.png&width=48&height=48&type=webp)
University of Houston Athletics
Dave Maggard Responds
Feb. 21, 2002
In the past, many people have asked about an on-line store. I was wondering, until the on-line store is set up, why not partner with espn.com or C-USA to show their on-line store and get a commission? (Dustin Kalman)
Thank you for your question and suggestion. We are currently looking into the entire on-line store concept.
I produced TV shows for local cable access channel here in Houston at one time. You were in the media. Can you get more coverage of men's football and basketball on TV? A coach's show for Dimel and maybe McCallum would be nice. I miss those shows. (Ron Hilburn)
We are looking into the possibility of more media coverage across the board. Thank you for your question and support.
Your age was of some concern to Alumni after the announcement of your hiring. Does this help or hinder you in your job. If you do well, do you like the U of H enough to stay for a long time? (Ron Hilburn)
I am better prepared now than ever before. My experience should be a plus. I plan to remain at Houston as long as I can make a positive contribution. Thank you for your support.
You commented that the U of H never wants to lose to Rice at anything ever again! How did you come to figure out that this rivalry was so important to Cougars? I for one am glad to hear you say that and I agree! (Ron Hilburn)
We need to have more ownership of this City. Having success against a cross-town rival is important to our fans. We need to make the Rice contests important to the entire region.
This may be more of a suggestion than a question. Would you consider involving Coach Yeoman and Coach Lewis in the athletics program, maybe reuniting many of the fans and supporters from the 60's - 80's who might not be to interested/involved now? Hope so - they are wonderful people and symbols of the greatness of that era at U of H. (Mike Fitzsimmons)
Your suggestion is a good one and I agree that Coach Yeoman and Lewis are treasures of the University. Coach Yeoman is actually on our staff and from time to time we will call on Coach Lewis.
First of all, I would like to extend a warm welcome to our city and University and thank you for bringing your vast experience, insight, and connections to my alma mater. As a long suffering U of H football fan, I understand that it may be some time before our football team is competitive within C-USA, much less on a national level. However, there are some things that can help the program in the way of attendance until our win column exceeds our loss column. As a start, we need to somehow put more people in the seats at Robertson Stadium. From my perspective as a fan, I felt the University of Houston could have easily done more to promote the team and the university. For example, parking is always an issue, but I saw many empty slots at the lots adjacent the stadium. I understand that season ticket holders are provided passes for that lot, however because those fans were not of sufficient number to fill up those lots, a section could be cordoned off for them, and other sections opened up for fans who do not have such passes. My question is this something the department can do or is considering?
Further, in the past the University has launched various ad programs to entice fans to come to the games. Have you had a chance to review those ad campaigns, and do you have any plans to follow that same type of advertising, or do you have some ideas as to a novel or unique ad campaign?
I believe there are many similarities between the University of Miami and the University of Houston, i.e. urban/commuter schools, other major universities in the same state competing for fans and players. The primary difference right now is the U of M has a successful football program. Do you plan to implement anything from U of M here to turn our program around?
Finally, the UT game last season with the scaffolding problem was an embarrassment to the University of Houston. Are there any plans for teams from major programs to visit Houston? If so, is it possible to have these games at venues other than Robertson Stadium until that stadium's capacity can accommodate a reasonable college football crowd?
Once again, welcome, thanks for bringing your expertise to our school, and I wish you the best of luck with your efforts. (Keith Derrington)
Thank you for expressing your concerns and ideas. We are at this time reviewing all of your marketing strategies for next season. You are also correct in your comparison of Houston and Miami. Success on the field is our best marketing tool - we will be successful on the field. We will remain in Robertson until we fill the stadium. Again, thank you for your support.
It is great to have you here and I know you have a large number of items on your list to look at, but I have one that I believe needs attention right away. Last year the baseball games were on TSRN Sports on the Internet. It is great we have a local radio station doing the games, but we need to be on the Internet for our fans around the country and the world. Can you do something about it? (Bill Whitson)
I will look into the matter and see what may be done. Thank you for your support and interest.
I really think Houston can become a top 25-team in football and a tourney team in basketball again. There's just too much local talent in our backyard. Dimel just had 2 back-to-back successful recruiting years with mainly local kids, which helps attendance and future recruiting. Basketball is improving and I see football turning the corner soon. Thanks for choosing Houston as your last stop as AD. We really need someone who will stick around until the ship is righted this time. I have been a season ticket holder in football for many years and I plan on buying season tickets in basketball due to Ray Mac's success. I have two questions:
1) Will you try to complete the naming rights on several athletic facilities that still do not have names such as the baseball field in order to endow all the scholarships? And do you have a plan to endow all the athletic scholarships?
