A Plea For Basketball

Well, Colorado has a new Athletic Director.  Fernando Lovo, most recently at the helm of New Mexico, will be stepping in to officially replace Rick George at the end of the academic year, putting a stamp on the latter's 13 years of up-and-down leadership in Boulder. 

I'm not going to get too deep in my analysis of the hire, beyond to note the obvious I-25 myopia jokes, and that he's younger than me and I'm just going to have to get over that.  I would've preferred a candidate with more direct experience leading a Power 4 athletic department, or more direct ties to B1G or SEC leadership with an eye towards the next round of realignment, but no candidate will check every box.  He seems energetic, engaging, and happy to be here, so I'll offer some leeway on entry until proven otherwise.

Understandably, the top of Lovo's to-do list will be football-centric. Revenue is a critical conversation point with CU Athletics right now, what with over $25 million in reported budgetary shortfalls, and football is the largest part of that pie.  What's more, on the field, the Coach Sanders era is on perilously wobbly legs, probably not much longer for this world, and the football program as a whole is peering over the ledge at permanent obsolescence.  How Fernando addresses this challenge will define his tenure, and it's reasonable for him to focus much of his attention there to start.  But, there's more than just football on the calendar, and plenty of hours in a workday.  Might I make a plea for basketball?

I'm obviously biased.  While I attend football games out of rote acknowledgement of the ritual, it's not my favorite activity on the planet.  Hoops, on the other hand, has a grip on my soul that I cannot shake -- I'd rather be in the gym watching a college game than pretty much anywhere else.  More to the point, the men's and women's programs are the other two potential profit centers for the athletic department, and, in my perspective, one of those, the men's basketball program, has been entirely mismanaged for the vast majority of the last 13 years under Rick George.  There's more meat on that bone, and, since Fernando will be looking to increase revenues, hoops marks a direct line to find some loose millions in the couch cushions.

That's not to say there hasn't been success. Colorado Men's Basketball is at its highest point of sustained on-court performance since the '60s, and has been there since roughly the moment Tad Boyle put pen-to-paper in April of 2010.  Financial success has followed, with the program running consistent surpluses after spending much of the prior decades hovering around break-even, if not outright in the red.  George has had some say in that, inasmuch as he kept Tad on the payroll, and gave him necessary autonomy in his sphere, if not full-fledged financial support. In-arena, however, the program is moribund. Athletic Directors can only do so much to impact the on-court/field products they're in charge of, but, to my mind, they own the presentation part and parcel. The stale and lifeless marketing and presentation of what could be a jewel in the crown of CU Athletics is an embarrassment, and the fans are starting to vote as such with their butts and wallets.  Money is being left on the table.

In considering this, I took a deep dive into attendance trends since 1990, see below:

Years with post-season play are highlighted in green (Dance) and orange NIT).

Of note, the pre-Boyle attendance average from 1990-2010 was 4,908 per game.  During the Tad era, that number jumps up to 7,890 per game (a 60.7% increase), which is phenomenal.  Not entirely a surprise, given Boyle's winning percentage (60%) and postseason hit rate (80%), though the more recent attendance trends have been downwards, even as the wins and postseason berths have continued apace.

What was more interesting was comparing attendance trends by athletic director, across coaching regimes.  I didn't want to go back to the 80s, 'cause, well, I can only stomach the Dark Ages so much.  But, I think it's fair to look at the tenures of Dick Tharp, Mike Bohn, and Rick George in isolation.  

Tharp's trend was relatively stable, with a slight tick up around the '03 Tournament run, before sliding back below the tenure average of 5,095.  This all makes sense, given his coach's (Ricardo Patton) general inability to capitalize on the star-laden runs of '97 and '03, *and* that I'm pretty sure Tharp wouldn't have been able to locate the CEC on a labeled map of Boulder.  The less said about his time at the helm of the program, the better.

