Tennessee Colonial wrote:

How many students on campus? How many people wanted a moniker change? How many of these people actually support GW sports?  Look at the attendance figures. Administration caved in and what did we get?  Empty stands. Nice.

I know people aren’t happy about the name change but I don’t think that’s affecting attendance outside of maybe a few folks here. From what I’ve heard talking to GW students and recent on Twitter, many students don’t know there’s a team, or some know it’s D1. They just aren’t aware, not that they hate it or aren’t interested. To me, that’s step one. We had empty seats the years before the name change.

Given all the conversation lately about NIL and transfers and coaches, I decided to start doing a monthly donation to FoG: https://fogcollective.com/ - direct link to donate https://bpsfoundation.net/donations/georgewashingtonuniversity/

BM wrote:

In the NIL conversation last night it was mentioned that they raised "in the mid six figures" in their first year.  It's no ACC budget, but it's not like we're helpless.  GW has a pretty wealthy alumni base and people are more comfortable spending their own money versus giving to their university to spend.

That's great news! Can you summarize what happened in the meeting? Someone asked in the NIL thread there too if you'd like to post it there instead to stay on topic

Great idea, I joined. Also posted about it on my Colonial Hoops blog.

I wonder if one step is to do some focus groups or surveys of both students and alums/season ticket holders to try to figure out what is actually going on.

For students you could ask
1. do you know GW has a team and there are regular games
2. if not, where do you get your campus news/information (to identify places to do marketing to reach those people)
3. do you go to games, why or why not
4. what would make you go to more games  

For alums and ticket holders, maybe just questions 3 and 4. Or maybe, if you have season tickets, why do you not go? 

I think a lot of us assume students know there is a team, but that might not be the case. I saw this on twitter recently, a student who seems to not even know there is a D1 team. I wonder what gaps there are, where does this student get their campus news and info? What are other ways GW can reach those folks? Maybe they assumed only Duke, UNC, Kentucky etc. have teams? Or GW's is a club team? Whatever it is, we should question our assumptions.

Of course some people aren't going to care even if they know there is a team, but for people to go to games they have to know there is a team first.

That's a good point. Dayton has a ton https://shop.udayton.edu/category/dayton-flyers-athletics/mens/jerseys

I ended up doing Lindys 00 for the bar (RIP)

Class 'o 70 wrote:

How about a retro Colonials basketball shirt?

 

Unfortunately I tried that, but GW sent me a polite email saying they owned the rights to that name, which is why the shirts and sweatshirts all say other things.

However I do have lots of other options https://colonialhoops.myspreadshop.com/

You make some good points jf, what do you think could be some solutions? How could GW engage alumni better and make it useful?

One thing I noticed from grad school (not at GW) is that a ton of people there have affection for things they used to do on campus - there’s a lakefront terrace with a bar and food, a cool old German beer hall in the student union, etc. And the alumni magazine and various other official publications remind people of that all the time.

GW doesn’t really have anything like that. There’s no cool place just for students, no real traditions, and so on. And GW is a very old school!

Not that it has to be a bar, but why not have some kind of rooftop thing on the terrace at the Marvin Center, or make the Alumni House in F St an actual place for students to go, or some other kind of fun social campus place that doesn’t change every five years (RIP the Hippodrome.)

Bonus points to who can guess the grad school

That's awesome! Glad to see it. Just got one myself.

Agree, great points Barry. When I was a student, it was just something you do, similar to your high school football example, go see people, hang out with friends, kind of a communal party thing. Attendance was high for students. I also think more leisure opportunities in DC has hurt drawing student crowds. Things like the Miracle on 22nd Street street fair are a good start.

However, somewhat separate from student attendance is the other side of the arena. There's a group of regular attendees (probably a lot of the people here) but beyond that it's often pretty sparse. I love the idea of special theme nights. Maybe alums of specific schools, government workers, Hill workers, etc could be different nights.

And then there are non-GW affiliated folks. Maybe there could be things like if you live in the District you get a discount, invite local schools and rec league basketball teams, Mystics fans, Wiz fans (especially since the team may be moving) etc. Folks who might appreciate a fun night of basketball.

I also think GW should reach out more to current grad students like the law school, med school, and other schools. They might not have as much free time or connection with the university but "XYZ School Night" with maybe some networking opportunities would be one idea. Bring the dean, profs, prominent people in those fields, etc to meet up at the bar under the stands, or maybe somewhere else before or after games.

Plus especially with law and medicine, those are folks who will probably be making a lot of money and thus might donate a lot in the future.