Coastal Carolina won this year's College World Series, and while the impact on enrollment "will take longer to determine, the immediate impact of website traffic, social media engagement and merchandise sales have been assessed," according to Christian Boschult of the Myrtle Beach SUN NEWS. Between May and July 18, university Facebook "likes" increased 43% to "more than 40,500" and Twitter follows increased 26% to 10,276. During the same time period, Facebook comments increased by 29% and retweets increased by 74%. CCU media mentions around the nation and world "went from around 80 per week during the first week of April to more more than 5,000 mentions per week by the end of July." The school "also gained revenue from royalties and licensing fees." Licensing fees during Q2 '16 were $45,486, up 56% since the $29,088 collected in '15. Royalties through June '16 were $78,000, up 8% from under $73,000 during the same time period in '15. But CCU VP/Communications Bill Plate said that the school "hasn’t collected" about 70% of the royalties from the CWS. CCU AD Matt Hogue said that the school’s athletic website "has also benefited." Hogue said CCU is up almost 600% in page views and almost 800% in terms of unique site visitors "compared to where we were this time last year" (Myrtle Beach SUN NEWS, 8/13).
