Maybe some in the ad should read this

[SluSignGuy]

Did the invite say you had to RSVP or have a specific ticket to the event. I was honestly planning to show up with a sign or two, but I admitedly have not donated to the Arena project.

[cheeseman]

No RSVP - I would show up if I were you or anybody - they will never know. You can take my place, I will be out of town on business.

[cheeseman]

Bmetz - I know what old school means but I am not sure of your use of it here. Are you saying student tix being free is a thing of the past?

[cheeseman]

Emails to students - OK that is an idea. By the way, season tix holders do get emails about big upcoming games so we know the athletic dept knows how to send them out at least.

[Pistol]

I think I may have gotten one or two about basketball games, but they were a line item in a larger email about other stuff going on during big weekends on campus. There were more for the soccer games, for similar reasons during homecoming weekend, etc.

Every student on campus has to use their email everyday, and for the department, it's easy and basically free. Seems like a no-brainer to me.

[slu72]

Winning is first...look at the salad years 93-95. Spoon also helped because of his down home aw shucks attitude. I don't know what UB does to promote us, but he ain't the warm and fuzzy good ol' boy type that Spoon was. Brining in good teams help...wait until the UNC game...I'll eat my hat if there's not 18k+ for that baby. If we scheduled Illini and Mizzou every other year they'd be huge draws as well...play them at Savvis (neutral court in 2008). Target young kids ages 7-12 to build future support...a fun, inexpensive, night out. Give each kid a Billiken Mask like on Pardon the Interruption. What could be more scary to an opposing team than seeing 1000 rug rats wearing winking smiling billiken masks. I shudder at the thought. Have they ever done a bobble head Billiken doll night? I just bought one of the Billiken Statuettes from the store, my grandkids couldn't keep their hands off it. So I bought two for them. My daughter tells me one of them has to rub his Billiken every night before he goes to bed. He's growing up a Bills fan. MU has a huge advantage on us right now due to the Big East...who doesn't want to see top 20 teams...what Catholic school doesn't want a chance at beating ND...but that's just part of it. They're also making the dance on a regular basis. MU is just like SLU mostly a commuter school but changing somewhat with a more national student body. The fact they have 3,500 students willing to go off campus to a game is saying something. It's a "be there or be square" event. We've got to get that at SLU. Hopefully the arena is the answer.

[Pistol]

Oh, I acknowledge that winning is the most important factor by far, but you've got to have some promotion of the team as well. We did a Soderberg bobblehead night two years ago, sponsored by J. Buck's. I was able to get my hands on one; unfortunately, the head fell off, but I still have it. As for Mizzou, we try to get them on the schedule every year, and having them and/or Illinois on the schedule every year would be fantastic. You also make a good point about starting fans young. I think it's important to specifically appeal to kids, and grow them up as Bills fans. Look at the culture surrounding the Cards: not that we could ever replicate that, but it starts as kids for Cards fans.

The arena is a huge, huge help, but we need to make sure that the initial novelty doesn't wear off. And in the meantime, there have to be more ways to fill the huge voids in the Savvis.

[Box and Won]

And we did a billiken bobblehead giveaway 4-5 years ago. Mine is sitting in my cubicle right now - it's probably the best giveaway we've done in the last few years.