If you haven’t been keeping up with the CU Women’s Basketball team over the past couple of seasons, what are you doing with your life?! The Buffs are absolutely crushing it!! Can you believe we beat #1 LSU at their own court on Monday?! I can already tell this season is going to go down in history as one of the best CU Women’s Basketball seasons yet.
Last Wednesday, CU Women’s Basketball opened at home against the Le Moyne Dolphins with a final score of 97-38 Buffs. A 59-point difference made the Dolphins’ second game as a Division I school a kick in the shins. As an employee, it was super rewarding to see the Banner Recognition ceremony at the beginning of the game as the team was celebrated for making it to the Sweet 16 last season. This was the first time CU had made it that far in the Women’s NCAA Tournament since 2003.
In this blog post, follow along with my perspective as a CU Athletics Marketing intern at the 2023 CU Women’s Basketball home opener!
PREGAME - 4:00 PM MST
The other interns and I arrived at the CU Events Center two hours before tip-off so that we could prepare for the night before doors opened. After going over our staffing sheet for the night, we got all the materials we needed to set up the Marketing Table. If you read the blog post from two weeks ago about the setup for a Volleyball match, the Marketing Table for Women’s Basketball looks very similar. We set out posters of the team, rosters for the night’s matchup, and yellow card stock with the number “3” for fans to hold up when the team made 3-pointers.
On top of the usual giveaways for the night, we also had a special handout in honor of the team’s Banner Recognition ceremony. In total, we handed out almost 500 mini Replica Banners that featured the same look of the Sweet 16 banner hung in the CU Events Center, but on a much smaller scale. This is one of the best giveaways I’ve seen done in the past couple of years as it gives fans a souvenir from such a historical night.
TIP-OFF - 6:06 PM MST
For most of the first half, I stayed at the Marketing Table to hand out the mini banners and greet fans as they came in through the doors. In an effort to increase student attendance at Women’s Basketball, I helped hand out punch cards to those enrolled at the university where students who attend every game this season are entered to win special giveaways.
While I was out on the concourse, the other two interns for the night handled the first half’s promotions including a T-Shirt Toss and a special performance by the dance team. They also helped hand out banners in the crowd to those who didn’t stop by the Marketing Table before the game.
HALFTIME - 7:00 PM MST
At halftime, I was able to leave my post on the concourse and head down to the tunnel for the second half’s promotions. One of the highlights of my night was seeing Coach Prime sit with CU super-fan, 98-year-old Peggy Coppom, as he watched his daughter’s team play. Their relationship is always so wholesome and I love seeing the way they both cheer on the Buffs together.
At every basketball game, the marketing team picks out a Lucky Section in the stadium that is given free In-N-Out as a special giveaway. When section 22 was named the “In-N-Out Lucky Section” of the game, I helped hand out gift cards to each of the fans with tickets in that section so they could enjoy a special meal after the night ended. As the game came to a close, the interns and I cleaned up the Marketing Table and prepared for our post-game event.
POST-GAME - 8:00 PM MST
After the Buffs claimed their win over the Dolphins, I helped the team get organized for their post-game autograph session. This promotion was super fun to help out with as we saw a lot of young girls who play basketball interact with the players they look up to. During this time, our number one priority is to make sure the players are happy and comfortable as they sign autographs directly following their matchup. The interns and I helped to quickly and efficiently hand out Sharpies, posters, and boards to write on so that the players didn’t have to do much. As the session concluded, we cleaned up the area and called it a very successful and smooth end to our night!
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One of the hardest things to see as an employee is the blatant differences between Men’s Basketball games and Women’s Basketball games… there are none! Everything we do to prepare for the night whether it’s the guys playing or the girls is very much similar, yet the attendance is always drastically different. Even after the Buffs beat LSU, the number one team in the country, fan attendance was still not even close to that of a men’s game.
Stay tuned for next week’s blog post as we’ll talk about the differences between male and female sports in college. In the meantime, make sure you’re following my social media so you can stay up-to-date on all things CU from the Sidelines!
Works Cited
All photos taken by Cassidy Davis
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