Homecoming itself is a week-long celebration full of events for staff, students, faculty, alumni and everyone in between, all pertaining to the celebration of Ohio University. The Homecoming game between Ohio (2-2) and Akron (1-3) is the pinnacle of the week’s events.
With such a large event comes tons of anticipation, challenging Ohio’s marketing, fan engagement and event planning staff to plan extensively.
“It’s really about balancing highlighting the distinguished and notable alumni we have with some of our in-game elements,” Ohio Associate Athletic Director of Marketing and Fan Engagement Tim Doyle said. “It’s just trying to blend those things together as much as we can, so that people pay attention and have a reason to Homecoming.”
Ohio recognizes that the balancing act requires not only recognizing its alumni that will be in attendance, but giving them a memorable and nostalgic experience. That nostalgia, though, also requires balance in an attempt not to overwhelm its fans.
“For that nostalgia factor, how do we reach back and create that schedule of events for people?” Doyle said.
It is of the utmost importance to give fans and alumni more than enough time to attend scheduled events and go off schedule before ever stepping into the stadium. Once in the stadium, however, the job doesn’t stop. One of those potential engagement opportunities starts early, with Rufus Bobcat delivering the game ball.
“We’re trying to have a game ball delivery with Rufus coming in in a special way,” Doyle said. “Still trying to get a few permissions on exactly how, but I think that will be exciting and be different than the motorcycle.”
Doyle also clarified that Rufus will enter the game on the motorcycle, but keeping things fresh and exciting along with the inherent nostalgia Homecoming offers is another part of the complex balancing act. While maintaining distinctiveness, part of keeping things fresh is keeping things simple.
“We don’t have to reinvent the wheel,” Doyle said. “We can look and see what other schools have done or do, but then we can try and take that and make it distinctly Ohio and apply that to our events.”
Ohio will look back to last year, which it saw as a success, to find what works, what needs improvement and what to build on.
“Last year’s Homecoming was a huge success,” Doyle said. “Based on our scans it was one of the larger crowds we’ve had, so really just looking to continue that. But then with that, how do we make sure our back-end operations can support those growing crowds?”
Ohio’s brand continues to grow and makes sure Athens has the infrastructure to support the fans it looks to bring in. The imminent completion of the new boutique hotelon the corner of Court Street and Union Street will help with this, and allow Ohio to continue to strive for more ambitious goals.
“(We’re) trying to incorporate some of those larger elements that people love about college game days,” Doyle said. “For Homecoming or West Virginia next year, why can’t we look to get a flyover done? That can be something fun and unique and make it special for those larger games.”
