Ideas to raise our visibility ?

[TheTechGuy]

True. My point was that WE are probably the only ones that call our complex Bobby Dodd Stadium at Historic Grant Field. If selling the naming rights, even temporarily, will help the program succeed or just keep up, as some have asserted, then I’m all for it.


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Tech Fans: We need more money; we can't compete with other schools that have larger budgets.
Idea: We could do what UW has done, approach Delta Airlines, a large airline based in Atlanta, and offer naming rights for $5 million per year over 5 years, gaining $25 million for athletics.
Tech Fans: No! Our history! Harrumph, harrumph, harrumph.

 

[MikeJackets1967]

Lookie, lookie, lookie … here comes Cookie. Cook’s Pest Control.


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[pinglett]

The University of Washington is paid $4.1 million a year by Alaska Airlines for naming rights to the field: Alaska Airlines Field at Husky Stadium. Our locker room renovation costed $4.5 million and that was a huge deal. UW gets that money every year, just for the right to name 120 yards of grass. Link

As an athletic program that struggles monetarily, I do not understand why we would not explore our options.

True. My point was that WE are probably the only ones that call our complex Bobby Dodd Stadium at Historic Grant Field. If selling the naming rights, even temporarily, will help the program succeed or just keep up, as some have asserted, then I’m all for it.


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Florida got a $6M-10 yr deal for their basketball arena from a local biomedical company (to be called Exactech Arena). Surely we can do that kind of thing for the baseball or basketball facilities.

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

Why not Delta Bobby Dodd Stadium?

 

[GTRX7]

Florida got a $6M-10 yr deal for their basketball arena from a local biomedical company (to be called Exactech Arena). Surely we can do that kind of thing for the baseball or basketball facilities.

We have actually done some of this in the past. For those that don't remember, our basketball facility was officially renamed "Alexander Memorial Coliseum at McDonald's Center" for 10 seasons from 1996 to 2005 in conjunction with a $5.5 million donation to help pay for the mid-1990s renovation. The court also had McDonalds logos during that time. Folks just referred to it as the "McTit," based on the McDonald's endorsement and aerial view from the sky

 

[gtg970g]

Notwithstanding egregious errors, I would utilize the University of Louisville model.

Louisville saw unprecedented success in many sports after the turn of the century and was able to negotiate its way into the ACC. The school accomplished this through an aggressive branding model that included:
1. Securing non-alumni, lucrative sponsorship deals with Papa Johns and Yum! Brands (KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell);
A. These deals led to several athletic facility renovations, including the football stadium and basketball arena that are named Papa Johns Cardinal Stadium and the KFC Yum! Center, respectively.
2. Utilizing the same logo and uniform scheme across all sports;
3. Agreeing to play wherever and whenever ESPN would put them on national television; and
4. Consistent messaging and lobbying on behalf of the university.

Since it seems that we cannot achieve necessary funding from alumni to compete in athletics, we must aggressively expand and focus our interests on alternative methods of fundraising. This includes corporate sponsorship opportunities to secure necessary funding to compete at a high level.

We have two choices: (1) Explore new opportunities for funding (including the sale of naming rights for stadiums) and play anytime we can be on national TV; or (2) Maintain our history, play on Raycom so that games can be on Saturdays, and watch other programs that are more aggressive and innovative surpass our athletic programs.

Louisville has zero top tier professional sports franchises, Atlanta has 4. If I recall Pitino lobbied hard to keep professional basketball out of Louisville. Louisville has a monopoly on sports entertainment in their city.

The ship has sailed on any sponsorship opportunity for AMC. We sold naming rights for $15 million which is not enough IMO.

 

[Oakland]

Hate to say it, but the stadium name only means something to 50 to 80 year old GT fans. The current name is not making money and that is something we need. Going on, the GTAA has been blind to the many people who have moved back into the city. They've got to figure a way to open up, make it easy to get to the game and not be viewed as a private club event.

 

[BLKJacket]

We need lots of positive things to happen over a long period of time. Maybe our new branding will help but it’s going to take winning an average of 9+ games per year over the next generation to make a big difference and we’ve got to make it cool to wear GT gear.

