State schools turn to fan cutouts

Perhaps the idea was being formulated around the time that Adam Duvall’s homer was landing on the cardboard cutout of New York Mets All-Star Jeff McNeil’s dog or while chuckling while seeing the image of Chipper Jones in the stands at a Mets home game. However, the proverbial light bulb went off, get ready for plenty of cardboard cutouts at Fairfield and Sacred Heart home games this winter.

Fairfield announced fans can have cutouts of themselves, a family member, or a pet in the stands for basketball games at Alumni Hall. Expect a similar announcement from Sacred Heart perhaps as early as this week. There have been discussions of a similar program at Quinnipiac while Hartford recently announced a cutout promotion.

“As a marketing staff, we are constantly looking for creative ways to engage our fans and it a normal environment or in a COVID environment, we are always asking what can we do to engage our fanbase,” Fairfield Deputy Director of Athletics Zach Dayton said. “The cutouts have been displayed at Major League Baseball games, college football games and it has been adopted for several college basketball programs for the upcoming season. Once the MAAC Council of Presidents voted that it would not be fans in the stands at least until

Dec. 23, we heard from our fanbase who said we have a lot of loyal fans who want to be counted, we still want to represent Fairfield even if we can’t be there, what are creative ways we can do that? The cutout program is one way to do that.”

Cutouts start at $ 60 and the program has been rather well-received since the MAAC announced that no fans will be at conference games before Dec. 23.

“I have gotten a lot of texts, emails, phone calls, ‘hey, I am in for five, I am in for seven, I am in for 10 cutouts,’” Dayton said.

“The numbers are starting to trickle in.”

Fans who purchase at least four cutouts will be part of the Virtual Red Sea video played as part of the fan zone during the television or online broadcast. Those who purchase at least 10 cutouts will be featured on the broadcast.

The details on Sacred Heart’s cutout program have yet to be officially announced, but Michael Smoose, the director of athletic communications and marketing for the Pioneers, is excited to see the cardboard cutouts at Sacred Heart basketball and hockey home games.

“Baseball was the first time I saw it happen and it just picked up steam with college games,” Smoose said. “It is kind of happening all over the place so I thought it would be a good idea to give a little bit of a game environment for our student- athletes. It is in a prominent spot so if you are watching the broadcast, you see the faces. We put our students under the basket [at the Pitt Center] and they would be there for a normal home game. I know it won’t be the same as having the fans but it was something we thought of.”

Universities like Fairfield, Quinnipiac, and Sacred Heart will be losing the opportunity to raise funds by having fans at home games at least through the end of the fall semester. That means losses not only in ticket revenue and concessions but also in game-day promotions negotiated with sponsors. The athletic marketing departments have been working behind the scenes to make the best out of a difficult situation.

“It is really trying to provide an experience for our student- athletes but also for our fan base, what else can we do?” Smoose said. “If we had a normal home game, don’t have that inventory (losing promotional opportunities through sponsors), what can we go with our broadcasts? Our plan is to broadcast all of our home basketball and hockey games online. How can we enhance the broadcast, what can we do for our fans?”

Fairfield had to change the timeline of the new basketball facility being completed due to COVID-19 and mass gathering restrictions in the state. There won’t be much time for Alumni Hall to be the Stags’ home court but even without fans in the stands, the Stags marketing department is working to make these events as memorable as possible for the players and those watching from afar.

“Our marketing team prides itself on creating engaging marketing plans in a regular environment because there are seats to sell so we try to put a wellrounded marketing plan, an aggressive advertising strategy in place to put fans in seats in normal environments,” Dayton said. “In a COVID environment, we want to harness that enthusiasm that fans have for Fairfield Stags basketball and produce fan engagement opportunities. To me, it is just a different puzzle to solve and our team has done a really good job working for months on it trying to find new ways to engage fans. Our fans will see that through experiences like cutouts, they will see it through the efforts in our broadcast, they will see it through, we are going to do a number of creative [promotions] on social media. If you are watching the game on ESPN but also are following along on your phone, it is a unique, engaging experience that is exciting so it is our job to provide that experience for our fans during these current circumstances.”