What Should Be The New ADs First Order Of Business

TreeFiddy · July 28, 2016

2 minutes ago, Aldo said:

Put a beer stand and now it's a party area

Letterman's Lounge!!

Army of Dad · July 28, 2016

12 minutes ago, Aldo said:

Put a beer stand and now it's a party area

Apogee Social Club?

Apogee Draft Pavilion & Cocktail Patio?

GrandGreen · July 28, 2016

7 hours ago, All About UNT said:

Those of you that are saying we need to sell out the SMU game have your heads in the clouds. SMU will probably bring a thousand people. We won one game last year and if you guys seem to think that we are capable of filling 31000 seats I would love to hear how.

I actually think that the big marketing push needs to occur only after we've identified that Seth is capable of turning this program around. Otherwise you are begging potential fans to come watch a potential 3 win season and write us off as still sucking.

Why not delay any marketing push, till NT cracks the top ten?

Skip over the most marketable game on the schedule, in case NT loses and turns off fans. Got to be some of the most faulty logic ever.

What happens if NT actually plays well? Opportunity lost.

Even if they play horrible against SMU, I fail to see how having as big a crowd as possible is detrimental. You really think many fans are going to be so turned off that they never consider going to another NT game? If NT is that bad, at least they got them to one game.

emmitt01 · July 28, 2016

You people worried about the SMU game attendance just don't understand college football.

Home openers sell themselves...

All About UNT · July 29, 2016

2 hours ago, GrandGreen said:

Why not delay any marketing push, till NT cracks the top ten?

Skip over the most marketable game on the schedule, in case NT loses and turns off fans. Got to be some of the most faulty logic ever.

What happens if NT actually plays well? Opportunity lost.

Even if they play horrible against SMU, I fail to see how having as big a crowd as possible is detrimental. You really think many fans are going to be so turned off that they never consider going to another NT game? If NT is that bad, at least they got them to one game.

Not what I said.... at all. I never said skip over marketing the most marketable game on the schedule.

I am, however, urging caution that we dump a shit ton of money into a branding campaign that gets noticed by every alumni member in the area who hasn't given two shits about this program in some time. They then commit to coming to see what they have heard is a "new era" or any other buzz word you want to force onto them only to watch us lose due to the SIMPLE fact that Littrell has one helluva rebuild in front of him and Game 1 might not go our way. I am not making excuses here and I am hardly advocating that we ditch advertising for the year but we should NOT be dumping haphazardly a ton of scare money into a branding and marketing campaign that gets casual fans to appear to one game that we in turn lose due to our status as a complete rebuild of a program.

If you don't see how that opportunity is wasted due to that casual fan then being turned off due to assuming that we are still losing and our program has been run aground then I don't know what to say.

Once we start winning is when we go full throttle with promotions.....drives....charity events......HJ contests and whatever else it takes to get every single persons attention directed at the team. Look at all the money wasted at SMU for their "Pony Up" campaign to watch them eek out 1 win and then 2 wins the next year. Those alumni who showed and actually thought SMU were good and "going places" are probably right back were they started now that they realize it was all lip service and Morris didn't automatically make them relevant. This time......they harbor resentment for having bought in in the first place and made donations to a crap product.

DeepGreen · July 29, 2016

Win and they will come.

UNT90 · July 29, 2016

17 minutes ago, DeepGreen said:

Win and they will come.

Beat teams that matter and they will come.

Travis · July 29, 2016

Give me money and I will come!

Side Show Joe · July 29, 2016

5 hours ago, Harry said:

I worry sometimes that there is a lot of space for people to stand and watch over in that area between the Wing and the alumni side. I see a lot of fans hanging out over there during games at times.

How about we all get some gomeangreen.com t-shirts made with our screen names on the back, and hang a banner in that area. It would be a great place to meet up before games to watch warm-ups, and at the half, to discuss our observations.

Side Show Joe · July 29, 2016

The first thing the new AD needs to do is get his staff in place. I suspect there will be a good deal of turnover.

The second thing I would like to see him do is develop a real marketing campaign that targets the cities and towns in Denton County and the counties surrounding it. These counties comprise the majority of our alumni population. For the Mean Green Nation to grow, we must find a way to generate more fan support from these counties where we have a numerical advantage over every other alumni base. Our numbers from these counties, combined with our student population, are more then enough to sell out Apogee on a regular basis, if we can become a consistent winner.

