The Perception of USF Athletics

[Mama_Bull]

1) What's your position?

mother of a USF undergrad and grad student

2) What do you think of USF athletics?

USF's sports programs are growing.  Season ticket holder at RayJay.  Prefer football to other sports, but any USF sport is a good watch for me.   LOL

I think marketing and promotion of athletics could be better.  The fan base is not growing as fast as the football program, for sure.  This will take some more time.

I would venture to say that in less than 10 years we will be part of the Florida Quad Universities.  

3) How is "life" as a fan for you?

Living less than 4 blocks from USF makes being a fan real easy.  The drive to RayJay is like falling off a log.

4) Do you have any suggestions for USF athletics or the Bulls Fans?

No suggestion for the athletics department, but for Bulls fans.....keep supporting the team(s) during good and bad times.  That's the way to grow the fan base.

5) What's the one thing that you are most proud of as a Bulls Fan?

How our FB program has grown and how our BB program is going to compete.

GO BULLS!!!!!!!

[Buller64]

1. What's your position?

  Alumni - 1992

2. What do you think of USF athletics?

    Improving, although there is still a long way to go.  In this day of instant gratification, I really hope that people have the patience to let things grow and develop.  It is said to take 20 years to establish a fan base and USF has only been trying to establish a fan base over the last 6 years.

3. How is "life" as a fan for you?

    I have noticed that there is more awareness of USF athletics than there was a few years a go, but there is still too much of "it's a nice school."  Living in Pinellas, I can get to whatever events I choose to, most of the time.  

4. Do you have any suggestions for USF athletics or Bulls Fans?

    My biggest suggestion is more marketing in the Tampa Bay area.  It is better than it used to be but it still is not enough.  You are competing against the D-Rays, Bucs, Lightning, Gators, Noles, and Canes.  Don't think that you aren't.  The only way to improve the fan base is through marketing.  The budget still needs about $30 million more to compete with the other BCS schools in all sports, to get that type of revenue will require 8000 - 10000 per game in MBB, 50000 per game in FB and over 2000 per game in WBB.  Double the marketing budget and sell tickets, offer discounts because filled seats are better than empty ones.

5. What's the one thing that you are most proud of as a Bulls fan?

   The overall success of the Athletic Program.  Despite my complaint about the budget, I'm proud of the fact that we are getting more competitive in all sports and keeping the budget in the black.  That will keep the programs improving, theres nothing lik red in the budget to slow or eliminate progress.  UCF is an object lesson here.  The main reason they have not progressed as much is because they ran their programs into the red and had to cut back (and slow development) until they paid off the debts.

[E.T.]

...2) What do you think of USF athletics?

I thin it took a major step forward with the hire of A.D. Woolard. I really only follow football, as does this state. Just wish more alum would support the other programs.

...

:GoBulls

I also like this sentence from Woolard's letter to the season ticket holders:

"USF Athletics has achieved so much in a short period of time, and our victory at the Papajohns.com Bowl in Birmingham was just another step along the path to the top of the BCS."

:GoBulls

Go BULLS !!!

[Guest BasketBull.]

I think USF athletics has been doing very in all areas, except one: student promotion.

If they don't become fans as students, when they move on, it will be that much tougher to hook them.

To be honest, when I first got to USF back in 1989, I couldn't care less about USF athletics; my (misguided) loyalty was elsewhere. I saw Dobras' pic on the USF brochure and chuckled negatively, "the Bulls?"

Well, it took some dorm buddies to drag me into the Sun Dome for a game... The rest is history. Ah, the things I could have done with all the time I've spent on USF sports!

We've got more dorms and more Greek life than ever now, not to mention enrollment is over 42K for all campuses. Yes, I see more USF gear worn on campus now, and things are improving. However, student attendance is still very weak.

In my opinion, this is where the future strength of USF athletics lie, the student/alumni fan base.

One sign in front of the library's entrance isn't going to cut it!

If I had to give a grade to student promotion since I've been back as a student: F-

[fishinBULL]

i think if we have a really special year, and beat auburn and work our way, we would start seeing 40,000-50,000 people per game at least starting when we play WVU.  I really believe all of the local closet USF alumni will hop on the banwagon if we put together an incredible season like what rutgers did.  I think those people will stick around too.  But the most important thing is advertising to the students.  Students like myself are what will make up the future fan base.

[pioneerb]

1) What's your position?

razorback fan, sister went to usf.

2) What do you think of USF athletics?

I believe the basketball and football programs is coming along.

3) How is "life" as a fan for you?

A small fan of usf but not a big fan yet.   Thats why I joined so hopefully you guys can convert me.

4) Do you have any suggestions for USF athletics or the Bulls Fans?

Don't accept mediocrity(sp)

5) What's the one thing that you are most proud of as a Bulls Fan?

Beat wvu in football and hired stan heath.

[BullsDude08]

1) What's your position?

Student since summer 2004

2) What do you think of USF athletics?

