It’s taken all year, but the Runnin’ Utes finally woke up.
Personally, I love that head coach Jim Boylen has decided to grab hold of the microphone and address the Utah crowds often. His speeches are genuine. I’ve half expected to see someone run to his knees screaming, “Hallelujah!” after being overcome with the spirit. But let’s face it8212;all this time Boylen has been preaching to the crowd, it’s been a patch kit to prevent the rest of the air from escaping the Huntsman Center. Even Utah’s Fab Four package during the month of December when the team hosted California, Oregon, Gonzaga and LSU was a fling. Utah’s needed a Hail Mary for a while now. Saturday we’ll finally see it.
With a win against TCU, Utah will wrap up its first regular-season title since 2004-2005. As if that wasn’t enough reason to get the Huntsman Center at its 15,000-person capacity, Utah will be saying goodbye to four seniors who helped bridge the gap over a very dire few years of Utah basketball. Homegrown product Shaun Green will be saying goodbye. Tyler Kepkay will bid farewell to the Utah crowd after two short seasons. Lawrence Borha will leave a changed player and a changed man on Saturday, too. Utah will also say g’day to one of the most memorable players ever to don a Utah jersey8212;Luke Nevill. At times he’s been frustrating to watch, but he’s the biggest reason for Utah’s turnaround, both literally and figuratively. And for dessert, Utah legend Arnie Ferrin will be inducted into the NCAA Basketball Hall of Fame.
To make it look like the Huntsman Center of old, and not a sacrament meeting during Memorial Weekend, Utah is offering a “name your own price” for upper bowl tickets, with a limit of 10 per person. That’s on top of seats anywhere else in the arena being sold for just $7. At the time of publication, everything was basically sold out. Job well done.
My only problem is8212;Utah should have been doing stuff like this all along.
The way to build lifelong fans is to start them at the beginning of life. This is how all my “normal” cousins, uncles and aunts were brought up.
One-dollar tickets might seem like a fast track toward losing money. If you think about it, though, it’s not. Sure, you can’t offer every ticket for a dollar all the time or season-ticket holders would drop faster than the stock market. But a promotion like this works on many levels.
First, it’s a dollar for every person you wouldn’t have had otherwise. But that adds up to just pocket change, right? Not exactly.
A few of those fans might get to see a great game and become fans for years. A few of those new little Utes might even start dreaming of going to that school with the drum and feather one day. They’ll grow up thinking, “Utah is the only school that has a band that plays that song “Hey…hey baby. I want to know, will you be my girl…’.”
If even one kid who wouldn’t have otherwise become a Utah fan grows up wanting to one day become a Ute, then you have yourselves a Mastercard commercial.
Ticket to the game8212;$1. Barbecue chicken sandwich8212;$10. Extra sweatshirt from the fan shop8212;$35. Future graduate of the U8212;priceless (or about $20,000 of in-state tuition, not including books or parking passes). There are some things $1 can buy8212;Saturday afternoon, a seed to a future member of the MUSS is one of them.
Plus, when you’re tied for first place in the conference but only have the fourth best attendance average at 9,656 (New Mexico is first at 14,348, UNLV is second at 13,598 and BYU is third at 12,762) you need all the help you can get.
