By Nic LaPonte
It was long the practice in the era of Victorian theater for a wealthy owner of a venue to pay a small sum to a large number of common folk to fill out the audience of a show that was losing revenue. This process caused word to spread about these "packed houses" and ended up bringing more people in of their own accord to see what all of the excitement was about.
This strategy however, misses the point of having spectators at an event. The purpose of theater packing was to create a perceived demand for a show, while in reality theater owners should have been trying to motivate people to come to events because of their interest in them.
This kind of situation is what worries me about our new Hall Stars athletic promotion program.
Another thing that worries me is the possible displacement of our more established student fan organization - Purple Pride.
Contrast for a moment the effectiveness of an organization that is a community versus one that seems to be more artificially inspired. Which one do you think is more likely to encourage group participation?
I spoke with Tricia Miller, director of Athletic Marketing, about this topic. It turns out that the Hall Stars incentive program goes deeper than just encouraging students to come for a game or two in order to win a prize.
Not that the nature of Purple Pride hasn't been radically altered in the past year. For those that don't know, Purple Pride used to be an entirely student-run organization. Admittedly it was one that endorsed and enabled illegal underage drinking, but still, it was a community organized by students whose motives included a hearty love of Pilot athletics.
"We're trying to create some dorm pride, and we've seen some dorms go out and take their own initiative. Corrado has gone and thrown a few pre-game parties," Miller said.
The theory behind Hall Stars, and the ultimate goal for Purple Pride, is to have a student-run and promoted athletic fan base.
"We're trying to give it some framework," Miller said.
According to Miller, the Athletic Department will continue to offer incentives to Purple Pride members to make them feel like it's worth belonging to the program.
Membership numbers however, are not the main concern for promotional programs.
"We've been happy with Purple Pride participation as far as membership goes, but they haven't built their own identity. I feel Purple Pride needs some kind of student leadership for it to feel completely student owned," Miller said.
For any group or movement to have the kind of organizational inertia to survive tough seasons and changing membership every year, there has to be a kind of zeitgeist present in the minds of the students, a feeling that gives them identity. Sometimes though, to get the ball rolling, there needs to be a little push.
"I would love it if we got to the point where we didn't have to bribe students," Miller said.
I wholeheartedly agree.
