View from the Corner Office
8/9/2010 11:31:00 AM | Athletics
We are just about ready to get another great year underway. Student-athletes are returning to campus and there is a buzz around the department. The new year is almost here and you can feel it.
We had a great event the other night hosted by the Alumni Association in The Woodlands at Amerigo's restaurant. There is a lot of excitement surrounding our new football coaching staff and the Battle of the Piney Woods that was evident by the response of everyone who attended. It was such a wonderful event, we are having discussions about having another get together for basketball later in the fall.
Chris Keeney from the Lone Star Sports and Entertainment group and the Houston Texans spoke about the Battle of the Piney Woods which will be at Reliant Stadium this year. He does a great job every year with the Texas Bowl and this summer with the Major League Soccer All-Stars. Houston welcomed legendary soccer club Manchester United and LSSE put on a big-time event that drew more than 70,000 fans. Having grown up in Houston I am amazed at that crowd for a soccer game. Maybe they thought it was a "football" game instead of a "futbol" game. Either way we are proud to be associated with LSSE and appreciate the high expectations they have for our game..
I want to take this time to remind you to purchase tickets early for the Battle of the Piney Woods. I know there is a perception you can just get them the week of the game, but we are encouraging everyone to buy early. Right now we are leading SFA and the Texans in tickets sold and I want to keep it that way.
As of the first of August, we have already sold 84 percent of our total ticket revenue from last season. That includes season ticket sales, individual ticket sales and walk up sales from the 2009 year. We are seeing numbers in tickets sales we have not seen before, and we want to thank our fans for getting out there and purchasing early. With a month until the start of the season, these early reports are very encouraging.
Another big project for this department over the last year has been the ongoing feasibility study conducted by a group of NACDA consultants. The feasibility study was expected to be completed early July. We have had several meetings with the consultants. Due to a few rewrites and reviews we are running about a month behind on the feasibility study report. We are hoping to have it wrapped up this month. This information will be made public on our web site, and sometime in the fall, NACDA consulting along with the athletic department will be making presentations to key people about the report.
As we gear up for the new football season you will notice a different look in the concession stands at Bowers Stadium as Spectrum Catering and Concessions will take over. I want to thank Hospitality Foods and Pat Burns for a long relationship dating back to the early 90's. He was great because I had been running the concession stand for three year and he brought a professional organization in and gave us a good revenue stream and service, along with being a great Bearkat fan.
We now want to welcome in Spectrum into the Bearkat family. They will bring in a new look to our concessions, through new menu boards, new menu items and looking our fans being able to use credit cards at the window. We are going to be their first college venue, but they are a national corporation that has been the concession supplier for several PGA Tour events, including The Byron Nelson, The Colonial and the Shell Houston Open.
Before closing this out, I want to get back to the Alumni function in The Woodlands. The Alumni Association staff under the direction of Charlie Vienne did a fabulous job with the event, welcoming nearly 150 people to Amerigo's. Charlie and his staff include us in every event they host that always gives us an opportunity to tell out story. If athletics has a big event, they are always right there, and we appreciate all the hard work that staff does not just for our department, but for this university as a whole.
-- Bobby Williams
SHSU Director of Athletics
