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Could concerts, facility tours, cookoffs join Texas Tech football at Jones AT&T Stadium?
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- Could concerts, facility tours, cookoffs join Texas Tech football at Jones AT&T Stadium?
Eight years ago, Texas Tech athletics director Kirby Hocutt brainstormed ideas for a Jones AT&T Stadium south end zone building with all sorts of non-traditional uses, ones he lumped into categories of retail, corporate, premium and even residential.
The idea was to have money flowing from the Texas Tech football stadium more than six or seven Saturdays a year. If that meant an accountant or an attorney or a restaurant leasing space beneath a Double T scoreboard, or Red Raiders fans able to rent eight or 10 condos in the building, Hocutt was listening.
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Ultimately, the unconventional uses failed to materialize. The new south end zone building that opens this week features a lot of what you'd expect: concessions, a stadium club, loge boxes, coaches' offices and luxury suites.
However, the leaders of the Tech athletic department are again thinking of nontraditional ways to generate revenue from the area in and around Jones AT&T Stadium.
"Do we look at holding concerts in the stadium?" Tech deputy athletic director Jonathan Botros said this summer. "Do we look at tours? Do we look at utilizing our parking lots on non-game days for events? We've had multiple groups reach out to us and say, 'We'd love to take a lot of these things to market, because you guys have a lot going for you from a facilities standpoint, even from your parking lots, that we can go sell.' "
Related: Kirby Hocutt unsure on scholarship increases for Texas Tech football, other sports
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More: Everything Texas Tech football fans should know about 2024 games at Jones AT&T Stadium
House v. NCAA forces schools such as Texas Tech to find new revenue streams
Texas Tech director of athletics Kirby Hocutt speaks during the Red Raider Club kickoff luncheon on Thursday, August 22, 2024, in the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center.
This time, they have little choice. If U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken approves settlement terms proposed in the House v. NCAA case, major-conference programs can start sharing revenue with athletes a year from now, as well as giving more scholarships.
Schools such as Tech will be looking to come up with at least $20 million per year in new money. In a mid-August interview with the Avalanche-Journal, Hocutt said sharing revenue to the maximum allowed is priority one. He was less certain about Tech's ability to increase scholarships to match the proposed new roster caps, notably not willing to pledge Tech will go from 85 to 105 scholarships in football.
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"We will have to focus on, how do we continue to raise those dollars through the Matador Club (collective)," Hocutt said, "that then next year would come into the Texas Tech athletics department through primarily the Red Raider Club and then how we structure that, how we organize that, is still to be determined. But that is a major component of it, yet again continuing the private support.
"We're having to think in new ways and how do we build the commercial business of Texas Tech athletics in a way that we've never thought of before. How do we develop new revenue streams, new opportunities to grow revenue."
They're not short on ideas.
What unconventional ideas can generate revenue beyond Texas Tech football?
A look inside the Gary Petersen Field Club in the Jones AT&T Stadium south end zone building. Texas Tech opens the season at home Saturday against Abilene Christian.
In November, Tech hired Chase Jolesch as senior associate athletic director and chief revenue officer for the department. Among the ideas Hocutt, Botros and Tech staff are discussing:
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■ Concerts at Jones AT&T Stadium:On consecutive weeks in June, Kyle Field in College Station attracted 85,249 for a Mexico-Brazil international friendly soccer match and 110,905 for a George Strait concert. Texas A&M athletics reported net revenue from the two events was $2.6 million from the soccer match and $3.9 million from the concert.
Kyle Field's nearly twice the size of Jones AT&T Stadium, but the Aggies' experience with a nontraditional use of their football stadium didn't go unnoticed.
"We're engaged with a couple of promoters and artists right now that are big names in the music world," Hocutt said, "that could possibly come in."
■ Private events and tours:In previous times, Tech would have been reluctant to regularly open its doors to non-employees outside of game days. But what better time to capitalize on interest than now, when Tech athletics has the financial need and a new facility to show off.
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"If you go visit AT&T Stadium in Arlington or The Star in Frisco," Botros said of the Dallas Cowboys ' venues, "on a daily basis you will see some sort of commercial activity happening, in addition to making sure they keep their facilities ready for their team to compete at the highest level."
The new south end zone field club of Jones AT&T Stadium is a natural location.
"When we talk to REV (Entertainment), who's the Texas Rangers' outside (events promoter)," Hocutt said, "they have somebody in Globe Life (Field) for events nearly every day of the year. So how do we reach out and try to generate additional income through having Christmas parties, through having corporate events in the south end zone field club-level space?"
■ Corporate logos and jersey patches:The NCAA has been considering whether to loosen restrictions around corporate logos on the field and on jersey patches. That's another potential source of added revenue.
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Hocutt said it's a new age and he's "absolutely open to all those opportunities."
Related: NCAA to consider allowing sponsor logos on field in wake of proposed revenue sharing settlement
More: The latest on Texas Tech football's Jones AT&T Stadium, Womble Football Center projects
■ Stadium sponsorship:Tech's agreement with AT&T for naming rights on the stadium expires on June 30, 2026. The contract that started in 2007 is worth $21 million, senior associate athletics director Robert Giovannetti said, and includes an exclusive telecom category sponsorship.
"So there's going to be an opportunity there to have an extension with AT&T or bring a new corporate partner to the table for stadium naming rights," Hocutt said. "And when you think about being able to do that now with logos on the field, I think with what we've done with the stadium, there's new logo placement opportunities around the stadium that could really heighten the awareness and the visibility around those corporate partners."
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■ Parking lots usage:If some of the above seem like big ideas, how about small money-making opportunities?
Botros said one group recently suggested a barbecue competition cookoff outside Jones AT&T Stadium.
"Does it make sense to utilize the green space and the parking lot and then maybe even one of our adjacent facilities to have one of those things?" he said.
Told the suggestion of monetizing a BBQ cookoff, Hocutt smiled and said, "No idea should be taken off the table."
Botros said, regardless of new pursuits for revenue, Tech will remain "heavily reliant" on donor support and careful with its finances.
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"We will absolutely scrub all of our expenses to ensure we are investing in the right places," Botros said, "to make sure that we graduate student-athletes and we're able to invest in things that help you win. Those will be our focuses"
Hocutt said he's not sure to what degree nontraditional revenue streams can take the load off fans who already spend and contribute millions.
"I know our donor base continues to be philanthropic," Hocutt said. "They continue to support us. They continue to want to elevate us. Right now, I know the Red Raider Club is bringing in more than $20 million a year. I know the Matador Club is raising approximately nine to 10 million dollars a year. We're going to continue to try to maximize our new revenue streams and continue to be creative. At the same time, I know that this fan base continues to have relentless passion and interest in the success of Texas Tech athletics."
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: House settlement proposal has Texas Tech pondering new revenue ideas