Mike Bohn's time in Boulder? Well, that's where things start to get interesting.  Even before Boyle's arrival, Bohn's attendance trendline had started upwards, culminating in a modern program high of 10,932 patrons per game in 2013.  His total tenure average of 6,202 fans per game is a solid 21.7% increase over Tharp's, but attendance had steadily increased over his final four seasons in Boulder, and his 8 full seasons at the helm of the program saw an average YoY increase of 15.26% each season.  This run is not without fault, with the lame duck '07 season afforded Patton a notable error (and leaving out any comment on his post-CU career, which ended in disgrace at USC), but it's clear that the program took off thanks, in no small part, to Bohn's focus on it.

Finally, let's consider the tenure of Rick George. The simple fact is that attendance has declined in all but two seasons under RG.  He does get a caveat for missing out on the fan-less '21 campaign, one of the most anticipated and most successful seasons in program history, which, most likely, would've seen a spike in raw attendance, but the numbers are what they are.  Indeed, his final running average of 7,750 per game is an increase of 24.9% over Bohn's.  But, that top-line belies the overall losing trend; he has averaged dropping about 3% of the fanbase each season, and his last four seasons (6,969) averaged 20% fewer fans than his first four (8,770). '26 is yet to spit out its final result, but, based on what we've seen so far (5,169 per game through 1/3), my guess is that the numbers will continue to tumble a bit.

What can be made of this?  Attendance is, obviously, a correlation of wins and losses -- when the program is winning, numbers go up, money machine go brrrrrrrr.  But it's also a reflection of fan engagement and interest. The Bzdelik years are a perfect encapsulation; they're three of the most lethargic seasons since 1990, and a decided step down from the W/L standards of the Patton era, yet attendance trended upwards throughout, averaging 26.8% YOY improvement.  Bohn had made a decided effort to engage, grow, and nurture the fanbase, from students to cheer to butts-in-seats, and it showed, even when the results remained pedestrian.  When Bohn made the right hire in replacing Bzdelik, the on-court product shot up, and the fanbase was ready to come along for the ride.

That has not been the case under George.  While the results on the Court have remained rather strong throughout his tenure, the fanbase is less and less interested in trekking to Boulder to watch it.  Some of that can be chalked up to the perception of a stale, "good but not great" program under Boyle, which has brought winning consistency and exciting talent to Boulder, but lacks recent highlight moments in March to pull in the casuals.  That said, a program that routinely posts 20+ win seasons and makes postseason play 80% of the time, compared to a prior history of anything but that, should be a gift to any athletic department and marketing team worth their salt.

My argument is simple: Rick George failed the basketball program.  He was set up for success, handed a tuned-up roadster ready for track day, and instead left it in the garage as a showpiece to rot under a tarp. What I often refer to as benign neglect. When he went to turn the marketing engine over for exciting runs in '20 and '24, all that emitted was a cough.  Learning lessons from this error, Lovo has an opportunity to come in, take corrective action, and lead the program into new frontiers.

Think about your recent gameday experience, and compare it to, say, 2014 or 2015.  There's less juice.  The students are not engaged.  Band and cheer are all but removed from the in-game presentation.  Every aspect of the stage being set feels chintzy, dusty, and, above all else, boring.  All has been allowed to decline without appropriate corrective action. I would argue that there is less care and effort put into the presentation than at any time since Dick Tharp was in charge.  Meanwhile, Tad keeps winning, has addressed pace of play and offense concerns, and keeps pumping out pro prospects -- what am I missing here?

I was made aware that, after the 2019 season (then a culmination of seven consecutive seasons of attendance decline), there was an Athletics meeting across a number of levels to discuss in-game tweaks to presentation.  While attendance decline did stabilize in the aftermath, the results of that meeting have almost all been duds.  The in-arena presentation is worse than ever, and little if anything has been done to course-correct.  The attendance figures, even in years of blue-chip prospects, marketable stars, and high anticipation, have stayed largely flaccid.

Each and every gameday is full of irritation. The DJ?  Gotta go. The small-time sparklers for introductions? Gotta go. The tinny sound system tuned for those without the blessing of hearing? Gotta go. The damn reductive and milquetoast "Buff Clap"?  Gotta go. 

