Athletic
Department Responds
Prior to getting on a plane to attend the 2015 Final Four,
Dr. Eric Zillmer took time to respond to fan concerns outlined in yesterday’s
blog post. He led off stating that “I
think many concerns were raised, some of which may be valid and some of which
quite frankly, are not.” He went on “we’re
a family at Drexel Athletics and we bleed blue and gold just like our fans
do. Understand that sometimes family
members make mistakes, but the rest of the family will back that person up,
that’s what families do. And that’s
where maybe we have made some mistakes over the years, sometimes you want to
give family members a little extra leniency and support and in an atmosphere
that needs to be professional at the end of the day, maybe the little things
added up to some issues, some areas of concern that we can work on within our Athletics
Family.”
Reaching for an ice pack to apply to his sore knee, Zillmer
made it clear that he’s never wished to intimidate his employees into becoming “company
men” and wants to bring back a creative, free thinking atmosphere to the DAC “Really,
I want to take down the walls. Physically. Lets open this gym up and create a free
flowing atmosphere. I mean we can’t
because at the end of the day, we can’t even get air conditioning up here, but
I’m going to keep trying until I find a way.”
I looked for some clarification there, and spoke to him
about his vision for the future. He
outlined a new technology initiative to bring the Athletics Department back in
line with the rest of the University. He
insisted that he has discussed the basketball programs lack of advanced metrics,
and promised that if Coach Flint found a correct resource to add to his
coaching staff, that he would find money in the budget for that employee and
the software that he needed to bring this program to a current day competitive
level that would keep players like Damion Lee in the future. “Damion was a big wakeup call to us, it’s clear that we need a new tech initiative
in the DAC to become competitive both on the court, and off the court not just with our opponents, but also with other departments
under the Drexel umbrella.” The era of
buying five digit cost scoreboards that are unable to interact with our systems
is over, technology spending will now be about practical purposes that advance the mission of the University.
Leaning forward he also told of a new key initiative:
Former Season
Ticket Holder and Current Season Ticket Holder Retention Task Force
“On this day, I have asked our External Relations Department
to create a new position that will lead a Former Season Ticket Holder and
Current Season Ticket Holder Retention Task Force,” Zillmer excitedly said. Athletics will be hiring from an external
source from this position in an effort to show former fans that they will be
heard and taken seriously, that change will be made possible. “We’re going to
find out why there is so much anger in some fans, and we’re not going to avoid
it, but rather hit it head on and take it for the opportunity to seek
improvement that it is. I understand
that when one senior staff member apologized to you two years ago Dan, that he
did it in multiple fonts, which just wasn't right, you could not even be sure which
parts had been written by the staff member and which were cut and pasted from another source.
That won’t be considered acceptable outreach anymore, and you will have
a much better experience right off the bat.”
"Often when there are complaints from fans its due to their
lack of knowledge with what we do in athletics and we can work on that as
well." This new position won’t be created
just to hear complaints, but he or she will assist in troubleshooting them,
help clarify and ensure that communication that has been lacking in the past is
no longer an issue. “I’d prefer to over-communicate
to our loyal supporters than under, and we don’t play favorites. We want to hear fans compliments, but we also
know there will be bumps and we need to hear them, and respond to them completely
and professionally to keep our strong relationship with our fans. We know there
has been some damage done to some relationships in the past, but we think we
can make that right, and that it will lead to our goal of a 50% increase in
season ticket holder accounts by the start of the 16-17 men’s basketball season,
a goal that our External Relations department will be held accountable for,
because while we have a family atmosphere here in Athletics, we also understand
that we are professionals.”
Lastly, when talking about the coaching staff of the Men’s
Basketball program, Dr. Zillmer gave a full vote of confidence, but also made it
clear that with only two years left in his deal, accountability will be felt
here as well. He spoke of the exciting
transfers that the school has coming in and that there is an expectation for a
competitive team despite the loss of Damion Lee. He reviewed the data on three guard
production that had been produced on the Dragons Speak blog, and spoke of his disappointment
in front court production in the last few years. “As an Athletic Director, the best thing I
can do for Bru is provide support and autonomy.
So I am not going to step in and tell him how to do his job, that’s not
fair for him or any coach. I did outline
the problems that were backed up by math and ask him to see if there was a way
to address them, and we will see how he does as he continues to improve the
product on the floor.” He ended with “We’re
going to make things right, we’re going to Pack the DAC, and we are going to be
transparent, adaptive, and forward looking to our supporters. Status quo is never something that we have
found acceptable, and I find it very upsetting that you would describe this
program in those words. We can and must
do better to meet the expectations of our fans and the Board of Trustees. When they give a coach almost a half a
million dollars, they expect results too, it’s not just the fans.
Standing up, with the interview over, we shook hands, and
I pledged to be the first supporter to donate to the task force.
Happy April Fools Day everyone.
Happy April Fools Day everyone.
