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C. Aluka Berry/caberry@thestate.com/
Gamecock Club members and friends listen as USC basketball coach Darrin Horn thanks them for their support during the Carolina Now Tour at the USC Aiken Convocation Center.
GoGamecocks.com
USC meetings support in need of revival
Several factors play into falling attendance at Club gatherings
Gamecock Club members and friends listen as USC football coach Steve Spurrier talks about changes in the football program during the Carolina Now Tour at the USC Aiken Convocation Center.
C. Aluka Berry/caberry@thestate.com
AIKEN — The voice of Stephen Tyler glides through the arena, interposed over video highlights of South Carolina athletics from the past year. As the segment closes, the Aerosmith song fades away: “Dream on, dream on, dream on ...”
The lights come back on in the USC Aiken Convocation Center, and after a couple of awkward moments, the 300 or so fans applaud. The choice of the melancholy “Dream on” tune might have something to do with crowd’s uncertain reaction.
Or it could be something else.
“It would be terrific to see highlights of a win over Clemson,” Aiken’s Chuck Simms says later.
As the annual Gamecock Club tour has made its way through the region, fans and USC officials have noticed something: While turnout in Aiken was relatively good, it has been weaker in other places, such as Columbia and Greenville.
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 think the fans are ready for some success,” said Simms, a 1964 USC graduate and former member of the school’s board of trustees. “It’s just been an unfortunate trend that, even with all the success of this year’s basketball team, we finished on a downer. We lost the first game of the NIT. Football’s lost the last five in ’07, lost the last three in ’08. The fans need a spark, something to hang their hat on.”
In recent years, the Gamecock Club has held numerous events throughout the state, with Steve Spurrier, Eric Hyman and the basketball coaches attending. Last year there were 17 meetings, and Spurrier attended about a dozen.
But that can wear on the coaches, who also need to recruit and spend time with their families. So this year the schedule was regionalized, meaning longer drives for some fans. There were 15 meetings, of which Spurrier attended seven.
This year’s event at the Colonial Life Arena was billed as the Midlands region meeting; it included eight chapters, from as far as Saluda.
The results have been mixed, at best. The Orangeburg Club, lumped into the Midlands meeting, had few members attend, according to chapter president Wayne Lorick. And while smaller chapters have held local meetings with assistant coaches, places such as Spartanburg (included in the Upstate region meeting) and Orangeburg have passed on that option.
Lou Holtz, during his heyday, once drew 1,200 to an Orangeburg meeting, according to Lorick. But Lorick understands it is hard to get coaches to attend every chapter meeting.
“There’s really no good solution,” said Lorick, who did not attend the Midlands meeting.
Bryan Risner, USC’s associate athletics director for development, said changes will be made next year.
“It’s worked some places,” Risner said of this year’s events. “In some places it’s struggled, just with the distance and the timing of it, things like that. I hate to say it — it’s not an answer to everything — but I think the economy’s played a little bit of a role in it.
“People’s minds may just be on different thing. Priorities change, focuses change. That may have something to do with it. But we’ve had other meetings that have just been fantastic.”
Some wonder if the meetings need to be revamped. A big appeal used to be hearing updates from coaches and administrators on the team.
But this is the information age, with the Web and a 24-hour news cycle. Dan Drew, head of the Greenville Gamecock Club chapter, thinks some fans might not feel the need to go because they won’t learn anything new.
“You went out to these things to hear more and see more. I don’t know, even if you win, that you’re going to see more people at these things, especially young people,” Drew said.
The recession also has impacted the athletics department’s fundraising efforts. The YES (seat license) program was met with resistance from some fans even before the economy tanked, and now it’s an even harder sell. USC discontinued its increase in Gamecock Club fees, and while some fans on message boards have continued to use the seat licenses as a point of discontention, the chapter heads are understanding.
“You can’t blame one or the other for any of this,” Lorick said. “It just seemed like all of this has hit at the same time. Everyone else in the ACC and the SEC has done this. But we just did ours at the same time everything else hit.”
In the end, much of it comes down to the football team, and its wins and losses. Spurrier, speaking at the meeting in Aiken, seemed to sense fans needed a pick-me-up.
“It hasn’t worked as well as we hoped. Hang in there with us,” Spurrier told the crowd. “Because we have faith and believe it’s going to work. So that’s all I can do, is ask you to hang in there with us. I know you will, because you love Carolina and you love the Gamecocks.”
It impressed Simms, who left the Aiken meeting more optimistic about Spurrier and the direction of the program.
“If it’s broke, he seems willing to fix it. I think he’s the same great coach he was at Florida,” Simms said. “We have a lot of history to overcome at South Carolina. But I think we’re going to get there.”
Reach Emerson at (803) 771-8676.
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