"We Are Georgetown" Football Shirts?

[DFW HOYA]

The new leaders at Hoya Blue have been asking for suggestions for next year's efforts.

Here's one--would there be interest in printing up some of the "We Are Georgetown" shirts seen during basketball season with a football message on the back, and having them ready for the upcoming season?

www.hoyasaxa.com/sports/images/tshirt05.jpg

Comments and suggestions welcome.

[FLHoya]

That's funny actually, I'm going to the GU lacrosse game tomorrow with GUHoya2007, who's going to be the president of Hoya Blue next year and is the person who designed the "We Are Georgetown" shirt. And one of the things we were talking about tonight online was that I don't ever wear my "We Are Georgetown" shirt to lacrosse games (instead I wear the old "I Bleed Hoya Blue" shirt from my freshman year 00-01). Seems kind of out of place to wear a shirt with the III on the back to a lacrosse game--unless by some random coincidence Dave Urick is the 3rd member of his family with that name, or into the number 3 and/or roman numerals.

My response to questions like these is always: "Yeah, go for it. People like shirts."

And 007 can answer better than me, but from what I heard from him tonight, he and the other HB folks would like to do another "We Are Georgetown" shirt for basketball, and are strongly thinking about some kind of all-purpose "I Bleed Hoya Blue"-type shirt to sell to students.

The questions that come to mind with a football version of the shirt:

1. What's the design/slogan going to be?

2. Is it a free giveaway like the bball shirt was, or will you pay for it?

2a. If it's free, how do you distribute it? The "We Are Georgetown" shirts came with your basketball season tickets. There's no student season tickets for football--you just show up at games.

2b. If it's not free, how many students are going to want one?

3. What's the money stream? Lots of ways to go here. I don't think the SAC money HB's going to get is going to be incredibly large--it'll probably be going mainly to HB's flyering/printing costs, I don't know if it'll cover shirt printing. There's an alumni donations-based approach, which worked well for the basketball shirts (along with some extra money from McDonough). And there's McDonough or the football boosting-folks paying to get it done.

I love shirts, and I'd get one in a second if we had 'em.

[DFW HOYA]

FLHoya said:

1. What's the design/slogan going to be?

Every shirt, regardless of sport, should have the same front with any sport-specific messages/quotes on the back--that way a football or lacrosse shirt would all look the same on TV at a basketball game. Use the same logo as last year for consistency's purpose, or a new design every year, like Texas A&M:

maroonout.tamu.edu/

The football shirt could include either the 2005 schedule, or some sort of message such as:

118 YEARS.
771 GAMES.
ONE TEAM.
GEORGETOWN FOOTBALL.

2. Is it a free giveaway like the bball shirt was, or will you pay for it?

I'd market a $10 shirt through the Gridiron Club and through GUHoyas.com. For your $10 gift, you get a shirt and you pay for a free shirt for a student.

2a. If it's free, how do you distribute it? The "We Are Georgetown" shirts came with your basketball season tickets. There's no student season tickets for football--you just show up at games.

There is a tremendous alumni demand for these shirts and for 99% of us (myself included) there was no way to get one during hoops season other than jostling for the t-shirt cannon during the home games.

Alumni distribution could be by mail for an extra fee or available the week before the first home game (Brown)... perhaps even by NSO week.

2b. If it's not free, how many students are going to want one?

Free for freshmen, $5.00 per per person thereafter.

3. What's the money stream? Lots of ways to go here. I don't think the SAC money HB's going to get is going to be incredibly large--it'll probably be going mainly to HB's flyering/printing costs, I don't know if it'll cover shirt printing. There's an alumni donations-based approach, which worked well for the basketball shirts (along with some extra money from McDonough). And there's McDonough or the football boosting-folks paying to get it done.

A summer of online sales should provide some money to start with. The Gridiron Club could also help with some seed money. Remember, to alumni, these are shirts worth paying for.

[Joe Hoya]

Why not just give them out free for the students who come to the first game? Then maybe people will be interested in going just to see if they get one too, and you can either give them out at later games or not.

Just because the freshmen already have a shirt, doesn't mean they would go to a game because of it. No reason to discriminate against the rest of us just because we've already been to games.

[FormerHoya]

No shame in a little advertising on the shirt.

Get local businesses to give money in return for their name on the sleeve...

I do think free to students is the way to go if possible.

I, on the other hand would be more than willing to (over)pay for a shirt...

[TBird41]

I'm not sure where I stand on this one. The problem I see is that hoya blue needs a shirt that can be worn to the different sporting events. If you make a shirt for football, basketball and lacrosse, then what do you wear to m/w soccer, fieldhockey, swimming, w bball, baseball, etc... You can't make shirts for every sport, but we are going to have events at every sport.

