Butler Athletics Promotes Freeman to Senior Associate Director
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowButler Athletics has promoted Mike Freeman to senior associate director for external operations. With this promotion, he will now officially serve as second in command for the department. Freeman will focus on strategy and lead the innovation efforts for the department’s future.
He will continue to lead the department’s revenue generation through oversight of ticketing, licensing, TV and Radio, marketing and promotions. Freeman is a member of department’s budget team, assists with fund-raising efforts and has sport oversight. He collaborates on a regular basis across other university units such the President’s Office, Alumni Relations and Development, University Marketing and Communications and the College of Education. Freeman serves as primary contact with Learfield and Butler Sports Properties since the department began its multi-media rights partnership in 2015.
Freeman has led the External Operations staff to record growth in a number of areas. Butler set new marks for men’s basketball season tickets and corporate partnership revenue each season from 2009-10 through 2013-14. Those numbers, as well as increases to Butler men’s basketball regular season average attendance marks climbed into the 7,000s before vaulting to an average of 8,358 during the 2016-17 season, the best mark on record since the 1960s.
He was promoted to associate athletic director for external operations in August of 2009, after a successful stint as manager of external operations at Butler.
Butler Athletics has won eight “Best Of” awards from the National Association of Collegiate Marketing Administrators since Freeman’s appointment in 2009. Freeman is also involved with men’s basketball events, serving as the primary administrator for postseason play and coordinating efforts for regular season tournaments and the Crossroads Classic.
Freeman has been involved in the fundraising for many of Butler’s facility enhancements over the last seven years, most notably the Butler Bowl renovation of 2010 and the $36 million preservation of Hinkle Fieldhouse.