin Hardy goes by
“Deuce.” Breon Allen is “Fun
Size.” Those nicknames can’t
compare with the moniker
Terry Williams goes by. The
6-1, 353-pound Williams is
nicknamed “The Swamp
Monster.” ...
More from Brian Bailey... |
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MULTIMEDIA |
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Audio: The Brian
Bailey Show |
  The
Brian Bailey Show
airs on Pirate Radio
1250 on Mondays at
6:30 p.m. Brian's
guest was ECU
director of football
administration Dale
Steele (right):
Replay
show... |
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Pirates End A Competitive Hex |
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TAMPA — East Carolina football
coach Ruffin McNeill has
acronyms for a variety of
things. He formulated TBA for
Trust, Belief and Accountability
to describe the foundation for
relationships among members of
the program. OPAT for One Play
At (a) Time evolved later as a
reminder for the mindset needed
to respond to immediate
challenges. ...
More from Al Myatt... |
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BULL
FIGHTERS:
ECU
quarterback
Shane Carden
works the
zone read
with fellow
senior Breon
Allen on
Saturday at
Raymond
James
Stadium in
Tampa. The
duo
connected on
a 35-yard
pass for the
Pirates'
first
touchdown
late in the
first
quarter and
both were
instrumental
in ECU's
28-17
comeback
victory over
the USF
Bulls. Photo
by Al Myatt.
©Bonesville.net. |
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View more
pictures in
"Inside Game
Day." |
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Audio: Ruff Post-game |
  ECU
coach Ruffin McNeill spoke
with the press after the
Pirates defeated South
Florida on Saturday
(recorded by Al Myatt; file
photo):
Select audio clip... |
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FOOTBALL |
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Kevin's Keys to the Game |
The Pirates
arrived in Tampa to a sunny
87 degrees on Friday.
Somebody forgot to tell
Florida that it was almost
the middle of October. The
weather will still be sunny
and 80-plus at kickoff time
today. Those kind of
conditions bode well for
East Carolina's Air Raid
passing attack.
...
More from Kevin Monroe... |
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By
Greg Vacek
©2014 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
View ECU's Football
Schedule
Football stadiums will be
buzzing again this weekend as the second half of the college
football season begins. But there will be plenty of empty seats on
game day in many of the student seating sections around the country.
Average student attendance at college football games is
down 7.1 percent since 2009, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier
this season, citing records from about 50 public colleges with FBS
football teams.
In 2013, Georgia's designated student section was nearly
40 percent empty. California-Berkeley has sold about 1,000 fewer student
season tickets this season than last year — a season that already saw a
decline from the previous one. Since 2009, student attendance at Florida
has dropped 22 percent. Three-fourths of the student tickets went unused
last season at Kansas.
Mark Nagel, a sports and entertainment management
professor at South Carolina, told Slate.com the underlying causes for
falling student attendance include increasingly expensive tickets, less
attractive non-conference matchups and the convenience of plugging into
games electronically.
“Students just have so many other choices now,” Nagel
said.
Athletic directors worry that today's uninterested
students could become tomorrow's uninterested alumni.
"There are so many other things they can do that maybe
going to the game that day isn't the most important thing on their
agenda," Louisiana State athletic director Joe Alleva told the Wall
Street Journal. Student attendance in Baton Rouge fell 5.5% to 8,508 in
2013 from 9,000 in 2012.
Universities are trying to attract student fans by adding
more amenities to stadiums and transforming the game day experience into
something that can’t be found at a bar or in someone’s living room.
Enhanced video screens and wireless Internet are proliferating in the
effort to entice future alums into the stands.
Twenty-one college-owned stadiums now sell alcohol,
according to a survey conducted by the Associated Press. That's double
the number from five years ago.
“We’re seeing more and more incentives,” Nagel said. “And
we’re also seeing a trend toward creating a larger entertainment
experience. The game on the field is still the centerpiece, but there’s
more fireworks, more giveaways, more promotions. That’s the wave of the
present.”
Florida International students in attendance for East
Carolina's visit to Boca Raton last season were offered a free food
voucher and were entered in a raffle for a chance to win tuition
scholarships, gift cards and textbook, dining and technology vouchers.
Potential perks ranged from a 50-inch flat screen TV to an iPad, an iPod
shuffle and iTunes cards.
