2008 Woodie Awards
Flame Forum
Mailbag edition
Issue date: 2/25/08 Section: Sports
Bill Bavirsha may be better known as "the guy in the Sparky suit." His letter is a response to our article "Putting the Lame in Flame" from earlier this month.
At first I didn't feel that the article wrote in The Flame two weeks ago needed any sort of rebuttal. It was an opinionated piece without any factual support expressing the views of one or a few students on campus. I admire you for taking the time to share your feelings. I only wish more students were that dedicated to UIC Athletics.
While this was my first impression, it became clear to me after about 100 messages from various Dragon supporters around campus that maybe I should say something. Many of these messages were just words of encouragement telling me to ignore the article from the paper; mostly stating "this guy doesn't speak for us" type of stuff. There were some, however, that were just as passionate for the current Dragon costume as you are against it. It was after all this I decided to share some of the history of the Dragon costume so people realize why it is the way it is.
The current costume has been a work in progress for many years, constantly changing as time goes on. It has seen many changes in an attempt to not only meet the expectations of the students, faculty and staff, but also the expectations of donors, sponsors, and most of all, kids. There have been scary T-Rex dragons with glitter suits, Athletic Dragons with muscle suits, mean dragons, skinny dragons, fat dragons, ones with long tails, ones with short tails and, yes, even at one time a dragon that wore shorts!
No matter what changes that were done, there were always critics expressing their views. I remember one time that a student trustee was so convinced that the University needed a fierce athletic dragon with wings that he allocated some of his budget to coming up with the logo and changing the costume. So we did and it was a huge flop!
Kids ran away crying, sponsors would ask for cheer and dance but not the dragon at their events, and students on campus couldn't really care less about the new logo or the new costume. Therefore, Athletics decided to pick a costume that was most appealing to the masses.
This was not because we didn't value the opinions of the students, quite the opposite. We found that the bulk of the attendees at UIC Basketball games were kids and when kids were happy, it made their parents happy, sponsors were happy, everyone enjoyed the games and thus came back more often for repeat visits. It was win-win for everyone.
While I am sure no direct correlation can be drawn between the costume and UIC's success, one can make the argument that it adds to the overall value. Athletics bills men's and women's basketball games as family entertainment, and a fan-friendly costume is a big part of that.
You made mention in your article about one of the bookstore employees working at the Pavilion and his/her eyewitness account of a kid disappointed in the Dragon logo on an available shirt. I am not so sure this account was a case of the character costume being lame but rather the Dragon logo being lame.
Personally I know a lot of people that don't care for that logo, me being one, but it is what the campus has copyrighted so that's what they use. Athletics is the process of working on a marketing and merchandise agreement where eventually we hope to change this logo along with many other things. Like most things here at the campus it takes time to get things changed. This is something we are committed to and your reference just adds fuel to our cause.
There is something to be said about the energy and excitement of a sporting event. It takes an intricate web of branding, marketing, promotions, sponsors and product to be successful. While a mascot adds to all this, it is by no means the one and only attraction.
Fans are the key component into making the event what it is. They support the team; they tell us what we are doing right and what we are doing wrong. They make the decisions for the future. No fans, No future!
Now I am not saying UIC Athletics has no future, but if you analyze our crowd at the games, you find the UIC students are a very small percentage of the fan base. This is sad; maybe you can do a feature piece on this in The Flame. Athletics has been trying to answer this question for years. I know we are a big commuter school and such, but there is no reason we can't draw better. We have the worst student attendance at our games in the Horizon League, and I seriously doubt the mascot is the reason for this.
As I stated earlier, fans make the decisions and if the bulk of our fans were UIC students and they wanted a different mascot, I am sure the Athletic department would look into it. Until that time, UIC's mascot is what it is.
?Bill Bavirsha
At first I didn't feel that the article wrote in The Flame two weeks ago needed any sort of rebuttal. It was an opinionated piece without any factual support expressing the views of one or a few students on campus. I admire you for taking the time to share your feelings. I only wish more students were that dedicated to UIC Athletics.
While this was my first impression, it became clear to me after about 100 messages from various Dragon supporters around campus that maybe I should say something. Many of these messages were just words of encouragement telling me to ignore the article from the paper; mostly stating "this guy doesn't speak for us" type of stuff. There were some, however, that were just as passionate for the current Dragon costume as you are against it. It was after all this I decided to share some of the history of the Dragon costume so people realize why it is the way it is.
The current costume has been a work in progress for many years, constantly changing as time goes on. It has seen many changes in an attempt to not only meet the expectations of the students, faculty and staff, but also the expectations of donors, sponsors, and most of all, kids. There have been scary T-Rex dragons with glitter suits, Athletic Dragons with muscle suits, mean dragons, skinny dragons, fat dragons, ones with long tails, ones with short tails and, yes, even at one time a dragon that wore shorts!
No matter what changes that were done, there were always critics expressing their views. I remember one time that a student trustee was so convinced that the University needed a fierce athletic dragon with wings that he allocated some of his budget to coming up with the logo and changing the costume. So we did and it was a huge flop!
Kids ran away crying, sponsors would ask for cheer and dance but not the dragon at their events, and students on campus couldn't really care less about the new logo or the new costume. Therefore, Athletics decided to pick a costume that was most appealing to the masses.
This was not because we didn't value the opinions of the students, quite the opposite. We found that the bulk of the attendees at UIC Basketball games were kids and when kids were happy, it made their parents happy, sponsors were happy, everyone enjoyed the games and thus came back more often for repeat visits. It was win-win for everyone.
While I am sure no direct correlation can be drawn between the costume and UIC's success, one can make the argument that it adds to the overall value. Athletics bills men's and women's basketball games as family entertainment, and a fan-friendly costume is a big part of that.
You made mention in your article about one of the bookstore employees working at the Pavilion and his/her eyewitness account of a kid disappointed in the Dragon logo on an available shirt. I am not so sure this account was a case of the character costume being lame but rather the Dragon logo being lame.
Personally I know a lot of people that don't care for that logo, me being one, but it is what the campus has copyrighted so that's what they use. Athletics is the process of working on a marketing and merchandise agreement where eventually we hope to change this logo along with many other things. Like most things here at the campus it takes time to get things changed. This is something we are committed to and your reference just adds fuel to our cause.
There is something to be said about the energy and excitement of a sporting event. It takes an intricate web of branding, marketing, promotions, sponsors and product to be successful. While a mascot adds to all this, it is by no means the one and only attraction.
Fans are the key component into making the event what it is. They support the team; they tell us what we are doing right and what we are doing wrong. They make the decisions for the future. No fans, No future!
Now I am not saying UIC Athletics has no future, but if you analyze our crowd at the games, you find the UIC students are a very small percentage of the fan base. This is sad; maybe you can do a feature piece on this in The Flame. Athletics has been trying to answer this question for years. I know we are a big commuter school and such, but there is no reason we can't draw better. We have the worst student attendance at our games in the Horizon League, and I seriously doubt the mascot is the reason for this.
As I stated earlier, fans make the decisions and if the bulk of our fans were UIC students and they wanted a different mascot, I am sure the Athletic department would look into it. Until that time, UIC's mascot is what it is.
?Bill Bavirsha
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