By Bob Romantic
GCU News Bureau
Russ Pennell’s free basketball clinic may become a bit more than he bargained for – and that’s just fine with him.
The GCU men’s basketball coach is putting on a free clinic in December for children whose parents purchase a season-ticket package before June 30.
After Pennell visited the Peoria and Tempe campuses in the past week, that season-ticket number is growing a lot faster than he expected.
“That was a lot of fun,” said Pennell, who along with the GCU Arena staff gave eight 30-minute presentations (each to between 30 and 90 employees) in Peoria on June 14, and another seven presentations in Tempe on Tuesday.
“We need to reach out to those two campuses. They’re on the phone and recruiting students and working online and doing a lot of things that are important to this University. And sometimes they don’t feel as much a part of GCU as they should.”
Seventy-one employees at the Peoria campus purchased the new ’Lopes Pass season-ticket package, and an additional 94 in Tempe signed on for the ticket deal.
The ’Lopes Pass is $50 for employees and includes four general-admission seats to every men’s and women’s home basketball game next season, as well as free food and drink at the tailgate party on the Quad before each game.
With the potential of four children for each of the 165 season-ticket packages sold in just the last week, that could mean as many as 660 kids taking advantage of Pennell’s free clinic.
“That’s a good trade,” Pennell said of the number of clinic participants versus the increase in season-ticket sales. “We may just have to have two clinics. One good thing is we have the facilities to handle them all at the Student Rec Center. And we’ll get some of our players who are local to help out, so it should be a lot of fun.”
The ’Lopes Pass season-ticket offer was presented to employees of the main campus on Thursday. Free admission to Pennell’s basketball clinic is good for anyone who purchases either a ’Lopes Pass or a season-ticket package for reserved seats. Season tickets for reserved seating are $120 or $250 per seat.
For ticket information, call 602-639-8970 or email Mark Mueller at [email protected].
Contact Bob Romantic at 639.7611 or [email protected].