This season Miami (FL) students get free wings at the
Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant for every punt the Canes force on fourth
downs during home football games. Lindy Sparby, director of marketing
for UM Athletics, said the idea was created to “get students involved in
the game and incentivize them to get loud for third downs.”
Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium and the Boneyard will be empty
Saturday because the Pirates have a bye going into next week’s Thursday
night Primetime contest with UConn. But contrary to trends at other
schools, ECU has experienced an increased demand for tickets and
students are lining up to buy them.
“I know we have the largest student section booster club
in the country, and it's right at 10,000," ECU coach Ruffin McNeill
remarked about students lining up early in the week before the Pirates'
home game with Southern Methodist. "That's the Pirate State of Mind (PSOM)."
"I'll be glad to see
them in The Boneyard," he added, referencing the boisterous section
reserved for students at the east end of Dowdy-Fickle Stadium.
Created in 1997, the
Student Pirate Club is a student
run organization for East Carolina University Athletics and is an arm of
the East Carolina Educational Foundation (Pirate Club). The focus of the
SPC is to involve ECU students in supporting and promoting all ECU
athletic programs.
The Student Pirate Club
has experienced a 250 percent increase in student membership since 2006,
when it counted 2,800 among its ranks. By 2008 it grew to 6,014 and by
2010 to 9,296. It currently boasts over 9,800 members. To put this in
perspective, the SPC was well under 100 members in 1997, the year of its
founding.
Other schools are taking
notice. ECU Pirate Club Assistant Director Jared Brinkley regularly gets
calls from other schools looking to find out what the SPC is doing
right. An executive board comprised of 20 SPC members is the voice of
students and is a key part of getting campus engagement with other ECU
athletic teams, not just football.
The SPC has been an
innovator, being the first booster organization to allow enrollments via
social media. One reason the organization has grown dramatically over
the years is an ongoing effort to start recruiting members at freshman
orientation. While their parents are with them touring the campus and
excited about ECU, it's convenient for them to write a $50 enrollment
check as they are in the spending mode of paying student fees and buying
books.
ECU football’s game day
experience — one of the best in the country — is a big recruiting tool
for Student Pirate Club membership. The athletic department increased
the number of seats allotted for SPC members over the years due to the
organization's growth. In 2008, the SPC was granted 5,200 seats in
Dowdy-Ficklen stadium, which at the time had a capacity of 43,000. In
2009, the share increased to 8,000. In 2014, 9,500 of the facility's
50,000 seats are reserved for students. For the last several years, the
SPC has sold out of all football benefits prior to the beginning of the
season.
The SPC was created with
the intent to not only actively involve students in ECU athletics, but
also to help instill a desire and commitment to give back. This
objective is accomplished in part by ECU`s competitive athletic teams
and facilities and the attractive benefits of membership in the Pirate
Club.
By joining the SPC for
$50 per year, students receive a number of perks:
• Full membership in the
Pirate Club
• The ability to start
building Pirate Club priority points
• Priority seating
• The option to purchase
parking
• The opportunity to
participate in special events
• Automobile decals
• A Student Pirate Club
T-shirt
SPC members also receive
a membership card before the start of the school year and it functions
as their season ticket for all home football games. Having this card is
a significant convenience as SPC members do not have to wait in line
every week as the general admission students must do to pick up their
tickets.
The membership card is
scanned before entering the gates to ensure that the bearer is indeed a
full-time undergraduate or graduate student and is entitled to all SPC
benefits. The attendee then receives a colored wristband which allows
for seating on a first-come, first-serve basis throughout sections
20-31, better known as The Boneyard.
This philosophy has also
helped to fill up the stadium prior to kickoff as students seek the best
seats possible. As an added benefit, SPC members are allowed to enter
through a designated gate 15 minutes prior to general admission
students. This enhances their chances of scoring priority seating.
The mission behind the
SPC is to foster interest and enthusiasm in the program and to cultivate
an understanding of the mission so that students choose to continue
their involvement with ECU athletics after graduation and to contribute
financially to the bigger cause.
The SPC concept is a
powerful asset for the Pirates now and in the future because the
students are the future of the Pirate Nation. The commitment by ECU’s
leadership to enhance the experience of these potential lifelong purple
partisans is proving to be a commitment well-placed.
