Thankfully, got down to Brooks for a couple games during the CAA Tournament (and a few during the regular season).

With a number of close calls, I started thinking about just how much we could use a scoreboard with a videoboard -- something that Coach Hood mentioned during our podcast conversation.

As I'm writing some of my thoughts out in the Perch, I'm curious -- what do y'all think are the things (big or small) that we could add or improve for our gameday experience at Brooks, Trask or elsewhere?

Our team deserved to have so many more than the reported 1,396 in the stands for Saturday evening's championship game.

The scoreboard wasn't functioning at times which sucked

Tried to get my kid popcorn but the one concession stand had a ridiculously long line so we skipped that.

Low attendance was probably due to COVID, weathe, and last minute nature of this game. Been to CAA championship games in the past and the atmosphere was great.

I've been preaching this for years. UNCW is donor focused, not fan focused, and it's obvious when you attend any UNCW athletic event. THE GAME is literally the only attraction at a UNCW event. That's it. So anything UNCW ADDED to athletic events would improve the fan experience.

With that being said, here are my sugggestions

1. Meet and greet players before the games. Let kids and fans get pictures and autographs. Maybe a starting pitcher on their off game. Give people a chance to actually say "hi", "thanks", "we love watching you play" and just connect with the actual players. My daughter played soccer and was a huge fan of a player on the team. There wasn't a chance to just meet her, so I had to track the player down after a game.

2. Some type of game kids and fans could play related to the sport they attend. A speed radar at baseball games to throw pitches. Several of those basketball games you see at arcades at the basketball games.

3. Anything beyond high school level concessions. UNCW literally cannot handle a large crowd at any event. Even an average crowd creates really long lines.

4. Create a "beachy" atmosphere at the games. The music, the clothing worn by the greeters, concessions, security, decorations. Why not make all our concession areas look like a "tiki hut"? People who attend a UNCW shouls come away KNOWING they were at a UNCW game and looking forward to coming back. When you attend a UNCW game of any type, you should be be immersed in the experience. We have a MARKETING degree at UNCW for goodness sakes, can't we use that department and those students to create something?

5. We now have a film studies building. We should have THE BEST media production in everything we do, and our athletes and athletic events should showcase UNCW AND showcase our film, studio and production capabilities.

People should want to come to UNCW athletic events whether the teams are good or not. The game should only be a part of the experieince, not the entire experience.

A bouncy house for the kids is a no Brainerd.

Hawks need to take advantage of the fact there is no Minor league team

This isn't something I'm gifted with, but I'd start with immolating minor league baseball and comparable programs around the country. We don't need to re-create anything; just bring works elsewhere to UNCW.

In terms of social media, David Glen is now on staff within the Com Studies Dept. I think we should utilize his expertise in sports marketing. For at least 20 years we've talked about our brand...are we NC-Wilmington, UNCW, UNC-Wilmington, etc. We've discussed that to death, but something that simple is still completely lost on the university leadership.

(06-06-2021 10:31 AM)solohawks Wrote:  A bouncy house for the kids is a no Brainerd.

Hawks need to take advantage of the fact there is no Minor league team

No Minor League team, which is a travesty, but the Sharks do an excellent job with the fan experience stuff despite a lackluster stadium/facilities and less than stellar baseball on the field. They really try to mimic what a lot of minor league teams do, just with a smaller budget. Hence why they won "Organization of the Year" in the Coastal Plain League in their most recent season of play (2019).

I hope the issues with the scoreboard at UNCW finally puts the onus on the administration to find us funding for a new one. That's a starting point. An eventual video board and more fan engagement would be great to follow suit.

With UNCW now able to sell alcohol, it would be wise to work with the Sharks. Between the two teams, a season long experience could be made at the same location

(06-06-2021 11:56 AM)Seahawk Nation 08 Wrote:  

(06-06-2021 10:31 AM)solohawks Wrote:  A bouncy house for the kids is a no Brainerd.

Hawks need to take advantage of the fact there is no Minor league team

No Minor League team, which is a travesty, but the Sharks do an excellent job with the fan experience stuff despite a lackluster stadium/facilities and less than stellar baseball on the field. They really try to mimic what a lot of minor league teams do, just with a smaller budget. Hence why they won "Organization of the Year" in the Coastal Plain League in their most recent season of play (2019).

I hope the issues with the scoreboard at UNCW finally puts the onus on the administration to find us funding for a new one. That's a starting point. An eventual video board and more fan engagement would be great to follow suit.

Yep, just do what minor league teams do with a UNCW twist.

(06-06-2021 11:56 AM)Seahawk Nation 08 Wrote:  

(06-06-2021 10:31 AM)solohawks Wrote:  A bouncy house for the kids is a no Brainerd.

Hawks need to take advantage of the fact there is no Minor league team

No Minor League team, which is a travesty, but the Sharks do an excellent job with the fan experience stuff despite a lackluster stadium/facilities and less than stellar baseball on the field. They really try to mimic what a lot of minor league teams do, just with a smaller budget. Hence why they won "Organization of the Year" in the Coastal Plain League in their most recent season of play (2019).

I hope the issues with the scoreboard at UNCW finally puts the onus on the administration to find us funding for a new one. That's a starting point. An eventual video board and more fan engagement would be great to follow suit.

UNCW baseball has the hitting facility which is top notch and after that everything else is totally subpar for D1 baseball. The field maintenance guys do a great job with what they have to work with. On the left side of the field where the infield/outfield meet there is a huge lip and LF to CF is a lot lower than the infield. The entire field could use a make over with a laser level grading operation. The scoreboard is an absolute joke and you would be better off no scoreboard at all if that is the option. Bleachers and seating are pathetic for a program this good. In short a D9 Cat would be a welcome site at Brooks field. I have seen drawings of a proposed new Brooks Field but I doubt the money is close to making that happen. It has to hard to sell this to recruits in NC when you are competing with facilities like this.

(06-07-2021 11:24 AM)jumpinmullet Wrote:  The scoreboard is an absolute joke and you would be better off no scoreboard at all if that is the option.

Not an option unfortunately. According to NCAA/CAA rules the onus would fall on the PA Announcer (I.E. me) to announce every single thing going on on the field at all times, including the count after every pitch. Not a viable solution, even in a pinch. No one wants to hear the PA Announcer that much during a game. That kind of thing happened during a UNCW soccer match once and it was rough. And soccer has a lot less to announce in a given match than a baseball game does.

So, yes, the administration/donors will 100 % either need to provide funding to fix the current one or replace it going forward, or else it'll become a total embarrassment from a gameday standpoint.