Selling out the (women’s) Crosstown Shootout

Several VIPs turned out today to throw their weight behind a new initiative to make the Xavier-UC women’s basketball game on Jan. 17 a sellout.

The presidents of both schools attended the press conference, for starters, as did their athletic directors. Also in attendance were Fifth Third President and CEO Bob Sullivan; Bill Keating Sr., the former congressman and Enquirer publisher; and Bill Keating Jr., a partner at Keating Muething & Klekamp.

In a bit of irony, the idea to have a “Sell Out the Shootout” campaign originated with a man: Bill Keating Jr. He got the ball rolling (so to speak) by contacting UC and Xavier leaders and former student-athletes, and by bringing in Judy Harmony of the Harmony Project, a girls’ advocacy group, to help raise money to buy tickets for youth organizations.

Keating was just about the only person not to take a turn at the podium, but afterward he said his motivation to draw attention to women’s sports dates back to when he was a swimmer at UC and the men practiced alongside the women. Two of the women competed in the Olympics and yet they never received a varsity letter at UC, Keating said. The issue remains top-of-mind for him because he has two daughters who have competed in swimming at the college level — one who just graduated and another still in school.

UC women’s basketball head coach Laurie Pirtle, who just got her 300th win, said one of her golden rules is to leave things better than she found them. “Thank you for leaving this school better than you found it,” she told Keating from the podium.

If the iniative reaches its goal of selling out Fifth Third arena’s 13,186 seats for the game, it will rank as the largest crowd for a women’s regular-season college basketball game in Ohio history.

And even if it doesn’t sell out, I think it’s safe to say the effort alone will raise awareness of and interest in women’s sports in Cincinnati.

“From now on, when we talk about the Crosstown Shootout, we’re going to have to say which one,” UC President Nancy Zimpher said.

Tickets are available for $5 (!!) for adults; $3 for youth 12 and under; and $2 apiece for groups of 10 or more.  UC and Xavier students get free admission with their student IDs.

For more information, call 513.556.CATS or visit www.gobearcats.com or www.goxavier.com.

– Cindi Andrews, Editor

Women’s Business Cincinnati