1. Students at Virginia Tech (a mostly male institution) care much more about baseball than softball (VT Baseball has its own student section, the Dugout Degenerates), men's basketball over women's basketball, etc., even when women's teams are more successful than their male counterparts.

2. The home games that have been played this season were either A) during Spring Break or B) in the freezing cold. Timing hasn't been ideal for students so far either. I understand building RPI through neutral site and away games, but at some point you have to play high-quality home games to generate excitement and momentum from the folks that are right in your backyard. If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? If Virginia Tech Softball is having an excellent season but plays very few games in Blacksburg...

3. Population in the New River Valley and Southwest Virginia is an aging one, and more popular marketing efforts nowadays (Instagram and TikTok) don't reach those folks because they're not on those platforms. I even mentioned on this board when VT Softball took over the NCAA Softball Instagram account before the ETSU game, and that post received no engagement (guessing the demographic on this board is older, which partly proves my point). There are also very few clubs in the area to bring young girls and their families to games, and it helps to have the next wave see their idols playing in right front of them.

4. VT Softball and Athletics as a whole does very little to promote its players, IMHO. It would also be helpful for Coach D'Amour to do more regular media appearances.

5. Sort of going back to #3 and #4 -- take a look at social media follower counts for Alabama's players and how popular that program is locally, regionally, and nationally. Montana Fouts (171,000 on TikTok, 133,000 on Instagram), Ally Shipman (20,000 on TikTok, 12,000 on Instagram), Ashley Prange (42,000 on TikTok, 11,000 on Instagram), Jenna Johnson (40,000 on Instagram). Peyton St. George at Duke has an NIL deal with the Durham Bulls and 45,000 followers on TikTok. People know the top softball athletes at other schools. At VT, Jayme Bailey is probably the most well-known on social media with her 5,000 TikTok followers. It just doesn't even compare. If you don't KNOW the players (or at least have a perception of them through their presence online or in the media, you'll be less invested in their success.



[Post edited by hokiehigh2000 at 03/28/2022 5:42PM]