University of Houston Athletics
Ask the AD - August, 2015
8/7/2015 12:00:00 AM | General
Ask the AD â€" August, 2015
Houston Vice President for Athletics Hunter Yurachek will answer the questions of Houston fans at the beginnning of each month on UHCougars.com's Ask the AD. Click on the graphic above to submit your question to Hunter. You can also follow the Houston AD on twitter at @HunterYurachek.
Jack Disel
Are you planning to have a vendor offer seatback cushions for season ticket holders that are attached to the seats for the entire season at TDECU? They would be a good revenue source for the Coogs and a LOT better for season ticket holders than lugging in a seat cushion.
Thanks, and GO COOGS!!
Jack, I believe your question may have been submitted just before we announced our partnership with BleaChair, but yes, starting in 2015, Houston season ticket members with reserved bleacher seats will have the opportunity to rent seatbacks for just $50 for a seven-game season.
To join the program, fans can visit UHCougars.com/back or call the Houston Athletics Fan Experience Headquarters at 713-462-6647.
Billy Burns
What will it take to get UH football games on a Dallas/Fort Worth radio station? I make all the home games with my season tickets, but listening to the away games on the internet is less than adequate.How can we continue to increase our alumni support if we cannot get Cougar football on the radio?
Billy, first off, thank you for being a loyal season ticket member and making the drive down from Dallas/Fort Worth for each Houston home game. I hope this season we will have more UH alums from the Metroplex joining you on the short trip down I-45 to TDECU Stadium.
In regards to carrying UH games on Dallas/Fort Worth radio stations, it will take a financial investment to strike a deal with a DFW radio station to carry all of our home and away games. Fortunately for you and others, our league has an agreement with our network TV partners so that all of our games will be broadcasted on TV. In fact, the last 77 Houston Football games have been broadcasted. We encourage you to meet up with fellow UH alums and fans for Dallas area UH watch parties for each Houston game as our UH Alumni Association is working diligently to establish an alumni network in several areas. We will work with UHAA to list the location of all watch parties, including DFW watch parties, on UHCougars.com. For a list of watch parties, please click here.
Tony
First, I appreciate your monthly column and answering our questions. This really helps us stay in touch with UH Athletics.
I'm surprised there is not more talk of the AAC improving itself to the point of catching the Power 5 conferences. The AAC is a full step above the old Conference USA and another step forward would close the gap to the Power 5. Do the AD's in the AAC discuss that if they stick together a very strong conference can result?
Tony, first, I appreciate you and other Coogs reading my monthly column and submitting your questions. We want to connect with our fan base as much as possible.
The ADs of The American are in constant communication on strengthening our conference as a whole and staying committed to providing the best possible student-athlete experience, equivalent to any other conference. Schools across the league, including our own, are committed to providing full cost of attendance and are at the forefront of all major student-athlete well-being initiatives. The five conferences that are autonomous under the new NCAA governance are so designated for legislative purposes â€" not for competitive reasons. Autonomy has nothing to do with how good an athletic department is.
The 12 schools in The American are both collectively and individually committed to competing at the highest level of college athletics. We can't predict the future, but we can do everything we can as a conference to make The American as strong as it can be.
Travis Coggin
Whose house?
Coogs house!
Hildy Warner
Is it possible to have real ice cream or soft serve sold at football games?
Hildy, great to hear from you and I hope you are staying cool this summer with plenty of ice cream. I hope you were able to read July's Ask the AD with my answer to your original question and will take me up on my offer of ice cream at the first game of the season at TDECU Stadium on Sept. 5.
Jerry Morse
Why not approach Apple on funding a huge Apple watch for telling time in the stadium as well as advertising and also some Cougar Apple watches to buy, look at players and maybe plays, replays, interviews, etc.?
Jerry, appreciate your enthusiasm and ideas. Apple hasn't shown much interest in sponsoring individual universities, but there is always a first time for everything! Our partners at IMG who handle Houston Athletics sponsorship agreements have been doing a great job at extending current sponsor agreements and seeking new sponsor agreements. We look to continue to add to our roster of sponsors, so if you or any other Houston supporters who may own a business are interested in joining our team, please contact our IMG office at 713-743-6080 to discuss sponsorship opportunities.
Jeremy Dewees
How about them Coogs?
