In this story – USC meetings support in need of revival – it lists these three factors as the cause of poor attendance at Gamecock Club meetings…
Three factors receive most of the blame: a condensed schedule, the economy and an apparent hangover from football season, when the Gamecocks lost to Clemson and had a poor showing in the Outback Bowl to finish the season.
I do agree with those reasons but I feel the biggest reason is trying to turn these chapter meetings into regional meetings and make it seem to much like a business. BAD MOVE!
The coaching staffs and the USC Administration has to get down to business at the foundation of what is the gamecocks. Grass roots. Go to their backyards. Show love in the small towns where sometimes garnet & black bleeds the most and away from the “big cities.” This is not a shareholders meeting so stop trying to make it one. This is a college program that people love deeply and we know how that love can be in the south.
If you are going to churn up support well you got to go to the people. You have to engage them and make them feel ownership! You can not ask the people or in this case gamecock club members to drive 1+hour to hear the same ol speech. You have to run this thing like a campaign and focus on the grassroots. Trust me I know this.
It is time for the gamecocks to get serious about the gamecock club and about what can be!
It is time to get the damn gamecock club membership sticker in the mail….sorry I had to slip that in there. It’s a membership organization and is not that hard to run it like one. Yes there are 15,000+ egos to deal with but keep it simple. The club is there to support the program(s). The club has to be responsive to its membership. Focus on the membership. It is not a corporation so Hyman quit treating it like one. It is time to focus on grooming the next generation of gamecocks but also showing loyalty to the many gamecock faithful who have stuck by the program during a occasional high and through the many lows. LOHD has always stated that “it is tough being a gamecock fan.”
To ask people to drive to hear the same rhetoric is dumb and shame on Hyman for trying it. I know coaches need to be with families and recruit. But they also need to be in front of the masses that help fill the seats and help pay those salaries. Coaching staffs before them did it so it is not like this is a new concept. We are talking once a year here kids.
This could be the problem with college athletics and I feel it is time for USC to get back to fundamentals. If you focus on the basics then the rest will occur. So Hyman you will stay in the black, you will get your new buildings, etc.
I will be entering into a new writing chapter on this blog to showcase what I will call – Gamecocks 2.0. I will attempt to lay down some new thoughts on what the gamecock athletic department should be doing to get the fanbase stoked with not only what can happen but the energy that needs to surround the program.
I ask that you stay tuned……