2) Houston has never marketed its athletic teams. Is there a plan to market our teams and is there a plan to increase attendance via marketing or do we let winning take care of it? Winning does help in that I'll buy season tickets next year for basketball because the team is improving under Ray. In football, I'm a season ticket no matter what. I really enjoy the tailgating activities, which is a key for many people.
Thanks for helping us, we need you to bring us back! (Brian P.)
We do plan to complete the naming rights for some of our venues and long term we do need to endow more of our scholarships. Thank you for your interest and support.
As a former athlete and graduate of UH, I was very pleased to learn of your coming to the University of Houston. I read UH's press release on your having been selected our new AD and was extremely impressed with your background. I must admit that I have been discouraged with UH athletics. I haven't been the best UH supporter since the dismantling of the Southwest
Conference, and I don't know much about Conference USA. Having said that, I am very proud of our University and believe, from an academic stand point, that our faculty and facilities ranks us among the best in the nation. I believe that you have the capability to make great things happen here for the University of Houston. If you would, could you please share with us UH's plans/vision, as well as your own, for the future of our UH athletic program? Thank you for your time, and I wish you the best of luck!
(B. Coleman)
Thank you for your interest in our program and straight forward:
- Conference Championships
- Bowl appearance for football
- Qualify for NCAA Championships in all sports
- Finish in the top ten in the country.
Welcome Mr. Maggard to the UH family. We are delighted to have your experience and professionalism here at our fine institution and are anxiously awaiting to enjoy the success that will come as a result of your dedication and hard work. As you probably know UH has experienced the most success in baseball of late. Coach Noble and his young, but extremely talented squad are expected to do some great things in the 2002 season and even though we have one of the better baseball facilities in the country, would it be too much to ask for a better scoreboard? Lord knows that Rayner and the baseball supporters deserve it. If you could, please let me know if there are any plans and if so, what would be some of the amenities and estimated installation time? Please allow me to make another recommendation. It would be great if we had flagpoles from foul pole to foul pole with the team's accomplishments and or each CUSA team member. Just a suggestion. Thank you Mr. Maggard for your time and response. Your hard work will not go unnoticed! Go Coogs!! (Brian Carey)
Thank you for your inquiry and suggestions. Certainly we will look into your suggestions and I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment of Coach Noble and our baseball team.
Welcome to the UH family. My question is quite simple. I am well aware that you have bigger fish to fry, however...will our web site ever have an online store? Having played baseball for the Cougars from 1977 to 1980, I would like to have the opportunity...and I am sure there are others...to buy UH shirts and other Cougar items. If an alum lives out of town...I live in Louisville...we are out of luck. For more than two years, I have clicked on the "online Store" heading and been told, "coming soon". In the meantime, my children continue to make purchases online from UNC, Duke, UK Florida and ND. If we are ever going to compete and dominate as we did in the years of Coach Yeoman and Coach Lewis, we need to get the word out. I give a few dollars each year to the baseball program but would probably spend many more on UH items if given the chance. Speaking of Baseball, we need to hang on to Coach Noble. The elite programs will come knocking on his door if we are not careful. He is a top-notch baseball man and a credit to our University. Thanks for taking time and best of luck. I am confident that we will return to the glory of days past. P.S. I would love to purchase a letter jacket like the one you are wearing on this site to replace the one I earned 20+ years ago as a letter winner. An online store would make this possible. Be safe and Go Coogs! (Tom Lukish)
Thanks for your interest. The online store should be available. I agree with you regarding Rayner Noble. He is doing a terrific job.
It seems like marketing of the sports program is going to be critical for the success of building attendance and support. I?m a 25-year season football ticket holder and remember many successful marketing ideas that are probably forgotten and not used any more. There are thousands of other Cougar supporters out here like myself that surely have a great many good ideas (either old ones or new ones) on how to increase support for our athletic department. Marketing our athletic program is all our responsibility not just the U of H marketing department. Do we maintain a database of these ideas? If you could request someone from the marketing department just to ask for our help I?m sure they would get good response. The old saying "Two heads are better than one" applies here and in this case a thousand heads are even better. One of the ways this request can be made is through one of the Cougar forums such as http://citadel5.ezboard.com/bcoogfans. Other request can be made by passing out suggestions forms at sporting events or providing a link on the web site for inputs. I'm sure you will get many requests that cost money but you should also get many good ideas that don't cost a lot of money. Make a contest out of it and give away some free tickets for the good ideas. Good luck in you new position and I wish you all the best.
(John Hemphill)
Thanks for your comments. We certainly are using some of the marketing ideas from our alums. The best idea is success on the field.
