It is “impossible to not notice changes” at Arizona State Univ. as the differences in the school’s football and men's basketball programs “are striking, and the Sun Devils hope it provides a foundation that leads to greater achievement down the road,” according to Doug Haller of the ARIZONA REPUBLIC. ASU AD & VP/Athletics Steve Patterson, who was promoted in March, said, "We've made a lot of changes to the culture while making changes to the facilities. I like the direction that a lot of our programs are headed. We have accountability and business plans in place for each of the teams and ethics that we're measured by that we didn't have in the past. I think in the long run that's going to produce a lot of success." Since December, the ASU athletics department has “added a new football coach, athletics director, marketing director and a senior associate athletic director for communications.” Overall, Patterson estimates that he has “hired roughly 40 people since his promotion, many coming in sales and service, although some have come as a result of partnering with other campus resources.” Haller noted a committee “meets weekly to discuss changes to ASU's football game-day atmosphere.” Although football season-ticket sales “are slightly ahead of last year's pace, Patterson knows many fans will wait to see how the football team fares before making a commitment.” Patterson said, "Winning is a byproduct of what you do every day in this business. And the processes that probably weren't as strong as they should've been (before) are much, much stronger today. In the long run, I think we're going to have a very successful program" (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 7/22).
