Scott Woodward unplugged: A wide-ranging Q and A with LSU's new AD
DESTIN, Fla. – New LSU athletic director Scott Woodward took a break between meetings Wednesday morning to speak with the media here during the annual SEC spring business meetings at the Sandestin Beach Hilton.
In a 20-minute interview, which was longer than all the time previous LSU athletic director Joe Alleva spoke here combined in his 11 years in office, former Texas A&M AD and Baton Rouge native Woodward addressed everything from his reaction of LSU basketball coach Will Wade’s Tuesday press conference to improving fan experience in Tiger Stadium to improving football scheduling.
Here’s the Q and A:
On Will Wade
Q: Whose decision was it for Will Wade to address the media yesterday?
Woodward: “It’s his choice, he wanted to do it, felt like it was best to do it that way instead of 1-on-1. We supported him on that.”
Q: Will said he needed to build some trust with you. How do you describe your relationship?
Woodward: “So far, so good. Will is a very affable guy, the student-athletes really like him. Obviously, the fan base really likes him. He’s done a nice job. Our initial meetings were very good and very positive.”
Q: When do you expect LSU to make a substantive response to the questions will didn’t answer yesterday?
Woodward: “We’ll see. When the facts change, minds change. But it is what it is. We have to do things with fairness and due process and make sure we don’t jump to any crazy conclusions. We’ll watch and see.”
On alcohol and gambling
Q: Where is the SEC in the discussion of allowing the selling of alcohol? How far has that ball been pushed up the hill to point where it will happen?
Woodward: “I think it will, but that a discussion the CEOs (presidents and chancellors) will have. It’s out of our hands as far as the athletic directors go. They’ll decide what they will decide, and you’ll see in the next game or two. I’m hoping from LSU’s standpoint we get a liberalization of the policy that we can serve it to our fans?
Dwindling football attendance throughout the SEC
Q: Is the approval or alcohol sales or scheduling more attractive games or lower ticket prices the answer to reducing the empty seats?
Woodward: “It’s all the above and you can keep going, how we engage the younger fans, how we embrace gambling, whether we stick our heads in the sand or focus on regulating in property, but letting our fans engage in it. It’s obviously a draw and you’re naïve to think it isn’t.”
What is the reaction of the approval of gambling in Louisiana failing in the state house committee Tuesday?
Woodward: “Being a former expert in that field, it’s one of those things that you always have multiple years for things to happen in the legislative process. I wouldn’t take it as they don’t have an appetite for it. I just think all the interests and all the parties have to decide what that it. Hopefully, we’ll have a little voice in the regulatory piece, that there is proper funding to make sure that it’s done with integrity. There’s not undue influence on our kids or our staff or anyone else. I want to make sure it’s properly regulated. I want to have that discussion going forward.”
On improving fan experience
Q: Has football ticket prices reaching a tipping point for the average fan? Is there a certain point where those fans can’t afford it and they simply sit at home and watch it on TV?
Woodward: “I think you're seeing it in a lot of ways, yes. The answer is yes. There could be a tipping point. What it is, I don't know. I don't think it's that way in the premium seating right now. I think there's a very good appetite for that in multiple places I've been, but yeah, for the average fan, we have to start thinking about it. We have to start thinking about how we engage them and get them to come back because you can't feel and experience that thing in your living room.
“At A&M you can't saw Varsity's horns off and at LSU, you can't hold that Tiger. That's what gives you goosebumps. That's what kept me coming back and that's what excited me every time I did it. You just have to let that next generation of fan experience that. It's an important thing. Hey, we focus on the small incremental stuff. The sport is enormously popular. The viewership's off the charts in the ratings of television. And there is issue of erosion at the gate a little bit because I think television is so good. There are things we're going to have to address and do to really change the way we look and engage that new generation of fan."
Is there a thought into looking into expanding premium seating?
Woodward: "You know, I don't know about that, but I think you see it everywhere that there is growth in that area and there is demand and everyone has waiting lists, but we'll see. That's part of it."
Is there a long-term concern of younger fans not attending games?
Woodward: "There's concern for the live gate, but I still think they're consuming it in other ways. Whether it be on their PDAs or whether it be at home or wherever they're consuming it, they're consuming it. It's a good feeling. The place I just left, 36,000 students, give me a break. They're consuming it. Out of a student population of about 65,000 students, they're going. They're leaving early and doing things that other generations didn't do, but you can't expect the way I consumed it, which, you get there a half hour to 45 minutes early, you buy a program, you buy a bag of peanuts, you drink a Coke, you consume the game, you get ready. And, you know, that's all you needed. Pat you on the butt after you leave, and you had a great time. And it was.