I personally think that USF Athletics has improved extremely just since me beginning here in '04. I think that the coaching hires in the last couple years are great for our program. I am so glad to be at a school where I can feel like I'm apart of the rise of the program.

3) How is "life" as a fan for you?

Life as a fan is great! I attend as many sporting events as possible (it's hard to go to every sport, sorry). I really get upset at the lack of support from the student body. I feel that as big of an enrollment of students we have, there is no reason our sports games should not be sold out. I hope that will change someday.

4) Do you have any suggestions for USF athletics or the Bulls Fans?

I think that the Athletics Dept. could definitely promote its events more to the students and Tampa Bay area. I know its hard with so many other big schools already established in FL. I really think that the Fraternities and Sororities shouldn't be able to be connected with the "USF" name, because they don't support the school one bit. No one cares about your stupid greek letters, wear a BULLS shirt you loser. Sorry for the rant.... Until students start coming to this University because they WANT to, and not because none of the "big 3" would accept them, then nothing will change. I feel that our Student Gov't is somewhat corrupt (like Allison Tiberia wearing Gators shirts on our campus) and that most don't care about USF at all, its just for their resume.

5) What's the one thing that you are most proud of as a Bulls Fan?

That our school is on the rise that it is to national prominence. I feel that Doug Woolard is a great A.D. and knows how to make the right choices (thanks LeRoy also!) I love the SunDome with all my heart, everytime I go in there I just get an ecstatic feeling inside for USF sports! Thats all

Side Note: I know for a fact that many of our students like to wear other school's gear around. It is disrepectful to our athletes, please don't do it anymore. I will call you out on it. There is a girl that works for USF Intramural Sports dept., she can often be seen wearing a bright red Rutgers shirt all the time (even to our B-ball game at the dome when we played them). And if you dont think I called her out on it, you're crazy. She had to move from the student section mid-game. I feel that kids like her, should not be let into our sports events wearing another team's gear (especially a Big East foe) unless that team is competing against us.

Sorry for the ranting

[exbull]

1) Former Athlete (Football)

2) I think they are moving in the right direction.  A new baseball and softball fields needs to happen.  Sports feed off of each other.  The athletes all know each other.  They want all the sports to be successful and have nice things.  Bragging rights!!  The pace needs to be picked up a little bit as far as that goes.  I think the coaches we have in place now have that sense of urgency that Leavitt always talked about.  We need to EARN the respect of the nation.  That is not going to happen over night.  I know when I played football we always talked about going out there and earning it.  RESPECT is not given.  With that being said I think we are on the right path.  I think it can happen faster if Baseball continues its pather and basketball shows some signs of life.

3) I am a diehard.  I don't live in the area any more.  I still stay in touch with many of the guys I played with current and former.  I hate going places and people not knowing who we are.  But then I love beating those same people.  I think the student body is doing much better for football.  Not sure about Baseball and Basketball.  I think the alumni need to pick up the slack especially those in the surrounding Tampa area.  

4) We need to start marketing to the local younger kids.  We need to get Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Sarasota, Polk all them to start coming to games. Let these kids into the games for free. Parents at a discounted rate.  Start them young and wanting to watch the bulls and cheer for them at young ages.  Therefore when they get older they will already be fans  There is no reason why we can not give these tickets away to Junior High and High Schools kids.  The seats are empty anyways.  

[JoeB]

1.  Alumni

2.  USF Athletics are on the right path in my opinion.  The hiring of Stan Heath is a step in the right direction for our Basketball team.  Lelo Prado has his team playing well and you can just tell that they will only get better.  Leavitt has done a wonderful job and now we are a team that should challenge for the Big East in the next two years if not this one.

3.  Life as a fan is a constant battle.  But its a battle that is worth fighting.  Sure you put up with a lot of crap like people calling us Southern Florida, but then there are times when we pull an upset like Louisville or WVU and people come out and say Congrats about your school.  Those times it feels really good.  Also, for a USF alum that lived in Atlanta for the past 9 years, its great to be back in Tampa and be able to go cheer for the Bulls, be in basketball and especially baseball.  Thank God for this forum, because it allows us all to follow every sport as closely as we want to.

4.  Suggestions for fans is real simple.  BE ACTIVE.  Go out and support these teams.  I've been plugging baseball all year, and its worth the fight.  The atmosphere for the UF game when the place was packed was much better than this past weekend for WVU.  So I suggest for fans in the Bay area to come out and watch the teams play.  Show Support.  You never know how much you'll miss it if you have to move away.

5.  Proud to be a Bull.  I would say the most proud I was when we played Kentucky Wesleyan.  Its hard to match the electricity of the place that night.  The first bowl game in Charlotte was a proud moment too.  Not necessarily the game, but just walking around Charlotte and the pep rally/battle of the bands the night prior.  It was great being with other happy Bulls fans and feeling that we finally arrived.  Birmingham was a proud moment too, as we were able to win our bowl game for the first time.