3afan
10-26-2006, 07:40 AM
Richard Oliver: UTSA calls a blitz to promote its football dreams
Web Posted: 10/07/2006 07:40 PM CDT
San Antonio Express-News
It is turning into one of the better behind-the-scenes contests on the San Antonio sports landscape.
Which high-profile project will allow players to tee it up first, UTSA football or the TPC at San Antonio golf complex?
Discussions on both are moving so glacially, it's fair to wonder whether the NFL or Major League Baseball will open play here first.
Whatever the case, the UTSA athletic department, for its part, isn't waiting around to showcase what it hopes is a winning game plan.
The university already has called for a full-out blitz.
It's coming after you.
UTSA, frustrated over the familiar struggle to establish a lasting identity, even in its own neighborhood, and eager to raise its profile as part of the debated quest to add a football program, is kicking off the most determined marketing campaign in its history.
As a result, over the next few months there will be so many Roadrunner images racing around, you'll feel that you've landed in a Looney Tunes marathon.
And you're the Coyote.
But for athletic director Lynn Hickey, there's nothing cartoonish about it.
UTSA is at a vital crossroads, hoping to break from its commuter-school vibe to establish the kind of destination feel that students experience in Austin and College Station.
Football represents an important path to establishing that legitimacy, but an almost-comical facility infrastructure and laggard spectator interest are major hindrances.
Thus, the university is passing along an important message.
Hey, we're over here. Beep! Beep!
Currently, a football feasibility study sits on the desk of UTSA president Ricardo Romo, talks are continuing on plans to construct a multimillion-dollar sports complex, a women's soccer program has been introduced and headline coaches hired.
The university, which hosts more than 28,300 students and almost as many ambitions regarding its sports programs, knows that it isn't big-time yet.
So, in the meantime, it's doing big-time things.
The effort is born, in large part, of exasperation.
"We would just love to get to the place where you go into a store and beside A&M shirts and UT shirts, you'd also see UTSA stuff," Hickey said. "We go into a restaurant where they have banners hanging up from schools and they don't have ours up — and it's our students eating there. It just drives me crazy."
Thus the in-your-face marketing strategy, initiated last month when a series of commercials were unveiled during regional Fox Sports Net telecasts. It will eventually include a sweeping promotional crusade that utilizes billboard, broadcast, newspaper and Internet advertising, from Facebook.com to its own Web site.
By early next year, UTSA also will reveal what may be a dramatic change to its familiar blue-and-orange logo. Ohio-based Rickabaugh Graphics, which orchestrated an aggressive makeover to Ohio State's emblems, is working with the school to rework its Roadrunners brand, from colors to lettering to logo.
Through it all, UTSA is targeting your wallet, of course, but the grander vision takes aim at your brain.
"I just don't know if people know who we are or what we do," said Eric Buskirk, assistant athletic director for external operations.
It's a familiar lament, and the university has decided to make a desperate rush to change things.
Until football arrives, if ever, UTSA will blitz an evasive target.
You.
Web Posted: 10/07/2006 07:40 PM CDT
San Antonio Express-News
It is turning into one of the better behind-the-scenes contests on the San Antonio sports landscape.
Which high-profile project will allow players to tee it up first, UTSA football or the TPC at San Antonio golf complex?
Discussions on both are moving so glacially, it's fair to wonder whether the NFL or Major League Baseball will open play here first.
Whatever the case, the UTSA athletic department, for its part, isn't waiting around to showcase what it hopes is a winning game plan.
The university already has called for a full-out blitz.
It's coming after you.
UTSA, frustrated over the familiar struggle to establish a lasting identity, even in its own neighborhood, and eager to raise its profile as part of the debated quest to add a football program, is kicking off the most determined marketing campaign in its history.
As a result, over the next few months there will be so many Roadrunner images racing around, you'll feel that you've landed in a Looney Tunes marathon.
And you're the Coyote.
But for athletic director Lynn Hickey, there's nothing cartoonish about it.
UTSA is at a vital crossroads, hoping to break from its commuter-school vibe to establish the kind of destination feel that students experience in Austin and College Station.
Football represents an important path to establishing that legitimacy, but an almost-comical facility infrastructure and laggard spectator interest are major hindrances.
Thus, the university is passing along an important message.
Hey, we're over here. Beep! Beep!
Currently, a football feasibility study sits on the desk of UTSA president Ricardo Romo, talks are continuing on plans to construct a multimillion-dollar sports complex, a women's soccer program has been introduced and headline coaches hired.
The university, which hosts more than 28,300 students and almost as many ambitions regarding its sports programs, knows that it isn't big-time yet.
So, in the meantime, it's doing big-time things.
The effort is born, in large part, of exasperation.
"We would just love to get to the place where you go into a store and beside A&M shirts and UT shirts, you'd also see UTSA stuff," Hickey said. "We go into a restaurant where they have banners hanging up from schools and they don't have ours up — and it's our students eating there. It just drives me crazy."
Thus the in-your-face marketing strategy, initiated last month when a series of commercials were unveiled during regional Fox Sports Net telecasts. It will eventually include a sweeping promotional crusade that utilizes billboard, broadcast, newspaper and Internet advertising, from Facebook.com to its own Web site.
By early next year, UTSA also will reveal what may be a dramatic change to its familiar blue-and-orange logo. Ohio-based Rickabaugh Graphics, which orchestrated an aggressive makeover to Ohio State's emblems, is working with the school to rework its Roadrunners brand, from colors to lettering to logo.
Through it all, UTSA is targeting your wallet, of course, but the grander vision takes aim at your brain.
"I just don't know if people know who we are or what we do," said Eric Buskirk, assistant athletic director for external operations.
It's a familiar lament, and the university has decided to make a desperate rush to change things.
Until football arrives, if ever, UTSA will blitz an evasive target.
You.