SFN is ‘Pulse of the Fan Base’

'09 Football 09-10 Basketball AD & Department Fans General On the Record Site News117

accsportslogo2SFN would like to thank the great folks from the ACC Sports Journal for inviting us to partner with them on their weekly ‘Pulse of the Fan Base’.

They posted the feature to their website last night and it can be read by clicking here.

Over the last 12 months the blog has generated more than 3.5 million page views from 1.5 million visits of over 280,000 unique visitors originating from 164 different countries and U.S. territories.

That includes 104 visits from Malawi. Yes, Malawi.

We are going to have more detail behind the Q&A here on the site in the coming days, so we hope that you keep checking in and share your thoughts with us.

Start by defining the ‘fan base’ as the fan base that actually forms opinions on these topics. Realize that a large majority of any fan base are just folks who went to school or like a team and all they want is for their team to be successful; they don’t really form opinions or take the time to educate themselves on ancillary issues.

The next level of fan is one that has a level of ‘vestedness’ that goes beyond just wanting the team to win. Here is a very general profile of some characteristics of a ‘vested’ fan.

1. Some form of membership and/or financial commitment such as the Wolfpack Club, Alumni Association, annual fund, etc.
2. If they don’t have season tickets or lifetime rights, then they attend at least a few games in person every now and then.
3. Take the time to generally know the football and basketball schedule and make time watch the majority of games when televised.
4. At least occasionally read articles and try to gather information from sources like the ACC Sports Journal, The Wolfpacker, the internet, etc.

The ACCSJ’s introduction mentions an article featuring SFN that ran in the NC State Alumni Magazine in late 2007/early 2008. Clicking here will take you to the original entry (written at the time of the article) that includes some interesting history of the site.

These recent developments and focus on SFN serve to be very timely as we are currently working on a site re-design on which we hope to flip the switch in the coming weeks. If you have any computer/creative skills we encourage you to check here for a request to contribute to our efforts. In addition to new banners for the site, we will happily accept any original/unique logos, pictures, graphics files that would be good fits for the next generation of the site.

About StateFans

'StateFansNation' is the shared profile used by any/all of the dozen or so authors that contribute to the blog. You may not always agree with us, but you will have little doubt about where we stand on most issues. Please follow us on Twitter and FaceBook

'09 Football 09-10 Basketball AD & Department Fans General On the Record Site News

117 Responses to SFN is ‘Pulse of the Fan Base’

  1. BJD95 05/07/2009 at 3:39 PM #

    FWIW, I can back up Noah’s comments and also can’t divulge details. I believe that the BOT is aware and not happy.

    That said, I no longer see Lowe leaving before next season, but I think the extracurriculars raise the bar higher for what he has to accomplish in Season Four (i.e., near-miraculous, extremely unlikely turnaround as opposed to NC State ‘s typical “amorphous improvement that may not show up in the win column just yet” nonsense).

    I do think Lowe was in significant jeopardy a month or so ago, but I never considered his departure as likely as Fowler’s – at least not this year. And I believe his seat should and will be exceptionally hot in 2009-10.

  2. BJD95 05/07/2009 at 3:44 PM #

    The QJ stuff (and how Lowe and Fowler handled it) are enough to make me lack any confidence in their judgment and fitness to run anything associated with NC State – and that doesn’t constitute the entire universe of “smoke.”

    The fact that there will be no “new blood” in the basketball staff is a very, very disapppointing development – leading me to be even more pessimistic about any possible turnaround.

  3. old13 05/07/2009 at 3:46 PM #

    Thanks, BJD95. I’ve always thought of Noah as a credible, although sometimes contankerous [ 🙂 ], source.

  4. jbpackfan 05/07/2009 at 3:49 PM #

    Thanks for the clarification that you could give. I was just trying to defend our coach from unfair/undeserved allegations. If it turns out the criticism is deserved, then kudos to you and Noah for making people aware.

  5. BJD95 05/07/2009 at 3:53 PM #

    ^ Fair enough. We’ll just wait and see what happens.

  6. VaWolf82 05/07/2009 at 5:23 PM #

    If you have the nerve to question the vague allegation, the poster makes a joke or you get accused of attacking the poster.

    Serious question….do you have a link to support this accusation? Anyone would certainly be within their rights to question the validity of a vague accusation. For my part, I value noah’s comments (and have since the original statefans.com); but I don’t put blind trust in them.

    The posts that have drawn comments from moderators are ones that attack or ridicule another poster. I think that most adults should be able to appreciate the difference between questioning and attacks/ridicule.

  7. highstick 05/07/2009 at 8:07 PM #

    The suspense is killing me!!!

    Contrary to what Jack Nicholson said, WE CAN HANDLE THE TRUTH! Just give us the facts and let us deal with them.

    I’ll be in Raleigh at the end of the month. Maybe I can waterboard someone who’ll tell me what the heck is going on!

  8. Noah 05/08/2009 at 9:08 AM #

    It is part of a larger philosophical question.

    IMO, we need to knock everything down and rebuild. I don’t think there is anything TANGIBLE here that we can salvage. The one thing that we have going for us (if we stick with the construction metaphor) is that there used to be a beautiful building here once. Let that be our motivation for making it beautiful again.

    Others believe that the damage is not complete and we can fix this thing.

    I would like to believe that. However, I’m afraid that “fixing things,” in the eyes of our leaders, constitutes hanging up one of those motivational posters of a lion with the word “PRIDE” underneath it in the canteen and thinking that everything has been solved.

