2005: 100% occupancy attainable at Lady Cajun Basketball Earl K. Long Gym!

[ATXCajun]

As the Head Coach I can tell you that once we out grow E.K. Long we will go straight to the Cajun Dome. We need to Avg 1500 to play all our games at the Cajun Dome. Our players LOVE E.K. Long and our OPPONENTS "HATE PLAYING IN E.K.LONG".
I had an Athletic Director from another school tell me last week while we were at the Spring Sun Belt Conference meetings that we were nuts if we moved out. He said "you have every coach talking to their A.D. about having to play in your place". "CRACKER BOX" is what he called it. Well in case you people haven't kept up "HISTORICAL E.K. LONG'' IS HAVING A brand new MAPLE (light Colored) FLOOR BEING LAYED AS WE SPEAK. STOP BY AND CHECK IT OUT. Should be ready by July 15 to play on.

P.S. MEETING WITH NELSON TODAY AT 11. STAY TUNED.
HEADRAGINCAJUN1

My first thought was that I have no idea. People only have so much time on their hands. People get involved in their personal lives and jobs and such. Then I started searching what motivates me. I think the answer is that a person has to develop a sense of ownership in something in order for it to compete for time in their schedule next to studying, family, work, beer :-) etc. Many of the people on this board are the diehards. They take ownership of the school and everything it does. Even still, men's basketball and other sports and activities compete for time with the Lady Cajuns. People have to take ownership of the Lady Cajuns. I'm not sure how to do that. Maybe put the ladies out there in a way that allows students and the public to feel like they know them. My other thought is to use corporate themes for every home game. example: Have a Moss Motors night. Moss Motors buys a block of tickets, uses cheap radio advertising to promote the game and their business. Free pair of tickets for anyone that test drives a car. Set up a festive display outside. Car brochures, etc. Whatever they come up with. Make contact with the coaches of every youth basketball team you can find and offer a package deal for the coach, team, and family members. Get a fun jump and food going outside if the weather is right. Kids come in packs and they are loud. If the Youngsville Dribblers(?) are coming, make it their night. Get them involved in halftime and post game with the players.

[CDeb]

I'm going to echo the coach's sentiments.

With 500 people in the place, EKL is pretty darn loud. With 900-1000, it's a chamber of horrors for visitors. With 1500, it would be amongst the 5-10 toughest places to play in the nation.

Every effort should be made to pack more people into that building as long as possible, because moving to a vastly larger facility like Blackham or the Dome just kills a huge advantage that our women have in there.

Should that come to pass, I don't think renovating Blackham is practical. The place is a dump and would take a lot of money to be brought up to a facility worthy of a women's program good enough outgrow EKL. Like coach said, going to the Cajundome is a much more viable alternative.

[gorcajun]

No matter if it is the Cajundome or E. K. Long Gym, winning will bring fans into the stands. Coach, you have done that.

Now what needs to be in those stands are fans with a PASSION for not only the University, Athletics, Basketball but most specifically Women's Basketball.
The PASSION is what makes it a "CRACKER BOX" and a hell of a place for opponents to play and least of all WIN.

As someone posted earlier, we on the Rage Page are the diehards and for the most part we will be there, but it is the PASSION of the sport that drives young girls to ask parents and others to bring them to the game to see player they may emulate later in life. Boys are also interested and can buy tickets.

[DaddyCajun]

Good point by Turbine, ALL kids going to Louisiana Athletic Summer Camps should be able to buy Young Ragin Cajun Memberships at HALF PRICE, this would have more parent pant legs being tugged at during each sporting season.


Coach you stated earlier that the courts should be good to go in approximately 3 weeks!!! Would it be possible to plan a camp for the last week in July and first week in August??????????

DaddyCajun
I have a camper for you, waiting!! She has some friends waiting also!!!!!!

[headragincajun]

Good point by Turbine, ALL kids going to Louisiana Athletic Summer Camps should be able to buy Young Ragin Cajun Memberships at HALF PRICE, this would have more parent pant legs being tugged at during each sporting season.


Coach you stated earlier that the courts should be good to go in approximately 3 weeks!!! Would it be possible to plan a camp for the last week in July and first week in August??????????

DaddyCajun
I have a camper for you, waiting!! She has some friends waiting also!!!!!!

I would love to do a camp but the answer is NO FOR THIS YEAR ONLY. The reason why was that we were originally told it was shut down til Aug. That was, in case they hit a snag or something. We were not going to do all the work and then something happen and we had to cancel it. Also it is better for us to do it in June every year. We are out the whole month of July recruiting. So July really isn't an option. In the end we just decided to wait it out and do it right. I DIDN"T WANT THE CONTRACTERS TO HURRY THEIR WORK. GET IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME. It's looking good. Hope this helps.
Headragincajun1

[CDeb]

Hey coach, it's great to have you post here. We haven't had a head coach post on the forums (at least not anonymously) since softball's Yvette Girouard.

[Pirogue]

CAN ANYBODY TELL ME HOW TO GET MORE STUDENTS OUT TO OUR GAMES HERE ON CAMPUS.

Free beer, Strippers, extra points in class, Loud music, Fireworks, keep winning...

Do all that... 3000 seats isn't enough

[Clutch0364]

Coach 1 thing you might be able to try to raise more money for WBB would be the 50 50 raffle like at the baseball games. Fans can pay $1 per raffle ticket and half the money goes to the program.

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong but I believe thats how it works.

[Turbine]

Free beer, Strippers, extra points in class, Loud music, Fireworks, keep winning...

Do all that... 3000 seats isn't enough

Um P they want to make money too

I see that getting a Law degree hasn't stopped the wheels from spinning.

[TheRaginCajun06]

Coach 1 thing you might be able to try to raise more money for WBB would be the 50 50 raffle like at the baseball games. Fans can pay $1 per raffle ticket and half the money goes to the program.

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong but I believe thats how it works.

Exactly what I was going to write. 50/50 raffles are cool. Say that 500 people buy a ticket. $250 goes to UL nad $250 goes to a student.

THIS #1 BIGGEST PROBLEM that UL Lafayette has is that HALF the student body is uninformed. Most students don't realize they get into all events free.

You are going to have probably 10,000 out of the 15,000 students either working, not interested at all in sports, night class, family, church....etc that just won't come on a weeknight to watch basketball.

So there are 5,000 students left. 4,000 of them don't know there is a game. 500 have plans already. 500 left to attend the game.

I know for a fact that students miss out on so much and I've talk to SEVERAL students about why we never know what is going on. The reason is because if you don't pick up a newspaper or you miss the 5 flyers on campus you miss out on knowing what is going on.

How do we fix this? Create a buzz. This starts with your major groups. SGA, sor and frats. You got to get them involved with halftime events, pregame events and postgame events. Once you do that you create a trickle down effect. It's like word of mouth. That is what Lafayette is based on. You have to get people interested. There are those who would watch a game and those who would watch a game with entertainment on the side and that crowd is bigger in numbers.

Winning of course has a lot to do with it. Now that we've got that part down, let everyone know what is going on. Hell, I remember things at the Icegators games such as .... If the Gators score 7 points you get a free wHOPPER at Burger King.

Stuff like that? If the Cajuns score so many points they can redeem their tickets for a chicken sandwhich.

I got so many ideas. If you want to talk coach just send me a PM.