Changes afoot to expand the CIAA, increase corporate dollars, says Kerry
Roscoe Nance
BCSP Correspondent
CIAA Commissioner Leon Kerry says there are two critical elements in the CIAA tournament becoming bigger.
The first is boosting attendance for early round games, which
traditionally don't draw well.
To that end, Food Lion, the title sponsor of the tournament, buys tickets and distributes them to local youth organizations, and the conference purposely oversells seats for those sessions.
"The test of being bigger is people are in those seats Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday packed,'' Kerry says.
The other, element, Kerry says, is expanding and becoming more of a mainstream conference, which should enhance the CIAA's ability to attract corporate sponsors.
Since the CIAA is currently composed of HBCUs, Kerry says corporations dip into their diversity programs budgets which are limited for sponsorship dollars when he and other black conferences call.
"There's no money in diversity (budgets),'' Kerry says. "We're trying to get up to mainstream so we really get the big dollars. We do well, but can we do better.''
Chowan University joins the CIAA for football next year only in the fall, making it the first predominately white institution to join a historically black conference. Kerry is also in talks with UNC-Pembroke, the most diverse public university in the nation according to U.S. News & World Report, about joining the conference.
"We can help them and they can help us,'' Kerry says of Chowan and UNC-Pembroke. "With a Chowan or Pembroke, we talk about getting out of the diversity market and getting into mainstream; they can help us get into mainstream.
"I look at the ACC and the sponsors they have; we have the same sponsors; we're just not getting the same money they're getting. That's what I'm looking at. The color of power is green. It's not black or white.
"Am I scared because somebody is another color? Nah.''
In addition, Lincoln (Pa.) University, an original CIAA member, returns to the conference in 2009, and the CIAA board has approved an unnamed Southern school for membership.
"The CIAA could be 16 strong in two years,'' Kerry says. "As we continue to add new members, we're going to have some changes. The CIAA will look different, but it's still going to be the CIAA.''
© 2008 Azeez Communications, Inc.