"Well, then, what recommendations do you have?"  I'm glad you asked.  Here's a (brief) list of some suggestions to jumpstart conversation:

• Incentivize fans not just purchasing season tickets, but *using* their season tickets.
• Build in perks for those that show up -- attendance-based tier incentives that lead to discounts at the team store, meet and greets with players, and Buff Club priority boosts (for those that care).  Award bonus points for weeknight games in December, or for less-attractive opponents.
• Make attendance an expectation of ticket purchase; create a culture that makes "getting to the gym" a part of being a Buff Fan.
• Value the students; encourage their engagement, not just their attendance.
• Let the students help lead their own presentation.  Empower student leaders, give them a (small) budget, engage with them, encourage attendance through reward incentives (priority/reserved space for key games, on-court marketing events for attendance leaders, gifts, etc).
• Take advantage of the in-house entertainment you have: band and cheer -- they cost you nothing.
• Tie in songs to marketing promos; give cheer/Chip an on-court entertainment segment beyond the Fight Song spell-out in the 2nd half; let the band play tags after the promos to conclude timeouts.
• I'd also argue for the return of the Tuba Cheer, or at least an in-game band feature -- something that separates Colorado's presentation of basketball from every other school's.
• Value the Events Center.   
• Solicit a naming rights deal for the first time in the arena's history (before you ask, it was the Coors family, not the Coors brand, that the arena was originally named for).
• Put some money into the old girl. Not into the team-focused facilities, which seem to be "OK", and would be prohibitively expensive to replace, anyway, but into the fan-facing environment. Focus on creating an intimate basketball-focused environment by leveraging inexpensive design elements to draw the eye to the court (dim the lights on the concourse during play, or add curtains, for example).
• Celebrate the program's history with pride, not just as an afterthought.
• There should be areas around the concourse that celebrate the building's three programs, their legends, and their important wins.  These areas should be modernized and made interactive for the fans.
• Make the banners more prominent, central to the viewing environment, rather than off to the side and forgotten.
• Bring back the GA section behind the North Tunnel.
• I always liked GA in the bleachers; maybe even set it up as a young/recent alum section as a reflection to the energy from the students in the South end.
• I've understood this to be a regulatory thing, but a push should be made to update the regs and bring GA back.
• Keep the vendor-driven up-charge packages for premium swag (ex. the champagne flute, the whiskey tasting and glass from recent years), but make it more prominent.
• The key change would be to promote them *earlier*, and make them a part of season ticket marketing.  "Sign up for season tickets, and the following items are included," etc.
• In the arena, basketball must come first.  
• Don't undercut the pride and tradition of the program at the CEC for the benefit of football.
• This state is and will be gridiron mad 24/7/365, but when I walk in the gym, it should be about Colorado Basketball.  
• The program is not a gimmick, and should not be treated as such, even if a Heisman Trophy winner wants to stop by.
• Leverage the CEC as a regional alternative for non-CU events, especially given the death of the 1st Bank Center in Broomfield.  
• Create a package of design options to drape off and tarp off areas to make a play for concerts, other sports events, etc.
• Above all else, invest, not just financially, but emotionally.

It's an important moment to address this, too.  Coach Boyle will be transitioning out of this program at some point in the next few years.  There's an opportunity to build on the foundation he forged, both with the looming replacement hire, but also in how the program is presented.

My overall thesis is this: if you act as if this matters, as if it's important to the Department, others will follow. The money will follow. If you act as if it's a 2nd rate excuse for some extra financial offsets in the winter, then people will take that cue, too.  Much like people, programs will tell you who they are, if you only listen.  Let us say with a loud voice that this is a program worth following, worth caring about.  That we are, in part at least, a Basketball School.  That Colorado, both professionally and collegiately, is a destination for hoops, and one worth celebrating.  Treasure, value, and grow, and the hardwood will pay you back in kind.

So, please, Fernando, think of basketball.  Find room, funding, and care for a program with meat left on the bone.  Help make this a program for the whole of Colorado, and get the fans back in the gym.  The revenue will follow.