While others market, FAMU relies on luckDespite being one of the biggest drawing cards in the NCAA's football championship subdivision, and holding a unique position of being one of the few teams to have ever won a national championship, FAMU relies mostly on luck to market and promote its athletic programs.
For most of the 2008-2009 year, the newly rebuilt FAMU Athletics website sat largely dormant, without basic updates. The site has only recently seen a flurry of updates, but still lacks basic information on athletes such as bio and stats.
Now just days before the start of the 2009 football season, there has been no push to encourage fans to purchase season tickets, or develop potential fans in South Alabama/Georgia or Florida.
Nearly 30 days away from the start of the season, there has not been any push for the CIAA borrowed 1000 STRIKES annual fund campaign.
Here's how other schools are doing it:
It amazing how athletic director Billy Hayes keeps his job!
ReplyDeleteGet 'em RN!!! And they cant say that we dont have the money to get the job done because we have FREE resources right at our disposal on campus! Our award winning, nationally renown SBI and J school students can do the same job (or even better) than outsourcing something simple as radio, print, and internet promotions of FAMU athletics, season tickets, and events. We've got to do better!
ReplyDeleteRN should do an expose in athletics just like in the old cvb days to put ppl's feet to the fire. Questioning Hayes, Hollins, the AD of marketing, and even Ammons. There needs to be some answers, solutions, progress, leadership, VISION!
Bill Hayes is the epitome of lazy !!!! When you won't push your own program like 1,000 Strikes, now that's sorry!!!!
ReplyDeleteYeah, you need to make people aware of what is NOT being done in the Rattler Athletic department.......I wish this article could land on the footsteps of every alumni that really cares about FAMU. As a matter of fact, I am personally going to send the link the Dr. Ammons email and I hope some more folks will follow me.
ReplyDeleteWay to go. We can easily produce the same or better promotions. Surely we shouldn't rely on the news stations or anyone else for that matter.
ReplyDeleteThere has been no promotion this year. No billboards/posters/no schedule cards/ no radio ads this year.
ReplyDeleteIf you live outside of Tallahassee and are interested in Rattler sports your are pretty much screwed!!!
What do you expect......Bill Hayes is our AD.
ReplyDeleteIt's been proven he can show his ineptitude on a daily basis with no repercussion, so why should he change. He gets a six figure salary for not being good at his job.......why should HE change. Most of us wouldn't. The administration needs to exact the change by setting and ENFORCING standards.
You can't blame Bill Hayes for being what he is, but you can blame the administration for allowing people like to fester and for creating the problem from the beginning.
^^^^^^ "people like (this) to fester
ReplyDeleteYou're correct 10:41. I live in S.Florida and I know more about Rutgers and Notre Dame and a few others who are not even in our state. The media here won't even mention our Rattlers when reporting on "ALL" of the teams in the state. What's interesting is that I've noticed a few instances where the Gators weren't recognized oddly enough. So, I'm not sure what excuse we'd get if we made inquiries. I do have faith that the newspaper is much more fair and balanced than the TDO. Maybe it is time for us to produce and promote for ourselves. That's a sure way to eliminate our AD from his professional misery.
ReplyDeleteBill Hayes is an intellectual Dinosaur. What do you expect. He is a Football Coach masquerading as an athletic Director.
ReplyDeleteThe FAMU alumni must blame Dr. Ammons for Bill Hayes hiring.Ammons need to be held accountable.I think they are both trying to rob the school blind.
ReplyDelete4:20,
ReplyDeleteYour right! Just like we did that "Road to Washington" commercial for the band on campus, we could certainly do one for FAMU sports. That's if it was a priority.
10:32, Go SIT!
ReplyDeleteI wonder who was behind the execution of that video.
ReplyDeleteHUBBA 11:18A!
ReplyDeleteThe "Road To Washington" fundraiser was a statewide campaign for the Marching 100. I saw it on youtube, in Tallahassee, and in C. Florida. I wonder if it was student produced. Most likely it was. See that's the kind of creativity athletics should have by harnessing the talents of our bright FAMU students, and then promoting athletics around the state. I wonder how much those commercial spots cost the band? Does anybody know how the band accomplished that?
NOPE! I know all about that campaign. The Road to Washington video was produced in-house by the Office of Communications staff. After it was completed they made sure it got on YouTube. The Office of Communications actually bargained with the local TV stations to get the commercials to air for free.
ReplyDeleteGet off FAMU Athletics back! They have a plan. They are looking to hire an employee to oversee the marketing, sponsorships and the fundraising efforts.
Soon the Athletic Department will be updating its website. They’ve even mailed information about the football season to their supporters. Loose ends will be all tied up before ya know it!
5:25,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the inside knowledge. This problem didn't just stat year. It has been a problem for the past several years. By the time athletics hires someone, the season will likely be over.
5:25pm
ReplyDeleteAre you serious.....Get off their back?????
The Athletic Director and his staff are making HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS IN SALARIES a year. Don't we expect them to ACTUALLY do the jobs they were hired for? Why are they just now getting to this?
