University of Houston Athletics
Check-In With Chris
7/16/2018 2:53:00 PM | General
A message from Houston Athletics Vice President for Athletics Chris Pezman
With the conclusion of the Spring semester and our competition seasons, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank every one of our student-athletes, donors, fans, coaches, and staff for your tremendous support since I have taken this position. Also, I am proud to update you on progress to date within our department, our vision for the future and plans for achieving those objectives.
Let me start by congratulating our sports programs' six American Athletics Conference championships this Spring:
- Women's Swimming & Diving
- Men's Indoor Track & Field
- Women's Golf
- Men's Outdoor Track & Field
- Women's Outdoor Track & Field
- Baseball
This is the second year in a row the University of Houston has lead the conference in championships. Equally impressive, 13 of our 17 programs participated in postseason competition, highlighted by Men's Track & Field's third-place finish at this year's NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
Off the field, our 443 student-athletes continue to make championship strides by setting a department record 2.97 GPA for the spring semester. The mark bolsters a cumulative GPA of 2.92, the second best in program history (behind last spring's 2.93) while passing an average of 14.02 hours. Most impressive, 26 percent of our student-athletes are on the Spring Dean's List.
As I've emphasized since my start, to continue Houston Athletics' resurgence on a national level, we must support growth through reinvesting in our support system and infrastructure without compromising the key priorities and principles that define our program.
With a recent focus on capital projects, our facilities have become highly competitive nationally and with our continuing enhancements, we will provide the best possible experience for current and future student-athletes. As construction continues, an amazing facility is emerging in the Fertitta Center, along with the Baseball Student-Athlete Development Center and Clubhouse, the Dominic & Ellen Ng Academic Center for Excellence, Cougar Den Dining Facility, Football Outdoor Practice Field conversion to natural grass with the addition of lighting.
Early July will mark the start of construction on Softball's new indoor hitting facility. We are currently conducting a feasibility study for repurposing Yeoman Fieldhouse, located inside the Athletics/Alumni Center, to include an indoor banked track along with renovated courts for Volleyball training.
Recent facility construction has had an immediate positive impact on our sport programs and produced a great return on investment for our supporters. The Guy V. Lewis Development Facility has served both Men's and Women's Basketball programs as an excellent recruiting tool valuable for developing top talent. Both teams demonstrated the value by advancing to NCAA postseason play.
A much-needed outdoor Track & Field redevelopment project has elevated the training facilities to contribute to our Men's team earning the previously mentioned third-place finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. We anticipate a continued upward progression of all of our teams as the facilities are completed.
With our facility improvements proceeding, we are focusing internally on investing in and retaining key staff and achieving productive business initiatives and opportunities to improve our fan experience.
I've been able to take a deep dive, along with new Deputy AD David Tagliarino, into our organizational structure to address internal inefficiencies and strengthen other posts to deliver long-term sustainable growth and success. A much needed Chief Marketing Officer position has been filled by Pam Kehoe, a Houston native with 25 years of local industry-related experience. A veteran in college athletics, Monty Porter is our new Chief Financial Officer tasked with providing the focus and experience needed to operate more effectively. We've created a new position, Assistant Athletic Director for Marketing & Event Presentation, and hired Robert Boudwin who is widely considered as one of the top event entertainment production executives in the country. We've solicited feedback from our head coaches to define the priorities and resources needed to regularly compete for championships, and in so doing, establish Houston as a program having its own, unique, culture-cultivating excellence and stability.
As we look towards advancing our program into the future, we are also focused on new business initiatives that will provide fresh or enhanced revenue streams necessary to support our goals and objectives.
The related initiatives:
- Redzone Hospitality: A new premium hospitality program to be held at our Indoor Practice Facility for weekend home games, providing fans with a premier, climate-controlled pregame fan experience.
- Special Events: The opening of the Fertitta Center will give us an additional state-of-the-art facility that affords us the opportunity to pursue both private and public outside revenue-producing sports and entertainment events.
- Supplemental Ticket Staff: We are doubling our ticket staff to capitalize on outbound group sales opportunities for all sports.
- IMG Seatback Program: Allow fans to rent customized branded and padded seatbacks for individual event or season-long use, for all home games in TDECU Stadium.
As the Fertitta Center opens, we are focusing on enhancing the fan experience across all of our facilities. While listening to our fans and hearing your voices, we have revamped our RV and Cougar Pride parking plans beginning with the 2018 football season. We are also striving to grow our fan base via completion of the Fertitta Center's season ticket pricing model, plus the utilization of new guest technologies and services that will create a more fan-friendly experience.
A key initiative is to provide more affordable fan access allowing everyone to participate and enjoy Cougar games; to meet that initiative we are starting Football season tickets at $100 and Men's Basketball Season Ticket prices at $175. Through our partnership with Ballena Technologies, fans will be able to virtually experience the location of the seats they are interested in buying to assist their selection. All this will streamline our giving and ticket-purchasing procedures to make it easier on our supporters.
I am excited by the direction of our program and the pride I feel in leading this department is boundless. Thus, I am sincerely requesting your passionate support, your generous cooperation and your enthusiastic buy-in, to provide the foundation for achieving our mutual long-term goals on and off the field.
On behalf of Houston Athletics...Thank You! Always know, EXCELLENCE IS OUR ONLY STANDARD!
Go Coogs!
Chris Pezman
