Bringing the heat

Sophomore Kevin Kohler followed the die-hard fan requirements of Carolina Fever his first year at UNC, but now he just doesn’t have the time.

Signing in before and after games took an extra hour out of his day, and he’d have to do that a couple times a week to be competitive in Fever’s point race for basketball tickets.

Kohler is one of many who opted to drop the program after his first year. Fever directors are looking to fix the retention problem by offering new incentives.

The group this year has reached a record high of 2,351 members, but more than 2,000 of those members are first-years.

“I think a lot of that is that they get bigger time commitments, and Fever actually is a pretty big time commitment,” said Tyler Singleton, game day affairs chairman for Carolina Fever.

“If you really want to come to everything, it takes up a lot of time during your week, especially on weekends.”

To retain members, Fever created a sign-in line for returning members only, making getting in and out of games quicker and easier for upperclassmen. And they’re trying to make the group more fun by offering optional field trips to see UNC play teams at other schools such as the University of Maryland, N.C. State University and Wake Forest University.

“We have a bigger budget this year so we can do more things,” Singleton said.

Fever has introduced incentives for more casual members. Last year, the 240 members with the most points were awarded basketball tickets and everyone else was left empty-handed, but this year members ranked 240 to 500 will win other prizes like gift certificates to local eateries, T-shirts and raffle tickets.

“That way you don’t just lose all your time. You get rewarded for coming to a few things even if you can’t make the ticket distribution,” Singleton said.

But it’s not just about the basketball tickets and perks. Sophomore Matt Reyes stuck with Fever for the camaraderie.

“We would travel to all those different places — Tennessee, Maryland and all these different venues — and just to bring that Carolina spirit made me want to come back,” said Reyes, a sophomore from Dallas, N.C.

“I would not trade Fever for anything else.”

Fever directors said they don’t know how effective the new incentives will be, but they aren’t too worried. The program already has exceeded membership goals this year, and it keeps expanding.

And no matter how experienced the fans in the stands are, field hockey coach Karen Shelton, whose team has lost only two games since November 2006, credits Fever for keeping her team motivated.

“I think that Fever gives our team a real lift,” Shelton said. “When the student body is behind our sports teams like that, I know our kids feed off it.”



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