Jeremy, sounds like you are as just excited for the new season of Houston Athletics as I am. We have an exciting future for our student-athletes, our staff, our fans, our alums and our city. We are excited as we continue to remind our supporters and those around us that we are THE University of Houston. We need all of our fans and alums to pack our athletics facilities for all of our home games to show those across the nation that UH has the fan support that is on par with other national programs. If you haven't purchased Houston Football season tickets, for as low as $99 for seven games I might add, we NEED you to do so now at UHCougars.com/2015 or by calling our ticket at 713-462-6647
Mark
Someone should tell Metro that there is no Robertson Stadium anymore and it might want to change the name of the metro rail stop to TDECU Stadium.
Mark, we are currently working with Metro to update signage at both the TDECU Stadium stop and their collateral that includes all maps and stops. We hope to have changes in the near future and look forward to another option this season for Coogs to travel to TDECU Stadium. Keep an eye out in the near future as we look to work with Metro on giving Houston fans education on utilizing the purple line for home games.
Homer Yarbro
I have found out all a man would want to know about your baseball field, but the site doesn't tell you how to get to the park.
Just looking for the address for my GPS and I'll be set to go.
Homer, we will double check that all of our facilities pages have the address listed. They should already, but we'll look through and make sure they are listed more prominently. Thank you for supporting our baseball program, and we hope to see out at Cougar Field again next spring as we look to advance to the NCAA Regionals for the third straight year and hope to host an NCAA Regional in back-to-back years.
Lory Donatt
Any plans for another alumni event in Austin?
We had a great turnout in Austin last February when we partnered with the UH Alumni Association to host an event featuring Tom Herman at Doc's Motorworks, and we were proud to see how many UH fans and alums were able to make it out for the evening. The Alumni Association is always planning new and exciting events and we encourage you to visit their website to learn more about alumni activities in the Austin area including UH watch parties. Now, we would hope you would only be at the watch parties for away games and you would make the short drive to Houston seven times this fall for our home games! If you aren't a season ticket member yet, we encourage you to purchase season tickets at UHCougars.com/2015 or by calling our Fan Experience Headquarters at 713-462-6647
Garland Bilnoski
There has been many rumors and tweets about UH might be invited to join the Big 12. Also, heard that the Big 10 and Pac 12 have vetted UH. Can you give me information on what isreally going on? I am an All-American level member of Cougar Pride, and a season ticket holder for football, basketball, and baseball. I am asking this information to find out that if we are going to a P5 conference so I can make out a budget to afford my donor level and season tickets.
Garland, first off, we greatly appreciate your support of our student-athletes, both as a Cougar Pride member and as a season ticket member. You provide a great example to our alums and fans as we look to instill pride in the University of Houston and its Athletics Department. Your support, and the support of others like you, enables our department to operate at its highest possible level and compete against programs across the nation.
I believe we have a great opportunity to make the University of Houston a prominent national name across all of our sport programs. Our goal is to place Houston in the best possible position across the national landscape, and at this point in time, we have a great opportunity with The American Athletic Conference. We have to be the flag carrier of The American, and we are setting standards for each of our sport programs in regards to conference competition. To become a fixture on the national scene, it is imperative all of our sport programs are in the upper echelon of The American and advancing to NCAA postseason competition on a yearly basis.
Stephen
I was a season ticket holder last year, but game times and teams kept getting changed. E.G. Tennessee Tech (changed or cancelled), Grambling, UNLV, all TBA? The opening game was a nightmare with ushers that weren't prepared, and had no clue of where general admission seating was located. That's inexcusable! They had my 77 year old father walking up, down, and all over the place.
Stephen, you are right, unprepared gameday staff is inexcusable and we have taken steps within our event management structure to change that. Prior to the season we will provide all of our gameday staff with the proper information and instruction so they will be able to correctly answer questions from our gameday guests.
In regards to the game times listed as TBA; like other programs across the nation, we receive game times for the first three weeks of the season from network TV partners. Beginning with the fourth week of the season, TV partners for our league and other leagues begin selecting game times and network placement on 12-day windows to provide the best possible games for national TV audiences. Once those game times are set, they do not change. As soon as we receive game times 12 days prior to our game, we will release on UHCougars.com and all of our digital media platforms. We encourage you to visit UHCougars.com on a regular basis for game time announcements and other news from Houston Athletics.
I, along with our student-athletes and staff, sincerely hope you remain a season ticket holder for the upcoming season and the future. We hope to see you at TDECU Stadium this fall and you can call our Fan Experience Headquarters at 713-462-6647 to renew your season tickets if you have not done so already. Thank you and Go Coogs!
