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Post by Bornthrilla on Nov 10, 2007 20:47:25 GMT -5
Big Game Hunter: Exclusive Interview with Director of Athletic Development, Philip McAlpin
By Semaj Marsh bluedeathvalley.com Nov 10, 2007
It was during an Aggie Club meeting several years ago when former A&T chancellor James C. Renick decided to give the group an impromptu history lesson. Speaking to a few dozen boosters, he talked about how prehistoric man first operated as a hunter and gatherer. Back then, supermarkets and burger joints didn’t exist so if you had any thoughts on eating something that day you had to go out into the world and aggressively located your own food source. Renick then made a clever comparison to the current state of his athletic department and explained why he needed his staff to embody that same type of resourcefulness. One of the people Renick hired to be a hunter and gatherer was current Director of Athletic Development, Phillip McAlpin. In this role, McAlpin oversees and manages A&T’s sponsorship and marketing efforts and is responsible for soliciting partnerships with the local business community He also serves as the executive director of the Victory Club, a membership organization that raises money for the athletic department. Prior to this football season, we sat down with McAlpin and talked to him about his marketing philosophies and the challenges he faces in trying to bring in the big bucks.
Bluedeathvalley.com: How long have you been serving in your current role and how did you first find out about this job?
Phil McAlpin: “I took this position at A&T in August of 2004. I became aware of the position actually about a year before that. The school had advertised the position earlier, but when I found out about it they had already (filled it). Then about a year later, I looked at the A&T website and they had that position advertised again. I called a colleague here to find out more about it and ended up applying for it, and eventually got the position.
What in your background made you confident that you had the skill set to be successful in this position?
Phil McAlpin: “I had worked in corporate marketing for black colleges for most of my adult life. I used to run a sports marketing company that produced a weekly television show on ESPN called ‘Black College Sports Today’. It was a weekly 30-minute sports magazine program that covered the highlights of black college sports during football and basketball season. I did work with our schools and their sports departments for some of the top (football) classics around the country. I was involved with getting sponsors for the Circle City Classic, Florida Classic, etc. I also did development and fundraising work for the United Negro College Fund, which is the position I was in before I came to A&T.
What would you say is the most pressing task you are faced with in your current role?
Phil McAlpin: “Well, getting folks to contribute to athletics – either by way of individual donors or by way of attracting corporate sponsors to the athletic department. Now, the university’s corporate marketing program is operated under the umbrella of the Victory Club. One of the hats that I wear as the director of the Victory Club is to manage any benefits that we offer to sponsors that come onboard, like Nationwide and Attel and McDonalds, etc. I have to manage the elements of their visibility on this campus.”
How difficult is it for you to go out and sell our athletic programs to some of the corporate entities in Greensboro and the surrounding area? Would you describe that as something that’s extremely challenging?
Phil McAlpin: “Oh absolutely. It’s never easy to get a dollar out of someone else’s pocket and put it into yours. You’ve probably experience that yourself, I’m sure. But college sports marketing is a big business. You’re always going to be competing with major institutions to get the same sports marketing dollars that they are after. So yes, it’s real challenging. A&T holds a unique place in this community. It has an incredible history in this community and so there’s definitely a situation where folks know the brand. But a marketer or advertiser still has to ask himself ‘am I going to get the same reach and depth of coverage at an A&T as I would at, say, a Wake Forest or an Appalachian State or Carolina or Duke’? Therefore it becomes real empirical, if you will, on how they evaluate where they plan to spend their dollars. Now, ‘uniqueness of market’ also has a value in that equation and we try (to sell) that component.”
You mentioned ‘uniqueness of market’. What other selling points do you think A&T athletics have for someone who is interested in spending corporate dollars?
Phil McAlpin: “Well again, we are the only university in the city of Greensboro that has a Division I football program. We are able to bring together a large group of fans, and if a marketer wants to reach that particular audience this is the only place they can reach them on a Saturday. Our football game radio broadcasts are on WNAA, and so if they want to reach the audience that listens to the football broadcasts on WNAA they have to deal with us. We are a market segment. And a shrewd marketer is going to attempt to (identify) the potential market that will use their product, and then they’ll try to provide the appropriate dollars it will take to penetrate that segment. We are a segment.
Ok. So what kind of goals have you set for yourself during the 2007 season and what kind of metrics do you use to determine your success by?