I am glad to see that UH has hired someone with a record of winning programs. I am wondering what expectations you have for the football program next year, and is there some plan that can be implemented to bring the program to the national spotlight. (Sean)
Thank you for your interest. It is our plan to be significantly improved next year. Our goal is to work toward a Conference Championship and then the top ten in the country.
When would you like to see Phase 2 of the renovations on Robertson Stadium get underway? Good luck to you during your tenure as AD at UH. Go Coogs!! (Brandon)
Thank you for your interest and question. As soon as we win a Conference Championship we should then begin thinking about expanding the stadium.
As a season ticket holder for baseball, basketball, and football who regularly attends games, I have been embarrassed for years by our student body and alumni attendance at football and basketball games. What is your strategy and plans at this time to significantly improve our attendance, first with the student body and secondly with the large alumni base in the Houston area? What can we do to help? (Jim Routzong)
Letter to the Editor regarding greater coverage is always helpful. Our greatest marketing tool will be our success on the field - in addition to the usual mediums for advertising and promotion.
What are your plans for Robertson field? Are there any plans to make it into a tier 1 college football field anytime soon? (Ty)
Thanks for your question. As soon as we win a conference championship we will begin planning for expansion of Robertson Field.
As an eternal optimist, I was excited about Conference USA on its inception. On paper, it looked like a conference with outstanding potential, linking schools in some of the larges markets in the nation. So far, however, I don't think the conference has lived up to this potential, especially with respect to football. What is your opinion of CUSA, and can you conceive of a point where it might be time to "shop around" for a better opportunity for UH? (Michael Roberts)
Conference USA is an ok conference - capable of being better than most think. We need to win a conference championship and good things will begin to happen.
At the UNCC basketball game I noticed you taking a good look around the arena while standing on the court before the game. Tell me, what were you thinking? (Rusty Thompson)
We need to fill the arena. This means success on the court and increasing the marketing. Our basketball program can thrive in this arena - it is good enough for us to win a championship.
Are there any plans in works to add a third color to our present colors, like Cougar gold (metallic gold) similar to that of Florida State, Notre Dame, LSU, Georgia Tech. I think this would be great. In some of our schemes, we have used a tan color much like that of a real Cougar...I don't know where the blue came from...please give it some consideration. (Don Ivy)
Our brand and logo must be consistent - we are looking into possibilities now.
It's September 1st, 2008. What is Robertson Stadium seating capacity and what does the stadium look like? (Rusty Thompson)
48,000 - both ends of the stadium are now enclosed.
I believe UH finally has the basketball coach they have been looking for since Coach Lewis retired. Coach McCallum's teams are well coached and well disciplined. Will you look into locking him up with a lengthy contract before other schools come calling after him in a year or two? (Marc Minatrea)
Thank you for your comment regarding Coach McCallum. I agree with you that he is doing an outstanding job. Basketball is on the move at Houston.
What are some of your main objectives that you will like to accomplish while at UH? Thanks and welcome aboard. (Carlos)
Thank you for your welcome and question. The goals are fairly simple and straightforward. Conference Championships - all sports, Bowl game - each year, qualify for NCAA Championships - all sports and finish in the top ten in the country.
I am a native Houstonian and even though I didn't attend the U of H, I back the athletic department by attending games on a regular basis. Will you include the other UH schools in your plans to build fan support. UH has a campus in Clear Lake, Ft. Bend, Victoria and Downtown. (Ricky D. Coleman)
Thank you for your question. We certainly will promote our activities on the other campuses.
Welcome to Houston! With you experience at urban universities, what are the keys to bringing in the casual fan while competing with Pro Sports? (Bill)
Thank you for your welcome. They key for us is to have success - always having a chance to win every contest we participate, creating an entertaining environment and continual promotion and marketing.
Is there an advertisement plan for football games somewhere in your agenda? I think the city needs some advertisement for sports events at UH. (Joseph Yoo)
Thank you for your interest. We certainly do have a plan for doing more promotion within the city.
Welcome aboard Mr. Maggard. Hopefully you will find the city and the school to your liking. What do you think are your primary goals that you would like to achieve in the near term of less than two years? (Neil Chodry)
Thank you for your welcome. I find the community as well as the University very much to my liking. Within the next two years I expect us to make rather significant improvements in football and basketball.
I am a Houston alumni living in Michigan and wish to buy a UH logo golf bag. Can't find one. For example, UH does not license Ping. Who do you license to produce such bags? (Terrance Dignan)
Thank you for your question. Unfortunately we do not have golf clubs or bags. We may look into the feasibility of such items in the future.