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USC hopes grant will boost edge at home
USC coach Dawn Staley
Gerry Melendez/gmelendez@thestate.com
CommentsWhen Dawn Staley was an All-ACC point guard at Virginia in the early 1990s, the Cavaliers routinely drew crowds of 5,000 to 6,000 fans.
It helped that the Cavs were winning — Staley made three trips to the Final Four during her four years in Charlottesville — and featured a pair of attractive, blonde forwards in Heather and Heidi Burge, who, at 6-foot-5, were in Guinness as the world’s tallest female twins.
“Maybe we have to go out and get some 6-5 twins that can play,” Staley said recently.
She was joking. But South Carolina’s second-year coach is serious about trying to turn Columbia into a women’s basketball town.
USC recently received a $48,000 grant from the NCAA as part of its initiative to increase awareness, interest and attendance for women’s basketball. The NCAA will distribute $750,000 to 14 Division I schools and four conferences in the second year of the grant program.
USC’s $48,000 allotment is $3,000 more than the school’s projected revenues for women’s basketball ticket sales next season. Athletic department officials do not view women’s basketball as a money-making sport, at least not in the short term.
But there are encouraging signs. In the Gamecocks’ first season under Staley, a three-time Olympic gold medalist, USC’s season ticket sales increased 55 percent to a base of 2,003 season-ticket holders.
Despite a 10-18 record, attendance improved from an average of 1,801 fans per game in Susan Walvius’ final year to 2,793 — the seventh-biggest jump among Division I schools.
Even so, that still left a lot of empty sections at the 18,000-seat Colonial Life Arena.
“We weren’t winning. People want winners,” Staley said. “I think we played hard. But at the end of 40 minutes, we were on the short end of the stick.”
USC plans to use the grant money to expand its “Read with the Gamecocks” program, a statewide effort to encourage reading among elementary school students while introducing them to the women’s team.
Participants last year received a Staley-themed comic book and a ticket to the Gamecocks’ game against Alabama, which helped draw a season-high 5,438 fans to the arena. Organizers plan to stage three such games next season, each with an accompanying comic book featuring the Gamecocks’ personable, 39-year-old coach.
“We have a really exciting, new coach. We have a really exciting, new recruiting class coming in. It takes us keeping the fans’ interest and making sure they have a good time,” said Dawn Ellerbe, a former Olympic thrower who is director of varsity sports marketing at her alma mater.
Since 17,712 fans turned out to see USC beat Clemson in 2002 in the first game at the arena, the Gamecocks have drawn three crowds of 6,000 or more. All three were against perennial power Tennessee, whose fans are known for traveling en masse with the Lady Vols.
And while Staley has not signed any 6-5 twins, she did land a 6-5 post player from Houston who was the nation’s No. 2-ranked recruit.
Kelsey Bone was impressed during her recruiting visit to see a big crowd for the Gamecocks’ football game against UAB, but noticed the energy — and the fans — were missing whenever she tuned in to one of the USC women’s televised home games.
She hopes the excitement over her arrival on campus this month will translate into more people in the seats this winter.
“If people are excited and people are going to come to the games just because I’m here, then I want them to keep coming back because of how our style of play is and what we’re doing on the court,” Bone said.
USC ticket director Lance Grantham said he has “high hopes” for the Gamecocks’ drawing power because of the competitive and exciting nature of the SEC.
“I don’t view it as something we can ever turn a profit on. But I think it definitely can contribute to the overall health of our organization,” Grantham said. “You’ve got to have a good women’s basketball program to have a good women’s program overall.”
Bob Somogyi, a Columbia resident who has been a women’s basketball season-ticket holder for 25 years, believes women’s games offers fans a more affordable alternative to other entertainment options.
For the second consecutive year, USC will offer fans the “family four-pack”: four season tickets for $100, which last year came out to an average of $1.67 per seat.
In addition to the reading program, Staley plans to do more speaking engagements between now and the start of the season. The Philadelphia native has asked officials about the possibility of pre-printing tickets so she can sell them when she speaks to groups.
“I’m going to do more to try to get people into the stands,” Staley said. “You’ve gotta pound the pavement.”
Ultimately, though, Staley has to win.
“You’re living in a football state that has a difficult time drawing people to men’s basketball,” said Somogyi, semi-retired from the communications industry. “But I really believe, for a variety of reasons, that women’s basketball has a strong upside in Columbia. But it has to begin with winning.”
During the 2001-02 season, when the Gamecocks advanced to the Elite Eight in their deepest run in the NCAA tournament, USC sold about 500 tickets for each regular-season game. But attendance increased to 3,200 for the first- and second-round NCAA games USC hosted.
“In any program, when the Gamecocks win, more people take a chance at possibly going to a sport they’ve never tried before,” Somogyi said.
Staley took Temple to six NCAA tournaments in eight years and remains a popular figure in her hometown. But the Owls never developed a strong following in a crowded Philadelphia sports market, where four professional teams and six Division I basketball schools compete for fans’ loyalties — and dollars.
Staley would like to see how people react if the Gamecocks start rolling.
“Being here, I know there’s not a whole lot to do,” she said. “So if you’re winning, I think people are going to come out and see what’s going on.”
Reach Person at (803) 771-8496.
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