    Again…sticking with the “athletic department as a physical structure” metaphor…I believe that if you start to look closely at the operational aspects of things, you will notice dryrot, cracks in the foundation, staircases to nowhere, exposed, frayed and inadequate wiring, rusty stains and the base of the water heater, a leaky roof, and a termites nest that looks like this:

    http://www.termite.com/images/termitemound.jpg

    It’s so big that Dr. House is treating the current inhabitants for naphthalene poisoning.

    I believe that if we are going to have a “building,” it should be a nice building. I think there are many good reasons for having a nice building that are concurrent with the mission of the university. However…I think that other universities DONT have “buildings” and I think that’s fine too.

    But…let’s either have a nice one or not have one at all. It’s this trailer-trash, rinky-dink, condemned, eyesore crap that bothers me.

  9. old13 05/08/2009 at 9:41 AM #

    ^ I like your analogy. But it may be necessary to demolish some of the rest of the “factory” to make way for this new building IMO.

  10. choppack1 05/08/2009 at 9:49 AM #

    old – If you Noah’s post, it’s pretty obvious he’s not limiting his criticism to the athletic department.

  11. old13 05/08/2009 at 10:03 AM #

    sticking with the “athletic department as a physical structure” metaphor

    This led me to think his comments were limited to the Athletics Department as the only structure to be demolished and rebuilt, chop. I caught the “motivational poster” comment, but took that as suggesting a new paint job, not a demolition job.

  12. Noah 05/08/2009 at 10:23 AM #

    I’m MOSTLY addressing the athletic department. I don’t really have an opinion on how Oblinger handles the academic side of things.

    Again, it’s a philosophical issue. Do you think there is value to having a strong athletic department? Not like Tennessee, mind you, where the AD runs the university…but a strong AD like Cal, UNC, Michigan, Ohio State, UCLA or Wisconsin? Those are all pretty damn good schools, IMO. I don’t think graduates of any of those colleges need to be ashamed of the names on their diplomas.

    Is there value to having an AD like those? Does it not allow you to build a sense of pride in your school? Does it not help in maintaining a database of graduates? Does it not help in fundraising? Does it not help advertise your school? Does it not promote the things you accomplish at your school? Does it not help with name recognition?

    If I say, “Ohio State,” do you not think of “Buckeyes” and silver and maroon and Archie Griffin and their head coach punching a Clemson player? (snark) Ohio State also has a fantastic medical program. In fact, I believe it has one of the best reconstructive surgery departments in the world. You know how I know that? I heard about it during an Ohio State football game.

    But hey…Cal Tech, Andover, MIT, Bennington, Bates, Colby, Bowdoin and plenty of other excellent schools don’t have athletic programs. And plenty of excellent schools have very small athletic departments.

    So, my only reservation about Oblinger is that I don’t believe he’s answered my question (is there value to having an athletics department?). It’s this hanging-out-in-the-middle-of-the-road thing that bothers me.

  13. old13 05/08/2009 at 11:30 AM #

    Yes, Noah, that’s been one of my primary complaints about the NCSU administration. After all the funds were collected/pledged for the improvement of athletics facilities, it was like “hey, look what we did – now on to something else.” There was no followup by the administration to put those improved facilities to good use and impact the bottom line – actual improvement on the field/court. To me that is almost criminal as it borders on getting people to pay money under false pretenses, implying that there was a commitment to improving overall athletic performance. At minimum, it is a gross mismanagement of contributed funds.

    And, again, until the administration’s attitudes (or some administration bodies) change to have a commitment, the “trailer-trash, rinky-dink, condemned, eyesore crap” will remain because even a good, strong AD can do only so much without commitment and support from the top.

  14. Noah 05/08/2009 at 12:03 PM #

    I think a good, strong athletic director will do what he needs to do and GET that support. I don’t really blame Oblinger for not getting behind Fowler. I wouldn’t either. I’d get rid of Fowler and get behind the next guy.

    Who was the last REALLY good AD State had? I remember Willis Casey always being accused of being notoriously cheap.

    I mean…hell, Todd Turner looks GREAT compared to the last two guys.

  15. old13 05/08/2009 at 1:41 PM #

    I don’t really blame Oblinger for not getting behind Fowler.

    I don’t either except that it would be an exceptional position from which to practice punting. 🙂

    I’d get rid of Fowler and get behind the next guy.

    Agreed! But why hasn’t Oblinger done that (long ago?) Whose been holding him back? I would think that Oblinger would have had to signed off on Foulup’s contract extension and that award for them to have gone through. Is that good management? Or is Oblinger just another puppet or, worse, another “good-ol’-boy?” That’s the trouble – the higher one goes in the NCSU organization, the cloudier it becomes as to who is actually running things. Guess that’s the political beast, huh.

    Who was the last REALLY good AD State had? I remember Willis Casey always being accused of being notoriously cheap.

    I couldn’t say as I didn’t pay much attention to the AD position until V became it. I was not aware of Casey’s reputation for being cheap. But I do remember NCSU athletics being pretty competitive under his watch. But, then, college athletics was just starting to become the big money machine after I graduated. So it may not have taken alot in those days to be competitive.

  16. Noah 05/08/2009 at 1:54 PM #

    Unfortunately, I can’t answer any of those questions.

  17. old13 05/08/2009 at 2:42 PM #

    I didn’t really expect anybody on this blog to be able to – they were really intended to be rhetorical.

1 … 3 4 5

Leave a Reply