OPINION: MARKETING IN FIELD HOCKEY MAKES A DIFFERENCE

By Al Mattei

Founder, TopOfTheCircle.com

In an old oaken room inside Wightman Hall at the University of Pennsylvania hung the same blue background banner used for basketball, football, and every other kind of press conference at NCAA championships.

The banner is meant as a backdrop, so that any video camers, shooting at the pre-tournament press conference before the 1998 Final Four, could not help shooting the big letters "NCAA" behind the interview subject.

Then again, the good folks of the NCAA field hockey committee needn't have bothered; as has been the case since 1996, there has been no television coverage of the NCAA Final Four.

If there had been game coverage of the 1998 Final Four, people across the country would have seen the goalkeeping of Connecticut's Danielle Vile, the skill of Old Dominion's Marina DiGiacomo, the courage of Princeton's Molly O'Malley, and the speed of Virginia's Michelle and Lorraine Vizzuso.

But the only witnesses were the fans who huddled under the overhang at Franklin Field to watch the superb action on the field.

"This is an awesome facility," says Nancy Stevens, the coach at Connecticut. "While we have a dedicated field hockey stadium, it seats 2,000. This is a big place."

Part of what the NCAA did right in 1998 was to put the Final Four in Philadelphia, the former home of USA Field Hockey and the ancestral home of the American game.

"It's a great opportunity for the sport to be showcased," says Old Dominion head coach and Team USA veteran Beth Anders. "Anytime we can get field hockey in the media, so that young girls can see it, is a chance for the sport to grow."

It is in the midst of the best scholatic hockey in the United States, many of the best programs in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware are within an hour's drive of the Penn campus.

"There are a lot of high schools around this area that are going to come to this location," says Virginia head coach Missy Sanders. "In this area, you find a lot of great hockey players, and a lot of enthusiasm for the sport, not only in Pennsylvania, but New Jersey. You don't find that anywhere else except for this area."

"I think it would be great to hold it here every year," Stevens said. "They're expecting record crowds, and it's a bit more temperate climate, and I think it's better for the game. I'm wondering what the Friday evening format (for the semifinals) will do. We've done Friday afternoon, and we can't get any people. Having two night games, we'll probably have a bigger crowd, and that's great exposure for the sport."

However, the 1999 field hockey championships will return to northern New England, where it has been for much of this decade. And, with the USFHA in the midst of a coaching change in a key year for Team USA, a lot of the focus in the field hockey community is not focused on selling itself.

"There are a lot of people out there who are great media and marketing people who we need to tap into," Anders said.

And television, according to Stevens, is a part of the future of the game's growth.

"Sometime ago, the NCAA had a contract with ESPN, and part of the contract was that field hockey would be televised," she says. "It would be great if we could get that back."

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