Watch Missouri State football coach Ryan Beard during media day
Ryan Beard addresses the media during Missouri State football’s annual media day at Plaster Stadium on Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024.
Before Missouri State athletics director finalist Patrick Ransdell addressed a small gathering of community members at the open forum of his interview process, he walked around and shook hands with everyone in the room.
Ransdell, the Deputy AD for External Affairs at Appalachian State, then spoke confidently, making eye contact with those asking questions, about why he would be the best fit for Missouri State’s vacancy. He was asked about getting out and being personable with the community, something Springfield looks for in its leaders.
“If I’m not doing that, I’m not doing my job,” Ransdell said. “I want our entire family to be there. I want us to be at every chamber ribbon cutting or whatever’s going on. We need to be extremely visible. If I’m not out there and people are seeing me as the face, then I think that allows them to believe in us more.”
Ransdell is one of two announced finalists remaining for the job. The News-Leader, citing sources, reported Wednesday night that Roger Denny, the Chief Operating Officer and Executive Senior Associate Athletics Director, withdrew his name from the running after interviewing on campus the two days prior.
More: Missouri State AD finalist Roger Denny wants to put $100 million into football, double budget
Arizona State Associate AD Vince Volpe will interview on campus on Monday with his public forum set for 3:30 p.m. in the Great Southern Bank Arena Prime Overtime Club.
Patrick Ransdell wants Missouri State to act more like a ‘professional organization’ instead of a college one
One of the more impactful items Ransdell harped on during his forum was the Missouri State athletics department’s lack of marketing expertise. He noted that athletics employs only one person in marketing to oversee all 18 sports.
Ransdell said staffing within the athletics department would be a major focus of his in the early months. Getting the sales staff up to speed and being more involved in the community are critical.
“I wanna have our sales staff look like a professional organization than a college staff,” Ransdell said. “We need to have an outbound sales team. We don’t need to just be answering the phone. We need to be picking it up and calling people. We need to be going and seeing people. We need to have community events to where we can engage this community better and more often.”
Since 2017, Missouri State has had an exclusive partnership agreement with Learfield, a marketing group that employs a Missouri State-focused branch. Missouri State and Learfield are contractually tied through the 2025-26 academic calendar. Ransdell said at his former employer, Central Florida, they kept their rights in-house. Appalachian State has an expiring deal with Learfield he said they were evaluating.
“Our contract is what it is,” Ransdell said. “We’ll have to see how that goes over the next couple of years. I think, corporately, there’s a lot of potential here.”
More: All of our 2024 Missouri State, high school football preseason coverage in one place
Patrick Ransdell spoke in 5-10 year increments while addressing needs to upgrade facilities including Plaster Stadium
Plaster Stadium and the upgrades needed at various facilities across Missouri State athletics continued to be a popular topic with the second AD it’s brought in. Ransdell was given a facilities tour and noted that the football stadium needed upgrades.
“We are going to need to address some facility issues with football,” Ransdell said. “I’m not going to stand here and pinpoint anything but I want to get involved with architect immediately. I talked to Dr. Williams and we’re going to need to take a look at some stuff. I think there is so much opportunity and we’re all biting at the bit to get it going.”
Ransdell didn’t go into dollar figures as much as Denny did during his open forum but it remains an open secret that Williams has publicly spoken of wanting to put $100 million into Plaster Stadium and the football program over time.
Ransdell said he tries to have a vision for the next 5-10 years, noting he wanted facility upgrade plans done on the front end of the timeline. He focused more on Plaster Stadium’s need to upgrade its premium seating rather than increasing its size.
“In football, we’re certainly wanting to get in some premium seats, coaches’ offices, locker rooms and all that type of stuff that’s massively important,” Ransdell said. “We’ve got a lot of catching up to do on the FBS level for the football program. We’ve got to make sure we’re caught up to really the upper quarter of Conference USA.
“We’ll get there. I think we’ll be able to get some stuff going here in the next year. It’s planning and we’ve got to have a strategic plan in place so we can address things 5-10 years from now and some things in this very moment.”
More: Missouri State Athletics Director search: 5 things to know after school revealed finalists
Patrick Ransdell spoke about getting Missouri State fans back in seats
Ransdell’s resume touts his ability to get fans into seats, something Missouri State desperately needs. At App State, he’s led the football program’s record-breaking numbers in season-ticket sales. In 2023, ticket sales drove in $6.6 million and he projects $7 million for 2024.
“Winning cures all,” Ransdell said. “But you need to incentivize people to come. We need to make sure it’s a great environment. It’s a sports and entertainment industry, right? People have a million reasons to stay home. We need to make sure our environments are fun and high-energy and we need to compete with all so we can get people to come here and have a great time. Maybe we’ll focus on selling a couple games in a short period and then we’ll worry about selling out a full season. And then we need to get student involvement.
“We have to make it a big deal. We have to engage and we have to bring the energy. We can’t expect them to bring the energy to us.”
Patrick Ransdell talked winning Conference USA championships immediately
Ransdell said there are two things he wants student-athletes to leave Missouri State with — a diploma in one hand and a Conference USA championship ring on the other.
“That’s the expectation,” Ransdell said. “I told our coaches this morning that we’re here to win championships. We’re going to compete. I don’t want our coaches doing anything other than recruiting and coaching. A lot of them are probably fundraising right now and doing other things. That’s my job. We’re gonna have a staff that gets after it so they don’t have to do that. It’s hard to hold people accountable if they can’t do their job. We’re gonna get after it. I’m really, really excited.”
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Publish date : 2024-08-16 11:47:00
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