University colors

[valpo64]

When will we return to using Brown and Gold for our uniform colors?  Enough of the black...everybody uses black! Maybe i'm dating myself but aren't we ever going to return to our school colors like most  of our other sports.   Every once in a while I do like the Gray uni but apparently they have put those on a high shelf somewhere.

[valporun]

I'm guessing in this new era of uniforms being of HD-quality for tv purposes that we might not see a strong emphasis of brown and gold together because it doesn't look good in HD. I do agree that our programs should all have brown and gold in their uniform colors in some way. I guess I get a strong feeling that NIKE is having way too much creative influence in our uniform options?

[vusupporter]

Who's using black as a primary color? From what I've seen, men's basketball unis are white at home with narrow black piping, gold on the road with brown piping - women's basketball are white at home with brown piping, brown on the road with white piping.

[KL31NY]

Softball, baseball, and volleyball have used black as a primary color for some of their uniforms, if not other teams

[vuweathernerd]

i don't like the grays one bit, at least for basketball. stick to the white at home and yellow on the road. the black can be made to look decent, but as it's not an official school color, i'd be careful about how much it gets used. using brown at any point is a recipe for disaster. and that includes football... (oh, wait - that's already a disaster)

[valpotx]

Softball, baseball, and volleyball have used black as a primary color for some of their uniforms, if not other teams

I know that baseball hasn't really used brown in its jerseys since before I was playing (1999-2004).  The only brown jerseys were the ones we used on JV, and I believe those were used by the varsity in early 1990s.

[Valposter]

Admittedly, I am relatively new to the Valpo family so I am "new school" Valpo, not "old school" Valpo.  So, I may be offending some Valpo traditionalists with my opinions reflected below, but this is not my intent. 

I am speaking from the baseball perspective  IMO, the infusion of black as a featured color into the baseball uniforms has been a huge upgrade......our baseball uni's have never looked better.  Black as a primary color offers so much more flexibility in having different baseball unfiorm options when combined with our traditional gold, brown and white.  And, black is just a more intimidating color option than brown as a featured color.  Brown is ok as a secondary color but not as a featured color.  Black and gold is a traditional sports color combination for a reason.....it looks great together.   Gold really pops when contrasted with black......not so much with brown. 

You just don't see brown/gold as the predominant color combo in sports uniforms for a reason.......it just doesn't look as good and it doesn't sell as much.  Brown/gold just looks older, less threatening, and not as visually stimulating.  The retro San Diego Padres uniforms are about the only other sports team I can think of (I'm sure there are a few others) that used a predominant Brown/Gold combination and they stopped using it because it just wasn't as marketable.  I think ESPN did a poll where the Brown/Gold 1970's San Diego Padres uni's were voted as one of the worst uni's in sports history.  Some of that was due to design, logo, macot and name, but color had a big part in that too.   
 
You are probably right that NIKE has had some influence (maybe alot?) in the use of black as a featured color in our baseball uniforms (layered in with our traditional brown, gold and white) and that just reinforces my points above.  There is no better sports marketing expert than NIKE, and they know what looks good and what is marketable, and what doesn't look as good and what isn't as marketable.  NIKE knows what young athletes want to wear and they know what sports gear people will buy.     

The baseball uniforms have never looked better and I hope they continue to be progressive in uniform design and I think utilizing black as a featured color (along with the NIKE swoosh) is a VERY important component to that.  Uniform design, color schemes, and mascots/logos are all very important components to sports branding.  Cool uniforms are important to athletes and I am sure if you took a poll of the Valpo athletes (and potential recruits) they would say they like the heavy black influence in the baseball uni's.

On a similar note, the current Crusader logo is MUCH better than the previous Crusader logo (the Fighting Crusader cartoon).  The current Crusader looks noble, confident, and ready for battle.  The old logo looked like a funny cartoon character.  Funny is not good in sports.  Again, major impact on sports branding, and a very good (and important) branding move to upgrade the mascot/logo, IMO. 

I think the Valpo Athletic Department has done an excellent job in the last several years with the uniform upgrades and the logo change as a part of their Branding Strategy.  Another huge branding success had been the recent commitment to winning with hiring and retaining of some excellent coaches (basketball, baseball, softball, etc...).  I hope the progressiveness continues with aggressive Facility upgrades and investment, which is probably the second-most important compnent in a sports branding strategy next to winning.  I am from the school that you can't sucessfully be all things to all people, so I firmly believe the investment in resources (facilities and budgets) should be made in the Valpo sports programs that are having success or reasonably positioned for success (basketball, baseball, softball, volleyball, soccer).  Maybe tennis now?  Football has proven not to fall into this category.   