Phil McAlpin: “Well, I sit down with my vice chancellor and, as is the case with all the development officers at the university, we look at what our financial goals for the year are. That’s based on not only dollars but also methodologies for getting those dollars. While I won’t get into what those specific dollars are in this conservation, I can tell you that the year before I took over our corporate marketing program, we made around $40,000 in sponsorships. At the end of this past fiscal year, I’ve raised over $200,000 in corporate sponsorships. So I’ve been able to make pretty good progress from 2004 to the present.
Wow, that’s outstanding. Without tipping your hand, what has been some of your secrets of success?
Phil McAlpin: “The biggest thing that we did was to sort of re-package our athletic corporate marketing program. In years past, someone could come in and just buy a little piece of this or just buy homecoming or just buy a little piece of that. But one of the tasks that I was charged with when I came here in 2004 was to be involved in the building of the new scoreboard and then re-package our whole corporate partnering program. So now, someone can’t come in and just cherry pick the one or two pieces they want in our program. They’ve got to become a partner. Then, they will gain visibility across a number of platforms. Also, the price has gone up on what it will cost you to be involved with A&T athletics.
Does that new approach exclude the mom and pop stores that might not have the ability to write a big check, or is there still a way for a small business to spend money with A&T Athletics and get their name out there?
Phil McAlpin: “Absolutely. They won’t be a corporate partner like a Nationwide Insurance, who has spent tens of thousands of dollars with us, but they can still have visibility at a game through buying a game program ad. They can still do some kind of promotion in the various locations around A&T by purchasing a ticket package or something like that. They can still have some visibility on the game broadcast by purchasing ad space on the radio station. Tthere are definitely ways. Mom and Pops have helped make A&T what it is, so we don’t want to exclude them. However, at the same time we have to elevate our corporate marketing threshold to the level where it allows us to be able to go out and get 40, 50, 60 or $100,000 from a sponsor.
You mention your desire to attract some of those big corporate sponsors. A lot of people look at the scoreboard and notice that some of the advertising panels still remain blank. What is your response to fans who ask why is it taking us so long to sell out the entire signage package around the scoreboard? And also, when do you think that process will be completed?
Phil McAlpin: “That takes time. That’s an on-going and ever-changing situation. You know, you might have someone this year and their contract will expire and they don’t want to renew it, and then you’ll work to bring someone in to replace that spot. But one of the things that I’m not concerned about, nor is my boss concerned about, is that it’s taking a while to sell all the spots. Because once we sell them out we will have to create something else to sell, so there will always be some inventory. What you don’t want to do is sell what you have on the cheap. When we were getting into this whole process of re-packaging our corporate marketing program, (Chancellor Renick) had a representative from NBA properties come in and hold a little seminar with us. And one of the things he said was that, first, we were right on track with re-packaging what we have. But he said, secondly, you can’t sell it on the cheap. It’s better to have it vacant than to sell it on the cheap. Because once you sell it on the cheap you can’t get somebody to buy it at the price its worth.”
How much do the current struggles of the football program impede your progress on the sales front? Is there a direct correlation between the success of the team and how well you are able to market the athletic department?
Phil McAlpin: “Oh, absolutely. Folks want to back a winner. That impacts not only what I am trying to do but also the number of people that you can get to come out to the stadium. The bottom line is that a large portion of our athletic dollars are going to come from the ticket sales. Clearly the success of the football program, basketball program and baseball program will impact the (amount of dollars coming in). Now, when I talk to donors after the type of season that we just had, I use that as leverage by saying ‘that’s why we need your support. Because if we had the money to put behind the team, coaches, etc…we would be able to build a successful program.’ From a sponsor standpoint, I say to them ‘yeah, we had a tough year last season but we still had great attendance at our games and that demonstrates the kind of loyalty that our fan have and you want to be a part of that.’ I’ve got to keep selling. I’ve got to make lemonade out of the lemons that I’ve been dealt.”
I know you don’t have much of a support staff within the corporate marketing department right now. How difficult is it for you to operate with such little resources and still try to meet your objectives?
Phil McAlpin: “It’s hard. I’ve advocated to my boss that I would like to add a couple of more people to our staff over here. I’m sure (Director of Sports Marketing) Keith McCluney would like to add more people to his staff over there. But you have got to work with what you got. As I make more money in dealing with our corporate marketing program, at some point I hope that I will be able to hire another person. I would to hire a sales person to get out on the street and get out to all the places that I can’t get around to because I’m only one man. And as I look into the future, two years from now, three years from now, I hope to have a four or five-person organization and that organization is bringing in a million-plus dollars a year. Then you are talking about being able to provide $250,000, $500,000 or $750,000 to the athletic director and she would be able to use it however she needs to.”
