Niagara Named MAAC Winner of

Niagara Named MAAC Winner of "Pack the House" Challenge

Bookmark and Share

Niagara Media Relations

INDIANAPOLIS ? Niagara University was one of 32 winners in the NCAA Division I “Pack the House” Challenge. “Pack the House” is a national effort in which conferences and institutions compete to build attendance.

NCAA Division I women’s basketball marketing staffs selected a home game and designated that date as a “Pack the House” game with the goal of setting an attendance record. One winner from each of the 31 conferences and one from a group of independent institutions were named. Selections were based on marketing plan creativity and attendance criteria. The NCAA will award prizes and donate $500 to the nonprofit organization of each winning institution’s choice.

And pack the house, they did. Almost two-thirds of the Division I membership ? 184 institutions ? participated in the effort that attracted more than 559,000 fans.

Niagara hosted a sold-out crowd of 2,400 fans at its women’s basketball game on Dec. 17 versus St. Bonaventure.

Events at Auburn, Bradley, Central Michigan, Gonzaga, Marist, Memphis, Niagara, Notre Dame and Providence College produced sell-out crowds. Sixty-three other programs surpassed their single-game attendance highs from last year.

“We believe this initiative has served as a catalyst to increase attendance, create excitement and enhance exposure for our women’s basketball programs,” said NCAA Vice President of Division I Women’s Basketball Sue Donohoe. “Institution personnel committed a great deal of time, effort and resources to this program and the results were extremely positive. This program provides great ?best practices’ and examples of success for institutions that are seeking to ?grow’ women’s basketball and these success stories will continue to strengthen efforts in the future.”

The ideas to market the games were as diverse as the membership itself.

At Niagara, for example, the athletic department reached out to the local community and two elementary schools played each other in a basketball during halftime of the women’s game.

“Winning the Pack the House Challenge is a big thrill for our university,” Niagara Director of Athletics Ed McLaughlin said. “Our entire department pulled together to make the event a success and we couldn’t do it without the buy-in from the Niagara Falls community. We look forward to packing the Gallagher Center again next year.”

Winners of the 2008-09 NCAA “Pack the House” Challenge are:

CONFERENCE WINNERS

America East ? Hartford

Atlantic Coast ? Georgia Tech

Atlantic Sun ? East Tennessee State

Atlantic 10 ? Fordham

Big East ? Notre Dame

Big Sky ? Montana State

Big South ? UNC Asheville

Big Ten ? Illinois

Big 12 ? Missouri

Big West ? Long Beach State

Colonial ? VCU

Conference USA ? Marshall

Horizon ? Valparaiso

Independents ? Cal State Bakersfield

Ivy ? Columbia

Metro Atlantic ? Niagara

Mid-America ? Central Michigan

Mid-Eastern ? North Carolina A&T

Missouri Valley ? Bradley

Mountain West ? TCU

Northeast ? Mount St. Mary's

Ohio Valley ? Tennessee-Martin

Pacific-10 ? California

Patriot ? Army

Southeastern ? Auburn

Southern ? Chattanooga

Southland ? Sam Houston State

SWAC ? Jackson State

Summit ? Indiana/Purdue-Indianapolis

Sun Belt ? Arkansas-Little Rock

West Coast ? Gonzaga

WAC ? Louisiana Tech

OVERALL WINNER

Auburn University