National Collegiate Athletic Association

The NCAA News - News and Features

February 24, 1997

NCAA fan festivals set to begin in 1998

Beginning in 1998, the NCAA will administer "fan festivals" at the Division I Men's and Women's Basketball Championships.

The National Association of Basketball Coaches has administered a "Fan Jam" at the Men's Final Four since 1993 and will conduct one this year in Indianapolis. For next year's event in San Antonio, however, the NCAA and the NABC have agreed to transfer administration of the men's fan festival to the NCAA.

"The NABC did an outstanding job in establishing 'Fan Jam,' said NCAA Deputy Executive Director Thomas W. Jernstedt. "They established a solid foundation for this event, and it is our goal to enhance this activity in the future."

The NCAA's desire to administer the fan festivals was the result of the conclusions of the Special Committee to Study NCAA Marketing, Licensing and Promotional Activities, which determined that the Association should become more aggressively involved in marketing college sports.

"The fan festivals present us with an excellent opportunity to promote basketball and to be more aggressive in our marketing," Jernstedt said.

For instance, Jernstedt noted that NCAA corporate partnerships may be made more attractive as a result of Association administration of the fan festivals. Benefits that cannot be provided at the game site, such as signage, will be available in the high-visibility fan-festival setting.

The NCAA compensated the NABC for the acquisition of its "Fan Jam," providing the coaches association with $1 million, as authorized at the August 1996 meeting of the NCAA Executive Committee. In return, the NABC agreed that its coaches will continue to participate in youth clinics at the Final Four sites and that the coaches association will make every effort to make prominent coaches available for the fan festival.

In addition, as part of the agreement, the NABC will join the NCAA and other groups in forming a national marketing and promotional enterprise for college basketball similar to the NCAA College Football USA program that was announced February 13 (see the February 17 issue of The NCAA News). No timetable has been established yet for that effort.

As for the Women's Final Four, the first NCAA fan festival will be conducted at the 1998 event in Kansas City, Missouri. It will be the first fan festival associated with the women's championship.

"I think it's a wonderful idea for the NCAA to become involved in the fan festivals," said Jean Lenti Ponsetto, senior associate director of athletics at DePaul University and chair of the Division I Women's Basketball Committee.

"It will give the fans an opportunity to connect with the fans, student-athletes and coaches and with women's basketball in general. And it's great from both sides because the players and coaches will have more chances to interact with the fans."

Ponsetto also noted the marketing advantages.

"This is another way to help market women's basketball across the country," she said.

"So many of those who attend the Women's Final Four come from other parts of the country," she said. "We hope that this will be another way to create excitement in women's basketball so that they will go back and build interest in their locales."

Jernstedt said that the NCAA may conduct similar events at other championships sometime in the future, but that for the moment only basketball is involved. Partly as a result of the development of the fan festivals, changes have been announced on the NCAA staff. Will Rudd, formerly director of the Hall of Champions, has been named to the new position of director of special events (he will continue to oversee the Hall of Champions). Two assistant director of special events positions also have been created to administer the fan festivals.