Can you talk a little bit about how a regular fan or alum can give back to the department? Also how do you view the amount of financial support that our fan base is currently giving back to A&T?
Phil McAlpin: “In the University of North Carolina system, I think A&T ranks third out of 16 institutions for the percentage of its alumni that contribute. We are at about 15 percent. North Carolina State and UNC are ahead of us in terms of percentage. Now, you have to make the distinction between percentage and absolute dollars, because there’s a big difference. But percentage-wise, a large number of our alums do give back. However, that also means that 85 percent are not giving back and we are constantly charged with reaching out to more and more alums. One of the big failings, not only here but at a lot of institutions is that you don’t get as much participation from your former athletes as you think you would. We are looking at lots of different ways – and our athletic director has come up with some strategies- to try to get more of the athletes to give back. It’s a constant battle of trying to expand the alumni base of those that give back and then upping the amount of money they do give.”
Is that just a matter of having to re-educate our alumni on the importance of contributing and trying to change the whole culture of giving back?
Phil McAlpin: “Yes, in large part. You have to attack it from a number of different angles, and indoctrination and orientation are just some of those angles. When they come in as freshman, as they sit through orientation programs, we should offer them a program on giving. As a freshman, they should be able to give $20, $100 a year. Usually, most students here have $100 a year that they can give to the university. If you get them giving back as freshman, once they become alums they are already in the habit of giving back to their school.”
Another issue that been discussed on our site is that it’s somewhat difficult to go on the A&T athletic website and make a direct contribution to our various athletic programs. Has there been any talk about adding a link or button so that someone can go on ncataggies.com and make a quick donation with their credit card?
Phil McAlpin: “You can do that now. You can go to the university website and go to the development area of the website and be able to click on a link and make a gift. Now, we need to do a better job of promoting that and letting folks know that they can do that. But just like you can buy a ticket online, you can make a contribution online."
Is there any way that can be integrated into the actual athletic website so that a fan who wants to support one of the athletic teams can make a donation right there on ncataggies.com, without even having to go to the main ncat.edu site?
Phil McAlpin: “Well that’s an I.T question as far as getting that type of system set up, but that’s a good idea. That’s something we need to bring up to (Director of Development Operations) Patricia Brown, who heads up out annual fund program and see if we can get that done. If fact, if you go over the School of Arts & Sciences' webpage, you should be able to do something similar there. You should be able to go over to the Engineering webpage and do the same thing. So that’s a good suggestion that you make there.”
Has there been any serious discussions about expanding the existing press box to where we might be able to add some luxury suites, which could then be used to attract corporate sponsors?
Phil McAlpin: “I don’t know what took place prior to my arrival here, but I have been involved in some meetings on re-designing the press box. Those plans didn’t afford luxury suites but they did afford a little social area where you could bring in donors, prospects and individuals of that sort. It also involved enlarging the Chancellor’s box and adding a box for the athletic director. But when you get into a discussion about luxury boxes and all of that, you are really talking about a whole new stadium, not just fixing a press box."
Well lastly, what would you like to say to A&T fans that are excited about Aggie sports and are now considering using some of their money to help the athletic department?
Phil McAlpin: “They should answer the calls that they get from our fundraisers and make a contribution. They should go to the A.D or send a check to athletics or join the Victory Club or join the Aggie Club, but they need to make sure that they give something back. I’ve got to assume that the vast majority of folks that matriculated through A&T ended up having a better life than they would have if they hadn’t gone to A&T. And we just ask them to come back and support the institution that supported you. Dollars make the world go ‘round. And you can’t hire top coaches; you can’t recruit top students unless you have money to give them. You can't field championship teams unless you have money to put behind those teams. So it’s about money; it’s about supporting your institution. I would ask everyone to find a way to make a contribution back to North Carolina A&T State University."
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Post by Bornthrilla on Nov 10, 2007 20:49:35 GMT -5
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DECKS
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2008 Poster of the Year
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Posts: 10,413
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Post by DECKS on Nov 12, 2007 11:15:00 GMT -5
Glad you asked this question!!!
How much do the current struggles of the football program impede your progress on the sales front? Is there a direct correlation between the success of the team and how well you are able to market the athletic department?
Phil McAlpin: “Oh, absolutely. Folks want to back a winner. That impacts not only what I am trying to do but also the number of people that you can get to come out to the stadium. The bottom line is that a large portion of our athletic dollars are going to come from the ticket sales. Clearly the success of the football program, basketball program and baseball program will impact the (amount of dollars coming in).
