How about SALUKI Way?

Our team's topic is Saluki Way. As SIU decided to construct a new football stadium, they need lots of money for new stadium. And some of taxes from Carbondale residents' will be used for Saluki Way. SIUC believe that new football stadium can make good image not only for SIU but also for the city of Carbondale because in America, football is one of most popular sports and many people have lots of memorable moments with foot ball. However, not every person likes football and they do not want to use their money for new stadium. Therefore our team wants to figure out how many people support this project and what they think about this project. We focus on Carbondale residents' feeling about this issue. After surveying we found out some result.

First of all, most respondents watched Saluki games at least one more time per year and about 50% of people have watched regularly. Interesting result is that there are some people who do not know how to play foot ball but they watched with their friends because it is kind of play culture. Second, 64% of respondents do not support increasing the sales tax for Saluki Way. Some of respondents said that it is not for Carbondale but just for SIU. Even if they like to watch Saluki football, they thought that new stadium cannot make good image for Carbondale. Third, all respondents believe that advertise a good educational system is most efficient marketing strategy. However they prefer using football team to using commercials with famous people who are from SIUC. Finally, most people who are not SIUC students but Carbondale residents are not interested in Saluki Way. Therefore I asked them what football is in their life. Most of them responded that even if they watched football game regularly, most of them had not played football and some of them did not know how to play. They responded that football is a kind of play culture.

I am very interested in this issue because I would like to study Sport management in here. Therefore Saluki way project is directly related with my major. As a result, it is difficult to figure out some meaningful result from this issue because a number of people who did survey is too small and we are not professional researchers so I disappointed a little about our survey. Actually I want to know how university sports teams can make a good image for the university because I am interested in sport marketing so during the survey, I asked some questions to them. And I found some interesting responses. Most of them have not played football and they do not want to play football game because they thought it is too dangerous. They do not enjoy just football but enjoy atmosphere from watching foot ball with their friends. This is a kind of culture. Using cultural characteristic is one of most powerful marketing strategies because sometimes people's behavior is controlled by culture more than law. In my opinion, I am sure that sports team in university can be a good strategy for marketing. Therefore I support Saluki project. However if SIUC wants to make money for Saluki way from Carbondale residents, they have to make more strong feeling that Saluki is symbol of Carbondale. I mean, SIUC has to make some culture related with Saluki football team. I think that is point whether Saluki project can succeed or not.

By Young ho Park