Third, I'd like him to develop a plan to elevate the Mean Green's recruiting performance. Figure out how to get top level recruits to North Texas, just like Houston does.

Edited July 29, 2016 by Side Show Joe

GrandGreen · July 29, 2016

11 hours ago, All About UNT said:

Those of you that are saying we need to sell out the SMU game have your heads in the clouds. SMU will probably bring a thousand people. We won one game last year and if you guys seem to think that we are capable of filling 31000 seats I would love to hear how.

I actually think that the big marketing push needs to occur only after we've identified that Seth is capable of turning this program around. Otherwise you are begging potential fans to come watch a potential 3 win season and write us off as still sucking.

Why not delay any marketing push, till NT cracks the top ten?

Skip over the most marketable game on the schedule, in case NT loses and turns off fans. Got to be some of the most faulty logic ever.

What happens if NT actually plays well? Opportunity lost.

Even if they play horrible against SMU, I fail to see how having as big a crowd as possible is detrimental. You really think many fans are going to be so turned off that they never consider going to another NT game? If NT is that bad, at least they got them to one game.

Not what I said.... at all. I never said skip over marketing the most marketable game on the schedule.

I am, however, urging caution that we dump a shit ton of money into a branding campaign that gets noticed by every alumni member in the area who hasn't given two shits about this program in some time. They then commit to coming to see what they have heard is a "new era" or any other buzz word you want to force onto them only to watch us lose due to the SIMPLE fact that Littrell has one helluva rebuild in front of him and Game 1 might not go our way. I am not making excuses here and I am hardly advocating that we ditch advertising for the year but we should NOT be dumping haphazardly a ton of scare money into a branding and marketing campaign that gets casual fans to appear to one game that we in turn lose due to our status as a complete rebuild of a program.

If you don't see how that opportunity is wasted due to that casual fan then being turned off due to assuming that we are still losing and our program has been run aground then I don't know what to say.

Once we start winning is when we go full throttle with promotions.....drives....charity events......HJ contests and whatever else it takes to get every single persons attention directed at the team. Look at all the money wasted at SMU for their "Pony Up" campaign to watch them eek out 1 win and then 2 wins the next year. Those alumni who showed and actually thought SMU were good and "going places" are probably right back were they started now that they realize it was all lip service and Morris didn't automatically make them relevant. This time......they harbor resentment for having bought in in the first place and made donations to a crap product.

Now you have decided to define "big" as some major campaign; I don't disagree to the same extent. I doubt that is even possible with the time remaining until the first game.

I am certainly not as afraid of losing fans that currently don't exist. Those casual fans will be available in the future just as they are now. In fact, if things are as dire as you seem to think, better market the heck out of the first game. Those mythical casual fans certainly are not going to support the team you are predicting.

The fact is NT has something to sell right now. A new coach, a new beginning; and not capitalizing on that would be foolish. We can debate what is "big", but NT should do everything possible to sell the SMU game. Note, I am not advocating spending a lot of money on outside consulting or a major re-branding campaign. I think those are in general a waste of money and seldom effective.

UNT90 · July 29, 2016

8 hours ago, Side Show Joe said:

How about we all get some gomeangreen.com t-shirts made with our screen names on the back, and hang a banner in that area. It would be a great place to meet up before games to watch warm-ups, and at the half, to discuss our observations.

And there will be zero women within 600 feet of this location.

And did someone say banner?

Edited July 29, 2016 by UNT90

southsideguy · July 29, 2016

9 hours ago, UNT90 said:

Beat teams that matter and they will come.

and don't get blown out by teams we pay to beat.

UNT90 · July 29, 2016

51 minutes ago, southsideguy said:

and don't get blown out by teams we pay to beat.

And beat teams that matter in a conference championship season.

MeanGreenTexan · July 29, 2016

13 hours ago, emmitt01 said:

You people worried about the SMU game attendance just don't understand college football.

Home openers sell themselves...

I forgot who said this, but it used to be a rally cry around here.

