New marketing plan seeks to boost attendance, fan hype at sporting events

A new marketing plan to keep students at sporting events is underway.

Joe Thuente, assistant athletic director of marketing and promotions at USD, is in charge of the plan. Thuente said he began working on it at the end of March, after basketball season ended.

“I was finally able to write the plan that I wanted to write the whole time,” he said. “It’s about a 90-some page document – it’s got research from past trends, kind of how to base what we want to do off of and we look into goals for the year.”

The plan was necessary after USD became a Division I school, which requires a more competitive outlook on attendance. Thuente said this type of plan would probably not occur at a Division II school.

“It’s part of our growth,” he said.

Sophomore and business finance major Wesley Hanson attends games at USD and said attendance is important, but could always be improved.

“It could obviously be better,” Hanson said. “Better attendance is always a good thing. The atmosphere is always better (with larger attendance).”

Junior and sustainability major Aidan Beck also said game attendance is what truly matters during any sporting event.

“I think it’s important to support your team,” he said.

The attendance plan is split into two parts: what is seen, and what is not seen.

“The part that’s not seen is the communication kind of stuff,” Thuente said. “So, emails, radio ads, billboards etc. … The other part is the promotional calendar, so that’s what you can actually go onto the website and see, for actually now for basketball and for football – it’s on our website.”

The website aspect of the plan lists what is going on at a game besides the actual game, and essentially gets students involved. It is usually a seasonal promotion.

There are also six main parts that go into this plan, which Thuente said help implement its success: students, group sales, game-by-game, season tickets, communication and new branding strategies.

The new branding is creating “one cohesive rallying cry for all of the sports, instead of every sport having its own individual slope,” Thuente said.

Though there has only been one home football game this year so far, Thuente said the goals regarding attendance were achieved, but it is too early to tell if it’s truly successful or not. He said the first game and the game during Dakota Days will determine if the new tactics are working.

“It’s tough to really gauge our success or lack thereof so far,” Thuente said. “Our goals are based on each individual football game – if we reach our attendance goal for students and for adults.”

The attendance also gets students involved, as students will have the chance to compete in contests to win prizes such as laundry bags, cash, or gift cards.

“For people who do attend, the more people that are there, the more fun they’re having. You can create a better atmosphere by just filling up the place,” Thuente said.

Beck said the attendance at football games is surprisingly large.

“A lot of kids go to them – more than I think they would,” Beck said.

Thuente said the standard goal is to do 10 percent better than the year before regarding ticket sales or attendance. Even if USD has a great year and boosts attendance, revenue, ticket sales, goals, there’s is still room to do better the following year.

“You really can’t stop until you’ve filled the stadium with every single seat every single game,”he said. “There’s always room to improve.”

(Photo: The USD student section cheers during the game point at the Sept. 25 volleyball game. A marketing plan is being implemented to improve the overall attendance at USD sporting events, written by Assistant Athletic Director Joe Thuente. Cheyenne Alexis / The Volante)