Feb. 8, 2012
="" alt="Knight Head" border="0" class="imported"> Read John Denton's Knights Insider | ="" alt="Twitter Logo" border="0" class="imported">Twitter | ="" alt="Facebook Logo" border="0" class="imported">Facebook
By Joe Hornstein
UCFAthletics.com
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - UCF Athletics announced Wednesday Ryan Eklund has been hired as the Knights' new director of marketing, and he will start his position in Orlando on March 12. Eklund helped UCLA achieve record football season ticket sales and basketball attendance during his tenure from 2006-11.
Eklund also held athletics marketing positions at the University of Connecticut, University of Arizona and Oregon State University before he became UCLA's assistant director of athletics marketing in 2006.
At UCF, Eklund will coordinate athletics marketing and promotions initiatives aimed at increasing the visibility of the university's 16 varsity programs and strengthening fan support and interest.
"This is a thrilling time to join the Knight family, and I am excited to accept the director of marketing position," he said. "UCF is equipped to compete on a national level, and I look forward to reaching new heights together with our coaches, staff and student-athletes."
At UCLA, Eklund was part of several initiatives and campaigns that helped to produce record ticket sales and attendance growth. Most notably, his efforts helped to secure school records in 2007 and 2008 for football season tickets sold with 49,000 and 50,000 respectively. His email database marketing campaigns helped to produce a total of nearly $500,000 of new football and men's basketball ticket revenues in 2009 and 2010. UCLA's men's basketball team played before sellout crowds from 2006 to 2008, and the school sold 3,754 new season ticket packages from 2006 to 2010.
Before joining UCLA's athletics department, Eklund served one year as assistant director of marketing at Oregon State University. He was a marketing assistant at the University of Arizona from 2003-05 and at the University of Connecticut from 2002-03.
At OSU, Eklund helped the Beavers surpass their women's basketball revenue goal by more than $19,000, and his efforts helped to increase women's basketball season ticket sales 49 percent. Additionally, he helped OSU set new school records for basketball student ticket sales.
While at Arizona from 2003-05, Eklund was an integral part of a staff that helped to generate $106,500 of corporate sponsorship revenue with first-time sponsors. He oversaw fulfillment of the 2004 CatBacker Football Ticket Program, which added 44 new members and more than 800 season tickets, and helped the school record two of its three best women's basketball season attendance totals.
A member of the National Association of Collegiate Marketing Administrators (NACMA), Eklund graduated from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse with a degree in Business Administration in 1999. He received a master's degree in Physical Education from Springfield College in 2001. From 1994-99, Eklund was an accomplished student-athlete with the UWL varsity men's basketball team. He served as the Eagles' team captain from 1997-99 and was active with the school's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. In 1999, Eklund was named the Division III individual statistical champion for free-throw percentage. In 1998, he was selected to participate in the NCAA Foundation Leadership Conference.