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Every January, UCLA’s sports marketing department reviews its football marketing plan to evaluate what worked and what didn’t work in the previous year.

Cassidy Moore saw something that didn’t work.

“I want to hear what the students want to do, to build up student morale,” she said.

As one of the department’s assistant directors, Moore is launching the UCLA Sports Marketing Association to cull more student enthusiasm for athletics. The group will meet monthly to give students exposure to the professional sports marketing world, and more importantly, to improve student fan involvement in Bruin sports.

A brainstorming meeting was held Tuesday night in the Morgan Center to hear student concerns.

“As a student I want to see more student involvement at basketball and football games,” said second-year marketing intern Carl Pestelos.

Moore spent her undergraduate years at the University of Arizona, where the students’ attitude toward campus sports is “completely different.”

“And that has nothing to do with the students that go,” she explained. “It’s the community around the school. In Tuscon, there’s nothing else to do other than be involved in Arizona athletics.”

Moore took the model for the UCLA Sports Marketing Association from the marketing plan at Arizona. She admits there are distractions in Los Angeles that don’t exist in Tuscon, but is guided by the philosophy that student enthusiasm is self-perpetuating.

Many of the over 50 students who attended Tuesday’s meeting want a new student seating plan at Pauley Pavilion to fuel that enthusiasm.

“I wish to see more student involvement, especially at the basketball games, because currently we have no home-court advantage,” said Lauren Schirrmacher, a student intern in the marketing department.

According to the Athletic Department, a new student seating arrangement – one that would give more floor seating to students – is currently in the works.

Scott Mitchell, UCLA’s director of sports marketing acknowledged that this issue will attract students to the group, but feels the group will have a broader focus – one that Moore believes will bring fan support to more than just the men’s basketball and football teams.