While watching "Sportscenter" a few weeks ago I observed a very sad fact about the direction that the UB marketing department is heading regarding UB football.
They've given up.
I watched a commercial for the Bulls vs. Connecticut game. For two seconds the commercial talked about UB football, showed players, and mentioned the game itself. For the other 28 seconds "skateboarding legend" Tony Hawk was the star of the show.
Since when is the halftime show more important than the actual game? Someone's priorities are wrong here, halftime lasts for 20 minutes, the game lasts for three hours. If you are going to develop a fan base you have to sell the football, not the halftime show.
Don't get me wrong, the football team needs to start doing their part too. The UConn game was not entertaining; in fact I probably could have taken a nap on the sidelines. The Lehigh game also left people with a bad impression of UB football and the ability of the team.
Still, by selling the halftime show instead of the game itself, the university is not putting the team in a position to succeed. The Bulls have no home field advantage; they actually play better on the road. So with that in mind I present five steps (in order of importance) to selling UB football.
No team succeeds in the era of television without a decent TV contract - and UB's current TV deal is an embarrassment. The six home games are broadcast on Adelphia 13 "community channel" on tape delay.
There are two things to remember here: nobody watches games on tape delay because it's likely that they already know the final score, and nobody watches Adelphia 13.
While I am sure that it is important for the public access channel to have something to fill the time slot between "High School Volleyball" and "Polka Polka Polka," the university needs to concentrate on getting their games broadcast on a reputable station like Empire Sports or another locally run entity like WNLO.
And here's an idea, broadcast the ROAD games so fans can actually follow their team when they travel. UB currently has it backwards, anyone who is interested enough to watch the team on tape delay on that hokey excuse for a station is probably already going to the game.
In the past the university has paid WGR-550 to cover the team on the radio. The same concept needs to apply here until the team becomes competitive, develops a fan base, and broadcasters start to see a profit from running the games. You have to spend money to make money.
Beer and football, these things go together. They tell me that we can't sell beer because UB Stadium is on campus. Fans need beer, college students need beer, it may not be politically correct but beer makes everything more fun.
Remember that "Simpson's" episode where Homer gives up beer for a month and he goes to the baseball game. He sits there as everyone is drinking, you can hear the radio announcer, and Homer says, "I never realized how boring this game is." While football is far more exciting than baseball, the same concept applies here.
Ok fine, we can't sell beer because it's against the rules. Those of us in engineering, however, have a saying (or is it just me): if you can't succeed playing by the rules . cheat. Here is a shady idea, sell the land that UB Stadium is on to the town in an under the table deal, that way its not officially on campus anymore. Or just pay people to look the other way.
Are you actually going to tell me that we don't have alumni in high places that can help us out here?
Instead of shoving Tony Hawk down our throats, or worse yet celebrities that have already seen their 15 minutes of fame fleet a decade ago, start selling the team or at least the quality of the opposition.
The Bulls have exciting offensive standouts like tight end Chad Bartoszek, who is a John Mackey award candidate (given to the nation's best tight end), and receiver Andre Forde (automatic on the fade route in the end zone). Quarterback Randall Secky is quickly establishing himself as a potent offensive weapon.
This week we have Western Michigan coming into UB Stadium - they won the MAC West Division Championship in 1999 and 2000 and have consistently been one of the best teams in the conference in recent seasons. Later in the year we get Miami (OH) and passing sensation Ben Roethlisberger.
While this isn't PAC-10 football, it's still a very high level. The university needs to start selling this concept.
I know the university wants to create a traditional college football atmosphere, but Buffalo is a professional town. We have never embraced that college tradition and aren't going to start now. It's time to change the in-game production concept now while we still can. After all, this isn't Athens, Ohio or Huntington, W.V. - there is actually other stuff to do here.
There is a lot of work that needs to be done so I'll be brief. For starters get some noise going on third down. Play some decent music while the other team is in the huddle. Use the scoreboard to provide a "get loud" graphic, and presto the game is more fun and the fans are involved.
Forget about catering to families. Yeah, it's great that dad only has to spend $40 to bring his family to the game but families don't make great football fans - they watch the game instead of participate. UB needs to start catering to the students and the rowdies (the guy in the last row with his face painted wearing a "bleacher creature" t-shirt in 30 degree weather) - they are the heart and soul of real football.
Why does football draw over 70,000 people to Ralph Wilson Stadium every week? Because it's fun, you're into the game, and you can actually have an impact on the outcome based on how loud you get. UB needs to copy the success of the Buffalo Bills in terms of providing a quality atmosphere.
Instead of spending thousands of dollars to bring in these C-rate celebrities like Screech and Michael Buffer the university could be spending their money on things that will really help students enjoy the game.
Throw a massive tailgate party, with beer (if we can do it for Fall Fest we can do it for football), for the students before the game. Give away prizes (good prizes) for wearing school colors or painting your face. Give away pom-poms - they create what I call "visual noise" (remember when they gave away those white pom-poms during the Buffalo Sabres cup run in 1999, looked pretty cool didn't it).
Bottom line - the university needs to make the students happy. They need to provide an atmosphere that we can enjoy ourselves in. While students do not pay to get in, they are still the backbone of a successful football atmosphere and having a home field advantage is the backbone of a successful football team.
Photo: Meredith Forrest Kulwicki
