This question comes from last night’s abbreviated #bhamchat on Twitter. The focus of the conversation was on the amount of coverage that local college sports teams (read NOT Alabama or Auburn) get in Birmingham, AL. It was part of a response received from one of the participants that wondered if local teams made themselves visible enough in the community. Even though it’s football season the question applies to all of the sports that take the field.
What do you think? Do you have any examples to share?
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Can’t say I’ve noticed much visibility except through UAB billboard ads.
What kind of “visibility” we talkin’ ’bout? While attending Auburn I didn’t notice much outreach to the community off campus either — not that they really needed to, as the city of Auburn revolves around the campus. As for charitable efforts, there is the annual competitive food drive between UA and AU. But I can’t say the teams play much of a role in that, compared to the rest of campus.
So what would “community visibility” by the Blazers or Golden Bears or whoever look like? I don’t think the players need another distraction from the classroom. What should the staff be doing?
I don’t know who else does community work (I suspect there are more), but Ali Sharrief does his part:
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20080504/NEWS/805040353?Title=TINA-MILLER-True-hero-Ali-Sharrief-reaches-out-to-help-fourth-grade-boys
I’m guessing that we’re talking about community engagement. Personally I’m not sure that we’re as aware as I thought we’d be here in town. It’s not an issue specific to Birmingham or the state of Alabama. It does make me wonder what drives the awareness and what it would take to get as strong or rabid an awareness among folks about these other schools in the city. Or maybe it’s already happening.
Thanks for the link as it shows what the big schools are doing. What we were hoping for though was examples of athletes at Birmingham Southern, Miles, Samford or UAB since they’re the local schools for Birmingham.