Football season....you know the ONLY REVENUE GENERATING SPORT FAMU HAS.... is less than a month away. In your opinion, not promoting the season is cool with you? Not successfully pushing their 1,000 strikes campaign is cool with you? Not cleaning up the website AFTER A YEAR OF IT BEING UP......is cool with you?
Get off their backs?!?!?!?!
That's the problem now. We're not on their backs enough and this is what happens. Look back at the archive from this blog and see what happened last year. The AD failed at his job last year and got the school bad press. I guess we don't like learning from our mistakes. He wasn't reprimanded (obviously) from last year and thus here we are with the same mess a year later.
The AD and the president have a friendship that obviously outweighs the duties and tasks assigned to him (Hayes) in his employment. What is the Sports Information person doing????? It is shameful that the FAMU community has to put up with this subpar performance from such a highly salaried official of the school. Hayes is getting almost DOUBLE his previous salary........what is his expectation?
I guess in your opinion, you get that much money from FAMU, to only ATTEMPT to do your job whereas I expect you to actually DO your job, or find another.
Get off their back.......LMFAO!!!!!!!
Thank you 7:25. That was a well written statement and the truth. That's what I have been written since Ammons was hired to be the president. And Bill Hayes was hired to be the Athletic Director.Ammons character was tested when he accepted the bonus money toward his contract,instead of putting that money in a scholarship fund for students in need.
ReplyDelete7:39, Go SIT! 7:25, You're on the money. We can produce our own too. The AD does need to go, bit I'll speak to the administration before blaming them. We sure do attract haters who chime in as co-signers. LOL. Ahh, The Peanut gallery. GO RATTLERS.
ReplyDelete5:25pm,
ReplyDeleteSo it was the Office of Communications that produced the Marching 100 video campaign, and not the students. Well they did an exceptional job and are commended in their efforts. As long as the job was done in house is all that matters. It shows that FAMU already has the talented tools to do great things, and doesnt need to outsource everything. Our students and staff are our own best assets.
As far as getting off of athletics back, you were joking right? If athletics has a plan then many of us would like to see it. Where is the plan to push season tickets for football and basketball statewide, not just locally? What is the status of the 1000 Strikes campaign? What is the plan to enhance football and bball home game experiences to draw fans to Tallahassee as opposed to FAMU fans preferring to attend and spend their money out of town at away game Classics instead?
Like someone stated earlier, football season is less than a month away, and we cant be banking on hope and magic to pull us out of this deficit. I'm sorry but this 1999 way of operating athletics just wont cut it! FAMU needs to be thinking and working like it's 2020 so we can stay ahead of the curve. Shoot bball season will be here sooner than you know it. But how will we host games in our beautiful new facility without a scoreboard? Dont even think about taking the old one from Gaither either! That's like owning a $2 million Beverly Hills mansion, and using milk crates for furniture.
5:25,
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry. I've lost confidence in this A.D.'s ability to do his job. The cussing fit he directed at the refs as they exited the fieldhouse I will always believe cost of the game.
Then, there is the shameful way he accosted the University employee from Allied Health who was supervising her students as they worked with the emergency management crew.
This A.D. is bad news and needs to go.
10:03
ReplyDeleteI'm just saying......The administration was here last year when the same thing was going on. Lackluster, almost nonexistant promotion, the website fiasco and the bad press about that cheap chain link fence they were going to install. A year later and we have ghetto black, trash bag looking plastic on the fence in Bragg. If the administration is holding people accountable, it sure doesn't look like it. And if the administration isn't holding people accountable, then they must not care. If they don't care....... well...we'll probably be doubling that 4 million dollar deficit in the next couple of years.
We have to do better. North Florida Christian has better promotion than us for christ's sake! FSU is all over TDO.com. Their AD's are giving an example of doing their jobs.
I would rather go without an AD than to have Hayes. All he cares about is traveling to all the games for free with the sports information officer. By the way.....who does that? No other school comparable to FAMU's size lets their AD and sports info guy go to every away game. You want to know why????? Because someone has to attend to the business of the athletic program (usually the AD) and someone has to update things like the school's athletic website (usually the sports information officer). I guess that's why our website is hardly updated and the business in our athletics program is in shambles.
I guess Ammons and the administration has taken some form of accountability with the Hayes situation since they've basically stripped him of duties involving budget and finance. Teresa Hardee is now (and has been for months now) supervising the financial business of FAMU athletics. Hayes is over the other operations of athletics. He should be stripped of some of those duties as well since we arent seeing progress there either.
ReplyDeleteHow long is Hayes' contract? Three years right? That would mean "Hasta la vista!" July 2010 right?
I hope this new AD of marketing/sponsorship isnt an HBCU retread, and I wouldnt cry if he/she isnt a FAMU alumnus either.
well if he's getting "stripped" of some of his duties, is he being stripped of some of his over inflated salary? And, who's hiring these new people on his staff.....him????? You think he'll hire someone that's going to make him look bad, somebody that is intelligent???? I doubt it. Im sure there is enough ammo to fire him now, but it has to be FAMU first, not everyone I came here with from North Carolina first.
ReplyDeleteIts okay to admit a mistake as long as you make amends for it. Hiring Hayes was a mistake from the very beginning.
Having Bill Hayes as A.D. is just like not having one at all !!!!!
ReplyDelete