SilverEagle · July 29, 2016

He has to know some of the major issues with this program already. Surely he's already seen the feedback report from both the Letterman's gathering as well as the Alumni gathering. In fact, if I had been President S. I would have given the finalist for the job a copy of the reports and told them that, as part of the interview process, I need written feedback about what they saw as the priority issues in the feedback reports, and what their plan was to address those issues ASAP. In the agency that I worked for, that was called the "in basket" exercise.

Having identified the priority issues, he should declare that all staff under him will re-apply for their jobs. As preparation for their interview, he should supply them with a copy of the feedback report, the priority items highlighted in that report, and make it clear that the major part of the interview is a written action plan on those identified issues. The staff/re-applicants should be ready to defend their action plans.

Of course there may not be enough time to do all this, so just have the department heads go through the re-apply process.

TreeFiddy · July 29, 2016

13 hours ago, All About UNT said:

Not what I said.... at all. I never said skip over marketing the most marketable game on the schedule.

I am, however, urging caution that we dump a shit ton of money into a branding campaign that gets noticed by every alumni member in the area who hasn't given two shits about this program in some time. They then commit to coming to see what they have heard is a "new era" or any other buzz word you want to force onto them only to watch us lose due to the SIMPLE fact that Littrell has one helluva rebuild in front of him and Game 1 might not go our way. I am not making excuses here and I am hardly advocating that we ditch advertising for the year but we should NOT be dumping haphazardly a ton of scare money into a branding and marketing campaign that gets casual fans to appear to one game that we in turn lose due to our status as a complete rebuild of a program.

If you don't see how that opportunity is wasted due to that casual fan then being turned off due to assuming that we are still losing and our program has been run aground then I don't know what to say.

Once we start winning is when we go full throttle with promotions.....drives....charity events......HJ contests and whatever else it takes to get every single persons attention directed at the team. Look at all the money wasted at SMU for their "Pony Up" campaign to watch them eek out 1 win and then 2 wins the next year. Those alumni who showed and actually thought SMU were good and "going places" are probably right back were they started now that they realize it was all lip service and Morris didn't automatically make them relevant. This time......they harbor resentment for having bought in in the first place and made donations to a crap product.

Agree whole heartedly. Each department head should provide a plan as it relates to their area what they believe needs to be done. I don't think I would show them the results of the report. I would ask each department head what areas s/he thinks need improving and what the plan is to improve it. If they don't know, or they think things are great, then that is a good indicator of the real issue.

Time to start running this like a real business instead of a country club. We need people that are hungry to succeed, not people who want to check the box.

emmitt01 · July 29, 2016

2 hours ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

I forgot who said this, but it used to be a rally cry around here.

It is from a phone conversation that I had with Paul Batchelder

Harry · July 29, 2016

1 hour ago, SilverEagle said:

He has to know some of the major issues with this program already. Surely he's already seen the feedback report from both the Letterman's gathering as well as the Alumni gathering. In fact, if I had been President S. I would have given the finalist for the job a copy of the reports and told them that, as part of the interview process, I need written feedback about what they saw as the priority issues in the feedback reports, and what their plan was to address those issues ASAP. In the agency that I worked for, that was called the "in basket" exercise.

Having identified the priority issues, he should declare that all staff under him will re-apply for their jobs. As preparation for their interview, he should supply them with a copy of the feedback report, the priority items highlighted in that report, and make it clear that the major part of the interview is a written action plan on those identified issues. The staff/re-applicants should be ready to defend their action plans.

Of course there may not be enough time to do all this, so just have the department heads go through the re-apply process.

I would go a step prior to this and consider the organizational structure of the athletic department in total. I am by no means an expert in this regard, but it would seem that you could implement a more proven G5 structure to better utilize people and available resources/budget. I don't have an org chart but here is a link to the current listing staff and positions:

http://www.meangreensports.com/staffdir/ntex-staff-dir.html

GMG24 · July 29, 2016

http://smumustangs.com/staff.aspx

http://www.uhcougars.com/staffdir/hou-staffdir.html

http://www.goutsa.com/staff.aspx

http://www.txstatebobcats.com/staff.aspx

UNTflyer · July 29, 2016

Fix basketball.

EagleGreen · July 29, 2016

I really do think his first tasks are to get a G5 structure that fits our needs, fix basketball, and recruit more boosters. Baseball is next with winning an understood task on the coaches.