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Post by Bornthrilla on Nov 12, 2007 16:27:28 GMT -5
I found this interesting:
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Freeze
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Post by Freeze on Nov 12, 2007 17:15:34 GMT -5
I found this interesting: No offense, but that sounds like a very shortsighted assessment from someone who is supposed to be developing Aggie athletics.
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Post by Aggie9195 on Nov 12, 2007 17:40:40 GMT -5
I concur!
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Post by aggiejazz on Nov 12, 2007 19:49:53 GMT -5
It is all in your presentation and A&T is right not to sell the rights to advertise with Aggies on the cheap. This is a millstone that most black control corporations have to deal with in the main market.
Since we are talking sports, McAlpin can take notice of what Coach Eaves is doing. Eaves doesn't play power schools on the cheap. A lot of power conference schools want to pay HBCU on the cheap for $25,000 to $35,000 and Eaves doesn't bite. Winthrop last season was getting $70,000 to $80,000 a game from the top power conference schools and A&T is not far behind Winthrop in demanding that kind of money and receiving it in most cases.
Last season, WSSU played twice or almost twice the number of money games A&T played and still earned less than A&T. I also think A&T earned about the same or a little more than Coppin State and about $50,000 less than Delaware State when both those schools played almost all of their non-conference games as gurantee games. Del State played only one out-of-conference non-gurantee game last season.
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Post by antfan2003 on Nov 12, 2007 21:25:46 GMT -5
Guys,... it would be wise to not believe ANYTHING McAlpin says. Hes been around here long enough to have gotten the job done. He makes well over $70,000 a year and hasnt produced ANYTHING on that board. Hes a professional bullisht artist and all that "repackaging" talk is simply to try and talk over the general publics head... To the average cat he will talk soooo much that one might assume that he knows what hes talking about...but the bottom line is not about talking and selling strategy.. its about results... which he CLEARLY hasnt produced...
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DECKS
Official BDF member
2008 Poster of the Year
Charter Member of the BDF
Posts: 10,413
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Post by DECKS on Nov 12, 2007 21:56:14 GMT -5
He produced $200,000 so where are you getting the nothing from?
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Post by dj98 on Nov 12, 2007 22:32:02 GMT -5
He makes well over $70,000 a year
he's talking about salary..............
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Post by aggiedog on Nov 12, 2007 22:56:17 GMT -5
I see three panels that have been blank for three years. What does a panel sell for? $50k? If we sold it on the cheap for $25k that would be $75k a year times three for $225k total in the last three years. Ain't bad for the chesp but I don't make these high level decision to piss away money.
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Post by Bornthrilla on Nov 13, 2007 7:26:58 GMT -5
Hmmm. That's strange.
Antfan2003's computer IP address matches that of another poster on this site. I guess that kinda explains things a little.
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Post by Aggie Monster on Nov 13, 2007 8:45:25 GMT -5
Hmmm. That's strange. Antfan2003's computer IP address matches that of another poster on this site. I guess that kinda explains things a little. Busted, lol. I always thought it was strange that those 2 posted almost 2 minutes apart all the time.
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Post by DOOMS on Nov 13, 2007 9:20:21 GMT -5
Maybe they are twins that are joined at the hip. One good… one evil. You pick which one is which. Perhaps it’s like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. “Hide” or Wonder Woman and Lynda Carter or something.
Anyway, that’s the stupidest theory ever. Not selling is never better than selling. That’s like a store having a going out of business sale and keeping prices the same… and being stuck with all the merchandise as a result. We’re going out of business.
First we go the “I-A way” for coaching and now we’re going with the “NBA properties” brand of marketing. Yeah, we’re about as hot as an NBA team. People don’t think anymore. The NBA can afford to hold out for money. We can’t even afford to buy out a coach that hasn’t won a game in two years.
Blank panels won’t sell more panels. Drop the price but make the panel rental time for a year. Strongly encourage the Aggie faithful to patronize the place that buys the panel for a year. Increase the price of the panel the next year if they want to re-up. If they don’t they can kiss that Aggie dollar goodbye. If stuff ain’t moving you put it on sale, you don’t wait for it to come into style again Dude should be selling people on getting it while it’s cheap and getting in early, not sitting around waiting for us to win a game.
I can’t really blame the guy, because he says his boss signed off on it. I just don’t understand how we were doing better with pig knuckle sales and coaches teaching and manicuring the practice field than we are with people with major college experience and NBA properties teaching them what to do.
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