The unofficial online home for fans of the Kent State University Golden Flashes. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

With the 2004 football season about nine months away, Laing Kennedy should begin thinking about ways to implement a multifaceted marketing effort to meet the NCAA Division 1-A attendance requirement. Some suggestions for creating more interest in Flash football might include billboards featuring Joshua Cribbs. The boards could show a smiling Cribbs and the slogan, "Got tickets?" Radio ads featuring the same line could be launched on several Akron, Cleveland, and Kent stations. If my memory serves me correctly, KSU usually has only a few billboards around Kent prior to its football season and most of them are pretty lame. My expertise is not in marketing, but I have to believe just about anyone could do a better job marketing Kent athletics than the ones that Kent has had over the years.

Another way to help the attendance figures next year is for the athletic department to ensure that the pricing structure for Kent State football is the most affordable sports entertainment option in Northeastern Ohio. Season ticket packages should be priced so that just about anyone can afford to buy them. Furthermore, a special family package should be offered that would cover two adults and up to three children under 18 per game and this would encourage the whole family to attend the games. Since KSU students can attend games free of charge, the university must find new ways to get more of its students to the games.

Now that Laing Kennedy has extended Coach Pees

Those are good ideas, nashville.

KSU is fully aware of the 15K requirement. Don't know what will happen on the marketing front, but a "football attendance committee" has been appointed. One of the people leading it is the VP who oversees Development and Alumni among many other things, the other the VP of Student Services. I am unsure who else is involved, but imagine the athletic department has a heavy presence. I am not certain because it was not specifically stated, but got the sense that this was initiated by Dr. Cartwright.

Anyway, the few ideas described to me so far have been interesting and showed some new thinking for drawing Kent football fans. Because the ideas are not fully formed and may not get off the ground, I won't kill them with rumors started here. I am just glad there is (1) awareness of the problem (2) an effort to do something and (3) some new thinking is involved.

I have come full circle on football at Kent. A year ago, I felt "D-I, D-II, who cares, we stink anyway, move on". Today, it is far more a point of pride for me that Kent football stay at D-I. I hope we can and think we will. ( I am still not convinced the dollar difference over time is that great, but that's now irrelevant to me because it's a image and reputation factor .) Go Flashes!