The perfect lead in question on a recent Gymbrooke post:
We have top coaches now when will our organizations learn how to promote the sport?
Gymnastics is a great sport. USA Gymnastics and the NCAA markets it better than anyone else.
Yet our profile is small time compared with skateboarding.
Why?
What can we do better?
Look to Greg Marsden and what he has done at Utah, host of the upcoming NCAA championships.
Greg Marsden, the most successful coach in college gymnastics history, breaks new ground with each victory he earns. The sport’s only 800-win coach has racked up an 848-148-5 record in a 31-year career spent entirely at Utah. …
A consummate marketer of his sport, Marsden has turned Utah gymnastics into a revenue producer. Utah has led the nation in gymnastics home attendance in 22 of the last 25 years, including last season, when the Utes averaged 12,747 fans per meet.
He brought promotions and loud music and cheerleaders and the pep band to the quiet, golf-like world of the sport, and made it OK for fans to cheer. …
To combat the Utes’ isolation from the big TV markets, which give his rivals an advantage, Marsden started a multimedia Web site. After every meet, he personally posts video clips and photos of his team’s performances.
Gymbrooke Sports News » Greg Marsden :: Women’s Gymnastics
There’s more. Read the entire Gymbrooke post and click through to the sources.
Especially this one:
Greg Marsden isn’t merely the most successful coach in college gymnastics. He’s John Wooden, Knute Rockne and Bill Veeck all rolled into one. He didn’t invent gymnastics, but he pretty much invented the college version of it.
Marsden a pioneer for gymnastics – Doug Robinson
Gymnastics Coaching.com 