You know the Raiders embraced the idea of being the bad boys of the NFL and I think that earned them a lot of sidewalk fans - I remember seeing all kinds of Raiders gear in the 90s. Maybe GT needs to get a little edgy somehow. I’m not suggesting going off the rails but maybe finding a way of getting past the idea that we are just a bunch of nerds.


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I actually think we should embrace the "nerd" tag. Nerd culture is in right now, half the kids we are recruiting probably grew up playing video games and watching anime. Hell one of the biggest trends of 2018 has been Fortnite. For those who don't know Fortnite is an online video game thats played by everyone from NBA & NFL athletes to A-list celebs. Hell Drake had over half a million viewers watching him (and others) play a few months ago. Maybe its just me but I think the "Nerd Athlete" brand would appeal to more recruits than we think (if done right).

I've always suggested that Tech should take advantage of our location in ATLANTA as a big part of our branding.

I firmly believe more than half the folks walking around in uGA sweatshirts couldn't care 2 cents about uGA football. They live in Georgia; and the "Georgia" sweatshirts for sale at Walmart just happen to be red and black.

How many more white and gold shirts/hats/jackets could we sell if they said "ATLANTA - Georgia Institute of Technology"? Atlanta has cultural cache that Tech doesn't. We're the P5 school in the city. Why not piggyback on that?

This! I've never understood why we don't try to brand ourselves as ATLs team. Seems like most people in the metro area would connect more with a team downtown than one in the middle of nowhere Athens (no offense to any posters that live in Athens). We should be embracing ATL and the Hip Hop culture here. We should be learning from ATL United.

 

[Jacket in Dairyland]

We need lots of positive things to happen over a long period of time. Maybe our new branding will help but it’s going to take winning an average of 9+ games per year over the next generation to make a big difference and we’ve got to make it cool to wear GT gear.

You know the Raiders embraced the idea of being the bad boys of the NFL and I think that earned them a lot of sidewalk fans - I remember seeing all kinds of Raiders gear in the 90s. Maybe GT needs to get a little edgy somehow. I’m not suggesting going off the rails but maybe finding a way of getting past the idea that we are just a bunch of nerds.


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Agreed.

 

[JacketFromUGA]

We need to convince AT&T to get some skin in the game. We need a Giant banner on the side of the AT&T building during the football season. In stadium wifi provided by At&T.

Upgrade your plan today for special only at bobby dodd deals etc etc.

They are RIGHT THERE and only do the minimum to sponsor us. We need to hound them.


Edit:

I've always thought it'd be really cool to contract Cartoon Network to make some "cartoon network animated" Georgia Tech ads. Maybe have it sponsored by the internship partnership etc etc but it'd be cool to see an animated Buzz get up to some hijinks on the big jumbotron

 

[Jacket in Dairyland]

I've always suggested that Tech should take advantage of our location in ATLANTA as a big part of our branding.

I firmly believe more than half the folks walking around in uGA sweatshirts couldn't care 2 cents about uGA football. They live in Georgia; and the "Georgia" sweatshirts for sale at Walmart just happen to be red and black.

How many more white and gold shirts/hats/jackets could we sell if they said "ATLANTA - Georgia Institute of Technology"? Atlanta has cultural cache that Tech doesn't. We're the P5 school in the city. Why not piggyback on that?

++++++

 

[Jacket in Dairyland]

Notwithstanding egregious errors, I would utilize the University of Louisville model.

Louisville saw unprecedented success in many sports after the turn of the century and was able to negotiate its way into the ACC. The school accomplished this through an aggressive branding model that included:
1. Securing non-alumni, lucrative sponsorship deals with Papa Johns and Yum! Brands (KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell);
A. These deals led to several athletic facility renovations, including the football stadium and basketball arena that are named Papa Johns Cardinal Stadium and the KFC Yum! Center, respectively.
2. Utilizing the same logo and uniform scheme across all sports;
3. Agreeing to play wherever and whenever ESPN would put them on national television; and
4. Consistent messaging and lobbying on behalf of the university.

