Tim Fitzpatrick knows he can't change the past. He's just trying to learn from it.\nAs Associate Athletics Director for External Operations, Fitzpatrick is leading the athletics department's marketing team to revive recent years' sluggish IU football ticket sales. While the team's losses have mounted, season ticket sales have dropped by nearly one-third compared to five years ago among the general public and the student body, according to the IU Athletic Ticket Office.\nIn an effort to fill Memorial Stadium, Fitzpatrick and his marketing team began promotional efforts about four months earlier by using a direct mail campaign with correspondence from new coach Terry Hoeppner. That sales pitch capitalized on new excitement brought by Hoeppner's visibility. \nAs of April 8, just short of five months before season home opener, the general public has already purchased 7,418 season tickets. The public purchased just 8,858 season tickets total last year.\n"Historically here we have seen a downward trend in season ticket sales over the last seven or eight years," Fitzpatrick said. "We're trying to stop that, (and) we're in a position to see some real significant growth."\nThe marketing team is also hoping IU student's season ticket numbers increase as well to correct a recent decline. In 2000, 6,460 students purchased season tickets. In 2004, that number fell to 2,832.\nSeeking a remedy, the department has lowered the prices of student tickets. For six home games, student season ticket holders pay $8 per game compared to $10 last year -- in which IU hosted only five games.\n"That's our indication of letting the students know just how much we want them to be there," Fitzpatrick said. "It has nothing to do with fees or anything else."\nGETTING THE STUDENTS\nThe campaign to return IU students to the Memorial Stadium seats has been a priority of Hoeppner's since he was hired. Around campus, the program's advertisements for student season ticket packages have been timed with the registration period, when the majority of students purchase football tickets, Fitzpatrick said.\nFitzpatrick has also participated in many focus groups with students. He said it's evident students want IU football to improve.\n"That's when you have a chance to do great things," Fitzpatrick said. "You can't be afraid to ask your fans what they think, and you can't be afraid of the answers that come back."\nThe answers students have given the athletics department mainly express concerns with the value of a football ticket, Fitzpatrick said. He said the department learned the ticket price wasn't the biggest issue, but the ticket's value was the largest problem. \nOn Saturdays, many students prefer to remain in the grass fields adjacent to 17th Street than attend the games.\nAt the conclusion of one of his focus groups held during a class lecture, Fitzpatrick said a student approached him and indicated his desire for change. \n"He came up to me after class and said, 'When I'm graduated, I don't want to have to (talk) to my friends that went to Ohio State or Michigan ... when they're talking about the great experiences they've had in their football stadium, I don't want to be the guy who stayed in the parking lot and never went into the game,'" Fitzpatrick said.\nStudents tailgating while a game is in progress is one difficulty Fitzpatrick has had to accept. When people ask him why students don't attend games, he says the reason is they were pretty sure "they weren't going to like what they saw."\n"We have to overcome that negative fashionability," Fitzpatrick said. "(The incoming freshmen) are very, very important because they are not going to think that it's not cool to go in. That's why the first-time experience is important."
THE NEXT STEP\nWhile the athletics department is promoting student purchasing at registration, the most aggressive aspect of the general public campaign begins in May, Fitzpatrick said.\nNext month, Hoeppner, men's basketball coach Mike Davis and new women's basketball coach Sharon Versyp will travel to 12 different cities and markets within the state. The trips could consist of golf, luncheons and other staged events -- a caravan concept not dissimilar to other universities' marketing efforts.\n"The notion is that, 'yes we live and work here in Bloomington but our fans are everywhere in the state,'" Fitzpatrick said. "It's important for your fans. Because if you think about it we're telling them all the time that we want them to come here. It's nice to be able to go to an event in your city where you can see Terry Hoeppner and Mike Davis."\nWhen the season actually starts, Fitzpatrick recognizes he has no control over the team's performance. What he and his staff do control, he said, is how the game is presented. From parking and clean bathrooms to concessions, Fitzpatrick and his staff are exploring everything.\n"Their desire to come back is not necessarily predicated on whether you win or lose," Fitzpatrick said. "I've heard people say this at Army, and we were not very successful on the field. But it was a safe environment, a dynamic game presentation and it was a setting where people wanted to be."\nFitzpatrick said game choreography will be built into every minute of the game. And for the football team and the IU athletics program, they hope a fuller Memorial Stadium will increase wins while cutting the athletics' deficit.\n"You have to learn from history," Fitzpatrick said, "but you can't be shackled by it."\n-- Contact Staff Writer John Rodgers at jprodger@indiana.edu.
