Had a chance to talk to Wren, who is Mack Rhoades' No. 2 guy, yesterday. Wanted to pass along some things from that conversation.
He is the "sport administrator" for men's basketball. Yes, Mack is the boss, but he oversees everything so each sport has its own guy who's kind of in charge of day to day stuff for that sport in the department. I asked Wren to explain to me what that job entails: "With coach Anderson and I, almost every interaction that he would have administratively, who he wants to recruit, who he wants to hire, that would go to Mack, will be funneled in some way through me and I would be involved. I'm responsible for making sure that our kids are in meetings, relaying Mack's expectations on what he expects out of student-athletes. He does that as well, but he's also involved in all the sports programs and I'm only involved in that one. I'm able to do that on a more regular basis. I talk to coach Anderson if not every day, every other day. We'll meet once a week or so. We may talk leadership, rules, regulations, and more it's just guys talking. Obviously if I knew basketball as well as he did, I would be down the hall making a lot more money. I don't. I think Kim's a really knowledgeable basketball coach."
On game day atmosphere: "It's important that first thing, regardless of the crowd size, the fans that come to football or basketball have a good experience. We're not happy with where we are in terms of our football crowds either. We think we should be sold out every game. We think we should be having conversations around capacity increases and we're not. I think that where our initial focus will be is on making sure the fans that come here have a great experience. Also providing Kim all the support and resources necessary to improve the product on the court. That's a part of the game day experience, but that's not necessarily a part of the game day experience that I can control and focus on. What I can control is how easy it is to park, how easy it is to get to the concession stand, restroom, do we have good in game entertainment, those type of things. We're focused on that. We've even talked about adding a full time position whose only focus is the game day experience. Not just in basketball and football, but across the board. We have all of these people, we have game day operations people, we have marketing people, we have communications people, we have development staff, we have external engagement who does a lot of our premium seating stewardship. But those are all different people in different offices and different areas and it would be nice to have someone whose focus is just to go to the game and observe and come back and say, 'You know, I think we could work together and do this' and then the game day experience would improve.'"
On gathering feedback in his first few months: "We've done some surveying of the game day experience, especially in football. The SEC's taken control of that the last couple of years. You can see not only your results, but how you compare with everyone else...Bringing in some fresh ideas and perspectives. Sometimes certainly surveying the fans, sometimes bringing in outside contractors just to come in and specialize in helping you build that experience and that's all they do is go around the country studying that. We're committed to that to make sure that we provide the best game day experience there is."
On hoops season ticket renewal: "We just hit the streets a couple weeks ago so I think it's probably pretty early for us to tell that. Historically since the building opened, we've been in the high 80s, low 90s, which low 80s is kind of the average across the country for renewals. Putting that in perspective, I think our football season ticket renewals this year are like 92, 93 percent. Basketball's been up there pretty high. Our renewals have stayed pretty high. Now, do those people actually come to games and stuff is a different thing, but I think we're anxious to see where that's at. The sense that we get overall is that fans are still, they're not apathetic. I think they still are very passionate about the team, I think they very much want to win and you can take some of that passion or even anger over losses. What you don't want is apathy. And I haven't gotten the sense that that's an issue. I think we're hoping that renewals are pretty positive."
He is the "sport administrator" for men's basketball. Yes, Mack is the boss, but he oversees everything so each sport has its own guy who's kind of in charge of day to day stuff for that sport in the department. I asked Wren to explain to me what that job entails: "With coach Anderson and I, almost every interaction that he would have administratively, who he wants to recruit, who he wants to hire, that would go to Mack, will be funneled in some way through me and I would be involved. I'm responsible for making sure that our kids are in meetings, relaying Mack's expectations on what he expects out of student-athletes. He does that as well, but he's also involved in all the sports programs and I'm only involved in that one. I'm able to do that on a more regular basis. I talk to coach Anderson if not every day, every other day. We'll meet once a week or so. We may talk leadership, rules, regulations, and more it's just guys talking. Obviously if I knew basketball as well as he did, I would be down the hall making a lot more money. I don't. I think Kim's a really knowledgeable basketball coach."
On game day atmosphere: "It's important that first thing, regardless of the crowd size, the fans that come to football or basketball have a good experience. We're not happy with where we are in terms of our football crowds either. We think we should be sold out every game. We think we should be having conversations around capacity increases and we're not. I think that where our initial focus will be is on making sure the fans that come here have a great experience. Also providing Kim all the support and resources necessary to improve the product on the court. That's a part of the game day experience, but that's not necessarily a part of the game day experience that I can control and focus on. What I can control is how easy it is to park, how easy it is to get to the concession stand, restroom, do we have good in game entertainment, those type of things. We're focused on that. We've even talked about adding a full time position whose only focus is the game day experience. Not just in basketball and football, but across the board. We have all of these people, we have game day operations people, we have marketing people, we have communications people, we have development staff, we have external engagement who does a lot of our premium seating stewardship. But those are all different people in different offices and different areas and it would be nice to have someone whose focus is just to go to the game and observe and come back and say, 'You know, I think we could work together and do this' and then the game day experience would improve.'"
On gathering feedback in his first few months: "We've done some surveying of the game day experience, especially in football. The SEC's taken control of that the last couple of years. You can see not only your results, but how you compare with everyone else...Bringing in some fresh ideas and perspectives. Sometimes certainly surveying the fans, sometimes bringing in outside contractors just to come in and specialize in helping you build that experience and that's all they do is go around the country studying that. We're committed to that to make sure that we provide the best game day experience there is."
On hoops season ticket renewal: "We just hit the streets a couple weeks ago so I think it's probably pretty early for us to tell that. Historically since the building opened, we've been in the high 80s, low 90s, which low 80s is kind of the average across the country for renewals. Putting that in perspective, I think our football season ticket renewals this year are like 92, 93 percent. Basketball's been up there pretty high. Our renewals have stayed pretty high. Now, do those people actually come to games and stuff is a different thing, but I think we're anxious to see where that's at. The sense that we get overall is that fans are still, they're not apathetic. I think they still are very passionate about the team, I think they very much want to win and you can take some of that passion or even anger over losses. What you don't want is apathy. And I haven't gotten the sense that that's an issue. I think we're hoping that renewals are pretty positive."