I'm not sure that using the same front would necessarily solve this problem. It just seems weird to wear a shirt that specifically is about one sport to another sporting event. I think that's why I'd rather do a shirt for HB events and one for basketball.

[SFHoya99]

TBird41 said:

I'm not sure where I stand on this one. The problem I see is that hoya blue needs a shirt that can be worn to the different sporting events. If you make a shirt for football, basketball and lacrosse, then what do you wear to m/w soccer, fieldhockey, swimming, w bball, baseball, etc... You can't make shirts for every sport, but we are going to have events at every sport.

I'm not sure that using the same front would necessarily solve this problem. It just seems weird to wear a shirt that specifically is about one sport to another sporting event. I think that's why I'd rather do a shirt for HB events and one for basketball.

Tbird, one thing to thinkg about is somewhat prioritizing the sports. I know that sounds bad, but in terms of fan audiences, get people to Football, Basketball and maybe lacrosse and track first. Getting folks to a swim meet seems a bit ambitious in year one.

[GUHoya07]

I basically agree with him though. It's just very impractical for us right now to create individual t-shirts for sports other than men's basketball. While a football shirt would be nice, I don't know how realistic that would be this year. I think a generic shirt for all non men's basketball sports is what we should go with this year, unless of course someone comes up with some great idea about how to do it.

And we do want to have events at every single on campus sport and hopefully several off campus other than men's basketball. Even if it is only 10-15 Hoya Blue members that are seriously involved in the group going over to a swim meet I think its a great thing to do and those teams that don't typically get much support deserve it. We obviously aren't going to focus most of our attention there, but attending an event or two for those lesser known sports and getting a loud cheering section going is worth it.

[SFHoya99]

GUHoya2007 said:

I basically agree with him though. It's just very impractical for us right now to create individual t-shirts for sports other than men's basketball. While a football shirt would be nice, I don't know how realistic that would be this year. I think a generic shirt for all non men's basketball sports is what we should go with this year, unless of course someone comes up with some great idea about how to do it.

And we do want to have events at every single on campus sport and hopefully several off campus other than men's basketball. Even if it is only 10-15 Hoya Blue members that are seriously involved in the group going over to a swim meet I think its a great thing to do and those teams that don't typically get much support deserve it. We obviously aren't going to focus most of our attention there, but attending an event or two for those lesser known sports and getting a loud cheering section going is worth it.

No, I think that's cool. HB should be present at every event. But in terms of getting the non-HB crowd to events, I'm sure you already realize that not too many are gonna wanna watch the swim team.

[FLHoya]

SFHoya99 said:

No, I think that's cool. HB should be present at every event. But in terms of getting the non-HB crowd to events, I'm sure you already realize that not too many are gonna wanna watch the swim team.

Not to mention, I did that once freshman year, since my roommate and one of my friends were on the team then, and there ain't exactly a ton of spectator space in the bowels of Yates--and the humidity and chlorine is enough to make it a bear even for someone from Florida.

But on the subject of football shirts--if it's too much of an effort for Hoya Blue to come up with a unique football version of the "We Are Georgetown" shirt in time, why not enlist the Athletic Department for help?

The Athletic Department/Sports Promotions must spend a boatload of money on providing those freebie shirts on the seats at basketball games at MCI. And actually, those giveaways were fewer this year b/c of the We Are Georgetown shirts--in years past, we're talking basically a shirt a game.

And they weren't all just the generic blue HOYAS shirts (though I have about 10 of them now). I have one of the Aeropostale "Georgetown Hoyas Basketball" ones from a few years ago--it's pretty nice for a freebie. I imagine if you asked someone in McDonough nicely, they'd be willing to come up with a "free giveaway quality" shirt for students that come to football games. Nothing fancy would be needed. And they could hand them out at the gate--or Hoya Blue could devote its energies to doing that part itself.

[GUHoya07]

SFHoya99 said:

No, I think that's cool. HB should be present at every event. But in terms of getting the non-HB crowd to events, I'm sure you already realize that not too many are gonna wanna watch the swim team.

Yeah, thats for sure, We'll do our best to support every team though and try to get as many students out to as many sporting events as possible. Obviously Basketball is the main priority, then football, lacrosse and soccer, and then everything else in terms of getting average students out to games.

[SaxaCD]

If you want a takeoff on DFW's theme above, but make it generic, what about something like:

XXX Years
XXX Sports
One School
We Are Georgetown (or We Bleed Hoya Blue)

Just a suggestion, and probably fairly lame, since it's before noon.