Hierachy of components to successful Sports Branding Strategy:

1)  Winning (coaching and recruiting huge factors here)
2)  Facilities
3)  Media coverage and Sponsorship
4)  Uniform design, color, logo, mascot
5)  Everything else

1)  Winning:  A lot of programs are positioned for sustained success:  basketball, baseball, softball.  Football has proven NOT to be positioned for success.  I think we need to re-allocate the football resources.

2)  Facilities:  almost all facilities need upgrades and investment.  Baseball needs (and deserves with recent success!!!!) to be on-campus with lights, digital scoreboard and chairback seats behind homeplate with at least a small concourse with brick entryway and infrastructure.  If I were wealthy I would make a huge personal donation for this purpose!  I'm hoping I win the lottery and Valpo will get a new baseball home!

3)  Media Coverage:  work-in-progress with HLN Network.  HD upgrades and mobile equipment important improvements.  Need to broadcast more home baseball games!!!!!!!!

4)  Uniforms/Colors/Logo:  huge upgrades as discussed above.  Stay progressive in this area.

OK, I went off in a bunch of tangent directions!  Sorry about that. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

Go Valpo Crusaders!
Go Valpo Baseball!   

[valporun]

Valposter, about the baseball games being on HLN, Bauer Field doesn't have the capabilities at the current time to do this regularly. I don't know how it was done for the softball games last year, unless it was a temporary setup the HL offices travel with, but neither facility was built with internet tv broadcasting in mind. Now Media coverage for Baskeball/Football is work in progress, especially on the radio side. I have been back and forth with Todd Ickow about when WAKE has audio issues during basketball games, and he's also received texts during games from the AD about it. They are in constant contact with WAKE about this, and the station, in my opinion, seems to be doing a lot of band-aid fixes with this, rather than building a stronger system that they can do a lot better with.
Facilities, I hope they get the right attention soon, and not just a lot of design projects that never go anywhere because either the university only focuses on the parts for the revenue-generating sports, or don't aggressively get all areas focused donations (i.e. track getting the track around Brown Field). I mean if the track program had been focused on a bit more during the "failed" F.I.T.T. initiative, we would have a track around Brown Field, but the field turf and the tennis courts got most of the attention, whereas a track would have been a major revenue generator with local youth, high school, and college track meets. During the summer, every weekend could have a youth track meet there to generate a lot of good revenue, and Valpo High could use it for a major invitational, if they wanted, or the University could host a couple of invites or the HL Conference meet. A lot of money could be made there to not only help track revenue, but also to help the general athletic funds or community outreach with Relay For Life events, and other charities in the area.

[Valposter]

Valporun, I've seen other references to the track issue on other threads.  Just curious, how much would the track cost?  Also, how much annual revenue could be generated by the track?  Just trying to get an idea of the breakeven point.  Seems like a "no-brainer" though.

[valporun]

I don't have all the details on overall costs to build, but I will do some looking into it for sure. I know my high school just recently put in a new track, last done in 1997-98, but due to athletic department misuse during football and soccer seasons, it became as ugly to deal with as Eastgate would if it were rubber, instead of cement. I've heard though that costs for a new track can be as much as $750,000, if you're not looking at 8 lanes all the way around. Many high schools have 6 lanes all around, with 8-9 lanes in the main 100 meters at the home bleachers. Like I said, I'll look into it more for better details.

[bbtds]

ml
7/24/2012:

The last time the track project was priced the estimate was $1.8 million.  The track surface is only part of the cost.  The asphalt base needs to be built, there is a significant amount of site work (eg: removing the old tennis courts) and drainage needed plus landscaping.  Our plan also includes jump areas and the equipment needed for staging track meets.  We still need to raise the majority of those funds.

http://www.valpofanzone.com/forum/index.php?topic=903.0

[VULB#62]

Valporun, I've seen other references to the track issue on other threads.  Just curious, how much would the track cost?  Also, how much annual revenue could be generated by the track?  Just trying to get an idea of the breakeven point.  Seems like a "no-brainer" though.

