There were seven words printed on sheets of copy paper at the entrance to the Peoria Civic Center Feb. 26.
“BRADLEY BASKETBALL GAME TODAY IS SOLD OUT!!”
Bradley’s men’s basketball team was about to battle for the Missouri Valley Conference regular season crown for the first time in 27 years and welcome a crowd of over 10,000 for the first time in over a decade. Being a Braves’ fan was the talk of the town.
“From my perspective, the ‘Red-Out’ against Drake for men’s basketball is probably, from my whole staff’s perspective, one of our prouder moments of the entire season,” associate athletic director for marketing and fan engagement T.J. Christie said. “I don’t think there was a person in Peoria who didn’t know about it.”
Not only were Peorians chomping at the bit to get a slice of history, but students were as excited to watch the culmination of a team with exceptional talent.
“Our students came out in full force,” Christie said. “That was awesome to see, and it’s been hit or miss throughout my year and a half but it can be done, you see that and it just brings excitement to you.”
The sellout in the regular season finale helped men’s basketball become one of three Bradley sports to see attendance improve over the fall and winter seasons. Soccer and women’s basketball also saw an increase, despite lackluster seasons record-wise.
Attendance is still smaller than pre-pandemic numbers, but with athletic departments across the nation continuing to figure out the best way to draw fans back out, it would look like Bradley is hitting their target right on the nose.
“As a society, we have emerged from the pandemic attempting to define a new normal,” senior associate athletic director for event and facility operations Bobby Parker said. “As more and more people return to our venues to cheer on the Braves, I think we have confirmed a large portion of our fan base still finds enjoyment and value in college athletics and wants to find new ways to engage our diverse base of supporters and provide a great game day experience as we’ll continue to work hard to grow the crowds at all of our venues.”
With records not being the sole factor for success in the stands as women’s basketball and soccer would attest, what can be spotlighted as the reason for the larger flock of fans?
More attention, more accumulation
Of course, if you want to fill bleachers and arena seating, knowing when games are is the first step to achieving the goal. Making that goal more achievable for students was evidenced by the walk to class where pathways were littered with yard signs promoting upcoming games.
Additional help was provided by Bradley’s student section, the Red Sea, which mounted a comeback online and in-person by setting up shop in the Michel Student Center on game days.
“This past year, we found that what works best for the Red Sea is tabling in the student center before games to give out tickets during the day and get a big crowd,” senior psychology major Jasmine Smith said. “This allowed people to be aware of games and gave a lot of traction with students who wouldn’t necessarily go to games.”
The student-led organization, headed by Smith alongside senior organizational communication major Kamia Berry and senior art history major Zoe Hudson, found that a makeover was greatly needed to increase attendance at all events.
“Being more active on social media also made a big difference with student engagement,” Smith said. “The food vouchers for the people who rode the bus was good as well.”
Just like the Red Sea who posted multiple updates on game information and transportation for certain events, Bradley Athletics also became increasingly active on social media.
While typically it’s quite normal to find final score updates and gameday posts scattered on each team’s profiles, the work before events paired with in-game and post-game content across all platforms was seemingly on the rise as well.
Daily updates, more photography and even some video content made its way to the timeline to ensure fans were never in a content drought. It was refreshing to see not only more content on several mediums, but smarter content that engaged and attracted fans to buy into what Bradley’s teams were selling.
“Being a smaller athletic department, you do have your areas and road barriers and stuff like that,” Christie said. “But there are ways around everything and that’s what we’re working on.”
“You look at our social media aspect or creative content, we’re a long way from where we want to be but we’re just going to continually improve day-in, day-out and do our best with what we have available and afforded to us,” Christie said.
New faces, new places
Another reason for Bradley’s success in driving attendance could be the younger staff that have begun to settle into their roles. Christie, who took over in 2021 and has seen just a year and a half of Bradley athletic events, has welcomed in a younger staff that has been able to market and relate much more to the growing community of younger Braves’ fans.
A fully new staff of sports information directors, a new director of creative and social media and a new director of video and creative production are just some of the new additions to the staff that have made a major impact in year one of their positions. Some are even Bradley alumni, helping connect the department further to the fan base.
“You look across the board in our external staff and we’re all kind of in new roles but you’re starting to see people get a little more comfortable in their role,” Christie said. “They make sure that they understand the job.”
Forward Momentum
It’s too early to say whether or not Bradley Athletics’ changes and new ideas have caused this uptick in attendance and if it’ll stick, but the actions taken this past fall and winter season backs up the argument that this could be a common occurrence for the next several years.
Another pillar that holds up this claim: the willingness to listen.
“I’m a firm believer in listening and it doesn’t matter who it is coming from or why it is coming,” Christie said. “There is great perspective in everything you hear. I think folks provide great insight and when somebody speaks, you have to understand they’re constituents [of the university]. If they’re talking about it, they’re invested in it, and if they’re invested in it, we should be listening at all times. Opinions matter.”
So, is Bradley’s rise in attendance this past season an indicator of full arenas and stands in the future? Possibly, but the chances of it are far greater now than they were before.
