University of Akron students are being lured to athletic events with rewards including airline tickets, gift certificates and spirit wear. Students can accrue points - with more awarded for lower-profile sports - and qualify for prizes under ROO-Wards, which began this fall.
View full sizeThe University of Akron is using a "ROO-Wards" program to try and entice students to attend more sporting events at the downtown campus.AKRON, Ohio -- University of Akron students are being lured to athletic events with rewards including airline tickets, gift certificates and spirit wear.
Students can accrue points -- with more awarded for less popular sports -- and qualify for prizes under Roo-Wards, which began this fall. (The program's name is a nod to the university's mascot, a kangaroo named Zippy.)
Even though students are admitted free to all home athletic events, it is hard for a university that primarily has commuter students to entice them to attend, said Kevin Aha, assistant director for marketing in the athletic department. Of the university's 29,250 students, about 3,200 live in residence halls and 7,000 live near campus, officials said.
"We were looking for a way to increase student attendance at all our events," Aha said. "We want to get the kids who are casual fans and go to two or three events to go to eight or 10."
Many universities have promotions at sports events, such as offering T-shirts to the first 100 fans or discounts on food, but a number also have rewards programs, Aha said. His office studied several, including Eagle Nation Rewards at Eastern Michigan University and the University of Kansas Rock Chalk Rewards to create Roo-Wards.
Students accrue points by swiping their student IDs at the sport's venue. They get five points for football, men's soccer and men's basketball; 10 points for baseball, women's soccer, volleyball, basketball and softball; and 15 points (awarded only once for each sport) for men's and women's cross country, golf, track and field, tennis, swimming and diving and rifle.
At various point levels, beginning at 15, students get prizes, such as water bottles, gym bags and sweatshirts. At 200 points and above, students earn chances in a raffle for two airline tickets.
Awards, including lunch with coaches and an iPod Touch, will be given to top point-holders at specific times of the year. At the end of the school year, the student with the most points wins two airline tickets. Second and third prizes are gift certificates.
The athletic budget is covering the cost of prizes this year, but sponsors will be sought for future years, Aha said.
The promotion seems to be working because more than 6,000 students have attended at least one event through early October, he said.
"That is almost a quarter of all the students on campus, so I feel like it is doing something," Aha said. "We had a student crowd of 400 at a volleyball match and 300 at women's soccer. I think the rewards had a little to do with it."
While the department has no comparisons to prior years, it appears many events are drawing more fans, he said.
The student race for points is tight.
Anthony Fosselman and Joseph Hess are in first place, tied at 145 points. Two other students have 135.
Fosselman and Hess are in the AK Rowdies Fan Club, a student organization whose members attend football, basketball and soccer games. Both live near campus.
Fosselman, 20, a sophomore from North Canton, said the rewards program provides motivation to go to more sports events. As a result, he has watched cross-country and more women's sports competitions.
"You can cheer the sports that are not as recognized," he said.
Hess, 20, said that he has always been a sports fan but that the prospect of winning airline tickets has led him to new events, such as cross-country.
The junior from Ashland also plans to check out the rifle team -- which he said he didn't know existed until he saw it on the Roo-Wards list.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: kfarkas@plaind.com, 216-999-5079