Frank Pucher - Senior Associate Athletics Director for External Relations - General Support Staff

Frank Pucher

Title:
Senior Associate Athletics Director for External Relations

Last Updated: July 2024

Frank Pucher was hired in January, 2019 as the Senior Associate Athletics Director for External Relations.

In his role, Pucher oversees marketing and fan engagement, strategic communications, creative services, ticket sales and service, NIL strategies, Bulldog Vision, trademark licensing, and is the liaison to the department’s multimedia rights holder, Bulldog Sports Properties. Pucher is tasked with enhancing and advancing the Fresno State Athletics brand within the San Joaquin Valley, the state of California and beyond. Additionally, Pucher serves as the sport administrator for men’s basketball and women’s tennis, and oversees football scheduling.

Since joining Fresno State, Pucher spearheaded the creation and execution of the ‘Pride of the Valley’ comprehensive marketing campaign which helped lead to a significant increase in football season ticket sales, generated school record engagement numbers on social media, led to school record retail royalties, and helped unify and inspire Bulldog fans everywhere. ‘Pride of the Valley’ campaign videos that Pucher directed won a total of seven Telly Awards. Additionally, Pucher led efforts to create the ‘For the V’ brand campaign leading into the 2022 football season.

Ticket sales and attendance have seen significant increases under Pucher’s leadership. Football average attendance has grown each year of Pucher’s tenure at Fresno State, going from an average of 31,552 in 2019, to 33,386 in 2021, and soaring to 39,067 in 2022, and growing again to 39,939 in 2023. Fresno State’s percentage growth during that time was the highest on the west coast. The 39,939 figure in 2023 was the highest average among all Group of Five institutions nationally, more than 13 Power Five institutions, and represented Fresno State’s highest average since 2001.

Student attendance has grown each year of his tenure as well, including student section sell-outs in 15 out of 18 home football games over the 2021-2023 seasons, leading to a school-record student average attendance figure of over 5,000 per game in 2023. In 2019-2020, women’s basketball attendance grew 21% over the previous year while men’s basketball finished the same year with the third highest average attendance among all California schools. Average attendance at baseball and softball has finished first in the Mountain West and among the highest on the west coast in each of Pucher’s years at Fresno State.

Pucher helped secure Fresno State’s school-record apparel partnership with adidas while also leading departmental rebranding efforts to provide an updated look and consistency across all programs. Additionally, he led efforts to enhance media partnerships, including partnering with ABC30 to produce Bulldog Breakdown, creating a strategic partnership with Univision, and working closely with Bulldog Sports Properties to create the Bulldog Sports Network on the iHeartMedia platform, bringing Fresno State games and content to fans throughout the Valley via terrestrial radio and across the world via the iHeartRadio app and the Fresno State Bulldogs app. Fresno State’s social and digital media engagement metrics have grown exponentially under Pucher’s leadership.

Pucher joined Fresno State from Southern Utah University where he served as the Deputy Director of Athletics. Pucher oversaw all external functions at Southern Utah, which included all fundraising efforts, corporate sponsorships, marketing and promotions, strategic communications, ticket operations and creative services. During his tenure at SUU, he served as the sport administrator for men’s basketball, volleyball, men’s and women’s track and field, and men’s and women’s cross country.

During Pucher's time at Southern Utah, he helped grow football ticket revenue 42 percent between the 2015 and 2016 seasons. SUU football ticket revenue grew an additional 59 percent from 2016 to 2017. From 2016 to 2018, SUU football broke their single-game attendance record on five separate occasions. On the hardwood, the men's basketball program saw attendance grow 29 percent during the 2016-17 season and then grew an additional 19 percent during the 2017-18 season, good for the fourth-highest average attendance figure in the Big Sky Conference that season.

Pucher also helped set Southern Utah's all-time high records in development and corporate sponsorship revenue. He led negotiations to secure an arena naming rights deal, efforts to secure the funding for a new $2M sports performance center, and the creation of the Thunderbird Athletic Foundation to significantly grow the athletics annual fund.

Before SUU, Pucher was an assistant athletics director for development at his alma mater, Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. While there, he oversaw fundraising campaigns totaling more than $13 million including the construction of a $9 million basketball practice facility, $2.5M to replace and enhance Drake Stadium's fieldturf, track surface, sound system and videoboard, and over $1M to construct the Bright-Beckwith Boathouse for Drake's rowing program.

Prior to Drake, Pucher worked for Learfield at Utah State University and the University of Iowa, where he managed corporate marketing partnerships and business development efforts at both institutions.

Pucher earned a bachelor's degree in business administration and a master's degree in public administration from Drake University, where he also competed as a member of the school's football program from 2005-09 and was named a first-team All-Pioneer Football League performer.