Since it seems that we cannot achieve necessary funding from alumni to compete in athletics, we must aggressively expand and focus our interests on alternative methods of fundraising. This includes corporate sponsorship opportunities to secure necessary funding to compete at a high level.

We have two choices: (1) Explore new opportunities for funding (including the sale of naming rights for stadiums) and play anytime we can be on national TV; or (2) Maintain our history, play on Raycom so that games can be on Saturdays, and watch other programs that are more aggressive and innovative surpass our athletic programs.

Wow ! Great post, IMO. Exactly what I was hoping to read.

 

[Skeptic]

Notwithstanding egregious errors, I would utilize the University of Louisville model.

Louisville saw unprecedented success in many sports after the turn of the century and was able to negotiate its way into the ACC. The school accomplished this through an aggressive branding model that included:
1. Securing non-alumni, lucrative sponsorship deals with Papa Johns and Yum! Brands (KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell);
A. These deals led to several athletic facility renovations, including the football stadium and basketball arena that are named Papa Johns Cardinal Stadium and the KFC Yum! Center, respectively.
2. Utilizing the same logo and uniform scheme across all sports;
3. Agreeing to play wherever and whenever ESPN would put them on national television; and
4. Consistent messaging and lobbying on behalf of the university.

Since it seems that we cannot achieve necessary funding from alumni to compete in athletics, we must aggressively expand and focus our interests on alternative methods of fundraising. This includes corporate sponsorship opportunities to secure necessary funding to compete at a high level.

We have two choices: (1) Explore new opportunities for funding (including the sale of naming rights for stadiums) and play anytime we can be on national TV; or (2) Maintain our history, play on Raycom so that games can be on Saturdays, and watch other programs that are more aggressive and innovative surpass our athletic programs.

Name the stadium? Why not let somebody put a plaque on his statue at the same time?

 

[Jacket in Dairyland]

Why not Delta Bobby Dodd Stadium?

I really like that idea !!

 

[YJMD]

We are trying on the technology front. TStan at least seems on to something that other ADs were oblivious to. I'm personally not sure how things are going to work out, but Rome wasn't built in a day. I would love to be the leader in sports tech, and to be doing some things differently. We can do better than we have been, but we're just not ever going to have the resources to compete at the upper echelon in a sustained fashion. But we can sell different. And even if the success that comes with it is moderate, if we can retain that identity as valuable independent of results, things will change.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

The University of Washington is paid $4.1 million a year by Alaska Airlines for naming rights to the field: Alaska Airlines Field at Husky Stadium. Our locker room renovation costed $4.5 million and that was a huge deal. UW gets that money every year, just for the right to name 120 yards of grass. Link

As an athletic program that struggles monetarily, I do not understand why we would not explore our options.

I don't mind exploring them. OK, they're explored... NOPE.

 

[RonJohn]

Maybe the GTAA should commission an Android/IOS game for gameday. Get points for things like bobbing up and down during the Budweiser song or screaming loudly into the microphone during opponent's third downs. They could post the leaders on the screen. Might get more students at the game and might get some non-fans in Atlanta to come.

Ohh, and they would need to get negative points if you aren't in the stadium 5 minutes before kickoff.

 

[Jacket in Dairyland]

Maybe the GTAA should commission an Android/IOS game for gameday. Get points for things like bobbing up and down during the Budweiser song or screaming loudly into the microphone during opponent's third downs. They could post the leaders on the screen. Might get more students at the game and might get some non-fans in Atlanta to come.

Ohh, and they would need to get negative points if you aren't in the stadium 5 minutes before kickoff.

YESSS !!

 

[JacketFromUGA]

Maybe the GTAA should commission an Android/IOS game for gameday. Get points for things like bobbing up and down during the Budweiser song or screaming loudly into the microphone during opponent's third downs. They could post the leaders on the screen. Might get more students at the game and might get some non-fans in Atlanta to come.

Ohh, and they would need to get negative points if you aren't in the stadium 5 minutes before kickoff.

As someone who is younger than 30.

Hell no.

 

[Jacket in Dairyland]

Is there any reason - besides money - that we couldn't be the most media connected stadium in the area ?? I am talking about having live stats sent to your phone , maybe even replays ? Ordering food from concessions on line ??