The track will also augment the FB/Soccer playing surface and the whole Brown Field playing environment.  So the payback/break-even is not in track alone.  Just adding the track around the playing surface and finalizing the fencing and landscaping that encloses that area would greatly enhance the facilities, recruiting attractiveness and overall branding of the following:  MT&F, WT&F, MSO, WSO, FB.  That's FIVE sports benefitting directly or indirectly through ONE facility improvement.  It's a value-added no brainer IMO.  And I'm not even getting on my grandstand/press box upgrade soap box (but it would make sense to do it all in one swoop and be done with it).

[valpotx]

The baseball field is on campus for the master plan, next to the ARC.  I also said that if I won the lottery, I would contribute a new baseball facility.  In my dreams I was trying to figure out if I would require it to be named after me, even with my lackluster college statistics lol. 

[LaPorteAveApostle]

Re: the colors, I always cringe at the Garth Brooks song

"Nobody Gets Off In This Town,
their high school colors are brown"

:-/

[VULB#62]

Valporun, I've seen other references to the track issue on other threads.  Just curious, how much would the track cost?  Also, how much annual revenue could be generated by the track?  Just trying to get an idea of the breakeven point.  Seems like a "no-brainer" though.

The track will also augment the FB/Soccer playing surface and the whole Brown Field playing environment.  So the payback/break-even is not in track alone.  Just adding the track around the playing surface and finalizing the fencing and landscaping that encloses that area would greatly enhance the facilities, recruiting attractiveness and overall branding of the following:  MT&F, WT&F, MSO, WSO, FB.  That's FIVE sports benefitting directly or indirectly through ONE facility improvement.  It's a value-added no brainer IMO.  And I'm not even getting on my grandstand/press box upgrade soap box (but it would make sense to do it all in one swoop and be done with it).

Valporun you should have been all over me on this.  It's not 5 sports -- it's SEVEN.   You have to include MCC and WCC as well.  When you recruit good distance runners they invariable run both track and CC, so by having a track you can attract better quality runners for both track and CC, and with a track, CC runners have a facility in the fall to work on their off-course speed work.  I was kicking myself on this right after I wrote the initial post.      Duh, I was on the track teams that had as their core the 1963-65 Class of 2013 Hall of Fame cross country teams (LeRoy Schramm, Bill Wooden and Mile Urio -- the three main point scorers) and know how much cross-over there is on that issue.

[Valposter]

The baseball field is on campus for the master plan, next to the ARC. I also said that if I won the lottery, I would contribute a new baseball facility. In my dreams I was trying to figure out if I would require it to be named after me, even with my lackluster college statistics lol.

valpotx, I didn't think of naming rights.....but that's a great idea.  I definitely want the new baseball field named after me when I win the lottery and build it!  Maybe we can split the cost and you can have naming rights on the stadium and I can have naming rights on the field!  lol

[Valposter]

Re: the colors, I always cringe at the Garth Brooks song "Nobody Gets Off In This Town, their high school colors are brown" :-/

I've never heard this song but that's a classic line!!!!  lol

[LaPorteAveApostle]

Nobody Gets Off In This Town

good Lord.  his first album...like 20 years ago?  man, i'm much too young (to feel this damn old).

At least Garth feels worse when he sees that picture of himself (vs. now).

[vuchicago]

Great post Valposter and I agree with all of it.  I know it seems the athletic department is trying to do more of it, but I wish more videos would be posted on the athletics website such as basketball pressers and general highlights from all sports.
I am from the school that you can't sucessfully be all things to all people, so I firmly believe the investment in resources (facilities and budgets) should be made in the Valpo sports programs that are having success or reasonably positioned for success (basketball, baseball, softball, volleyball, soccer).  Maybe tennis now? 
Completely agree with this and yes tennis now!!!!!! Also like the new logo and uniforms that Nike is providing and evolving....

[valpo64]

we comment on brown being a "bad" color for uniforms but did anyone see Leheigh(spell?) play the other night?  Brown uniforms with white lettering and numbers, no third color... didn't really look bad.  Remember years ago the maroon color was taboo in uniforms but they have improved how the color now looks and it appears to be OK.  I  agree that Nike and others appear to dictate what the teams wear, color combos, etc.  I wish the schools would do more to determine which colors to use, etc.

[FWalum]

Make the brown really dark and then have an "old gold" instead of the YELLOW.    When did yellow become gold?

[valpo64]

Amen, brother FWAlum!