Women's Media Nation | Social, political, and cultural issues relating to women

Stringer rightfully complains about Rutgers’ failure to market her program

posted by ...Because I Played Sports
Friday, March 27, 2009 at 4:54pm CDT

Rutgers women’s basketball team have done it again - they’re on their fourth trip to the elite eight in five years. That’s pretty amazing.

But in an article released on NJ.com today, head women’s basketball coach Vivian Stringer was not happy.

In fact, she was just the opposite (and rightfully so). She was quoted as complaining about the athletics department’s inability to effectively market a program that has been incredibly successful in recent years.

I have to say, I agree with her.

And speaking out was a great way to put some pressure on their new athletic director, Tim Pernetti.

But the answer is more than just installing a flashy scoreboard or having smoke come out when the girls run on the floor.

It has to do with engaging directly with your audience, creating fans.

For example, get your athletes online. Have them blog. Get them on Twitter, have them respond to their fans. Hold contests through Facebook. Partner with third party sites like womentalksports.com (disclosure, I am co-founder of this site) to get these ideas out there.

These ideas aren’t new.The fans will come if you earn their respect, I assure you. In fact, if you’re looking for a good role model, check out what women’s pro soccer is doing - they’re leading the way for other women’s sports teams to follow.

In the mean time, keep winning. Keep speaking out about what’s unfair. Your fans will come.

Check out the rest of this article (it’s an interesting one), here: NJ.com on Rutgers Women’s Basketball.