“They don't do it that way (now). They want to engage with what and how they're doing it and with iPhones and Galaxys and however they're doing it and they want to do different stuff. We have to figure that out. My favorite model is, the way the Phoenix Open did it in golf. The fashion show became more popular than the golf event. And we may have to do stuff like that to draw fans and different types of fans in there. It's a way to think creatively about it."
Do you have any ideas how to improve traffic at home football games?
Woodward: “That’s like splitting the atom. I’m leaving the best place for (game) traffic and going to the worst place. A&M has multiple state highways and multiple ways out. We have a river blocking us, so we’ve got to be part of a solution with the city and state. It’s a long-term deal and I’ve got to get in there and make my case.
“It’s a huge issue for attendance. People want to leave early, get out of that traffic. They don’t want to stay in traffic an hour after the game. I get that. It’s something I’m going to pay attention to, but there’s no magic solution.”
On football scheduling
Visiting attendance has dropped, so how can that be solved?
Woodward: “I think people, and that gets into scheduling, when you go to the same places year in, year out, people want to see new stuff. Here again, Ben witnessed it when I was at A&M, when new fans would rotate in meaning Kentucky or someone new from the east or we'd go to a new place, there was an enormous amount of popularity because it was new, and it was different. I don't think they want to continue going to Starkville and Tuscaloosa and Columbia every year from an A&M standpoint. I think that's a lot of it. That's a discussion we'll have as far as the future goes in scheduling."
With the scheduling and cross-divisional opponents, what do you hope to accomplish at trying to chip away that?
Woodward: "For me it's a two-step process. The first step is, here again I'm very cautious because it's worked from a championship standpoint, there's a reason we're the best conference in America. Scheduling probably has a lot to do with it. I don't want to screw that up. But, and there's a big but in there, it's, is it fair for our student athletes for them not to know places in the SEC East? I don't think so. I think it's good that they get to know Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Georgia and go to these places. I like more of a mix and a variety, but we'll have those discussions and we'll have them intelligently, not only with our colleagues in the room, but with media partners and with the conference."
Could changing things up could help with the attendance?
Woodward: "No question. That's why we're having those discussions. If we thought everything was fine, we wouldn't be having those discussions. We'd leave it as is."
Facilities and personnel
How much time have you spent assessing facilities at LSU?
Woodward: “Pretty impressive. They’ve done a lot since I’ve been there. People forget it has been 15 years since I’ve worked at LSU. I had to go under-the-hood pretty good. It’s impressive. There’re some things to do.
“But like at Texas A&M, my focus is going to be raising money for human capital. I think it’s important you get the right coaches and the right staff and the right people to support these student-athletes in a good way.
“The elite programs are starting to endow coaching positions, the Michigans and Stanfords of the world are doing that. I think that’s where need to pivot to.”
How do you measure success in an athletic program? Is it where the school finishes annually in the all-sports standings?
Woodward: “I look at it all, I really do. It’s the experience our student-athletes have, the grades, graduation rates, all that stuff, the wins and losses. I can’t say one sport it means more or less. It’s so subjective. I’d been lying if I told you have a method. We look at a lot of different measures we deem success.
“My former boss (then-LSU Chancellor Mark Emmert) said he wanted to be great in football and physics. You do. You look at these sports like your children. Each of them has different types of strengths and weaknesses. But darn right, you want to be successful in everything, especially in this league. I think those days are behind us when you focus on one or two sports and put all the resources behind that.”
What do you think about the P-Mac and the basketball facilities? Is it still on the radar?
Woodward: “It always is, everything is. You assess it, see what’s possible, what we can afford. I’m still in the assessment mode.”
The shadow staff of college football continues to grow. Where do you see that going?
Woodward: “It’s an important sport, there’s 85 kids, you need a lot of hand-holding, a lot of touching and a lot of teaching. So, as long as long coaches prove it has constructive benefit, I think we’ll do it. But there is a point it gets a bit ridiculous.”
How have to prioritized stuff since hitting the ground running in Baton Rouge?
Woodward: “Different people have different management styles. I had a great staff at A&M, and I have a great staff at LSU. They know what’s going on, they tell me. It’s not just me lording over this stuff. They tell me, we look at it and assess it on a case-by-case basis.”