Josh Hirsch: The real issue facing Penn Athletics

This was no ordinary women's tennis match. About 100 cheering fans were holding or wearing free T-shirts and eating pizza as Penn battled Princeton Saturday afternoon at Lott Courts.

Michael Dowd's team went out of its way to set up and market this event, publicizing it on Locust Walk, and spending mostly its own money to make it happen.

Dowd and his players undoubtedly viewed the event as a success, and it would be hard to argue with them.

"We knew how important a match this was and we all got excited," senior Ashley Lostritto said. "We organized all this to get a lot of people out here. It definitely worked. Having the crowd behind us always helps."

Fueled in part by the support, the Quakers beat the Tigers, 5-2.

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Two weeks ago, I la mented Penn's marketing efforts and the famous confusion with Penn State in this space. For that column, I did not have time to get the administration's reaction to some of the things I saw during the NCAA Tournament.

This time the responses were very interesting.

First, I spoke to Brian Head, who essentially runs athletics marketing for Penn.

He disputed my assertion that there are no real "Penn fans" who have no affiliation with the University. He cited community days for football games - where tickets are marketed to Philadelphians - as one example of this.

He also cited a new online store for Penn Athletics merchandise, which he said has been successful.

These are commendable efforts, but Head acknowledged that it's still difficult to differentiate between Penn and Penn State. Mike Mahoney, who is the director of Penn Athletics' communications department, has received phone calls from high schoolers who are looking to play one sport or another for the Nittany Lions.

One of Penn Athletics' main problems is that it doesn't get a lot of support from the University.

According to Ilene Wilder, director of marketing and business development for the Penn Business Services Department, Penn Athletics does its own marketing work, with the occasional collaboration on Penn bookstore items or special projects.

Rhea Lewis, director of external relations for the Business Services Department, described the relationship best.

"There's one group that's marketing Penn athletics, and that's Penn Athletics," she said.

Lori Doyle, the vice president for University communications, agreed that Penn Athletics gets only occasional support and oversight from the rest of the University.

"Penn's very decentralized," she said.

She also pointed out that Penn as a university does not really need to market itself to outsiders - just like every other Ivy League school. This year saw Penn's most selective entering class ever; clearly, people know what Penn is.

"No one feels that there is a pressing need because we're doing so well," Doyle said.

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Does the administration just not care as much as me and other sports fans do? Maybe.

But even if the Athletic department is blazing the trail on its own, I still think that more can be done.

The tennis program from Saturday, which Head was "ecstatic about" when he was told about the initiative, is one great example. There's no reason every team cannot hold this kind of event once a season. Maybe the Athletic department can even kick in some money for it.

From what I've seen in his first year here, Head does a good job marketing the Athletic department. But with 33 varsity teams and a small staff, he can't make miracles.

Penn should hire another person or two to think of ways to broadly grow the athletics brand and not focus on just getting people to come to next week's game and what promotions will be run at the Palestra.

Athletic marketing does not need to be a major priority for a top-10 university. But the school should help Head a bit more.

More students at matches could lead to a greater spirit and more publicity to the athletic department and the school. And all of these things can only be positives for what I think is one of the weaker aspects of Penn.

Josh Hirsch is a senior Urban Studies major from Roslyn, N.Y., and is former Senior Sports Editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. His e-mail address is jjhirsch@sas.upenn.edu.

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