Some very initial work starting in South end zone

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Re: Some very initial work starting in South end zone

Post by abvandy »

"Was George buried near the southern end zone (where the construction is taking place) or the northern end zone?"

That is Jimmy Hoffa buried in the end zone (and possibly in both end zones).


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Re: Some very initial work starting in South end zone

Post by FayetteDore »

KudzuLeague wrote: Tue Jan 18, 2022 10:48 am I just got a survey about stadium amenities and luxury boxes and such from Candice Storey Lee. They want opinions about game day atmosphere. All I had was "when we have a prayer of winning, the games are more interesting to fans."
I got the survey too. It was very comprehensive. In addition to questions about the gameday experience, it had several questions about my willingness to buy the enhanced premium seating and club-type amenities that have been announced as part of the stadium renovation project -- at various price levels. It was interesting that the individual questions showed renderings of these new amenities in more detail than what I had seen before. The survey also asked whether I have season tickets to various other teams/organizations around the area, including the Titans, NashvilleSC, the Sounds, Belmont, Lipscomb, MTSU and the Nashville Symphony.

IF the survey results reveal to Vanderbilt that there is considerably less interest among fans/consumers/corporations in buying into those expensive amenities than VU needs to make it a success, I wouldn't be surprised to see the renovation project scaled back somewhat -- or at least proceed on a slower timeline. (Of course, they may get an overwhelmingly positive response and accelerate the project.)
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Re: Some very initial work starting in South end zone

Post by OldDude »

I think the more tepid response to the luxury amenities is more likely.

The product being put on the field is not overly attractive or competitive (say compared to Titans or Preds) and corporate marketing / PR budgets may be in flux in the current kind of odd economic environment .
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Re: Some very initial work starting in South end zone

Post by commadore »

They need to be asking the bigwigs and big companies, because they are the ones that will be buying. Our company in Montgomery has a box at Alabama and Auburn. The top dogs take business people and reward certain employees. Two top guys could easily afford a box (one was $55,000 plus tickets and the other $50,000 plus tickets), but used the company to get them. There are plenty of huge corps in Nashville to buy them.
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Re: Some very initial work starting in South end zone

Post by OldDude »

commadore wrote: Wed Jan 19, 2022 4:08 pm They need to be asking the bigwigs and big companies, because they are the ones that will be buying. Our company in Montgomery has a box at Alabama and Auburn. The top dogs take business people and reward certain employees. Two top guys could easily afford a box (one was $55,000 plus tickets and the other $50,000 plus tickets), but used the company to get them. There are plenty of huge corps in Nashville to buy them.
My main point was that businesses in Nashville can easily choose Titans or Preds ; both would seem more attractive options to schmooze a client. Nonetheless, wish VU luck on this.
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Re: Some very initial work starting in South end zone

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OldDude wrote: Wed Jan 19, 2022 6:08 pm
commadore wrote: Wed Jan 19, 2022 4:08 pm They need to be asking the bigwigs and big companies, because they are the ones that will be buying. Our company in Montgomery has a box at Alabama and Auburn. The top dogs take business people and reward certain employees. Two top guys could easily afford a box (one was $55,000 plus tickets and the other $50,000 plus tickets), but used the company to get them. There are plenty of huge corps in Nashville to buy them.
My main point was that businesses in Nashville can easily choose Titans or Preds ; both would seem more attractive options to schmooze a client. Nonetheless, wish VU luck on this.
You're exactly right OldDude. There was a time when Vanderbilt football was the biggest thing in town. Now it's Titans, Preds and Nashville SC.

There was also a time when most all of the big businesses in town were locally owned. The First American, Commerce Union and Third National banks you knew have changed out-of-state hands so often its hard to remember their lineages. Same with Castner-Knott (now Macy's, after several different owners) and Cain-Sloan (now Dillards). Alladin Industries is long gone and boarded up. No idea what's happened to Avco but I only see a few cars around those big old buildings. If National Life were still around, we'd likely still have Opryland. All that remains of Life & Casualty is the building and its iconic letters. That old Third National branch that backed up to Green Hills Mall? Now a Chase branch.

Instead, we have either North American headquarters of multinationals (Bridgestone, Nissan); tech companies that have located parts of their operations here (Assurion, AllianceBernstein, Amazon, Lyft), and local outposts of national or regional companies.

There's still HCA and Ingram, and almost certainly they will be involved with the VU upgrades, given the long support of the Frists and the Ingrams. But will the guys and gals who parachute in as essentially branch managers at all those other places be interested in entertaining clients and each other at the local college football game when there are higher-profile options?

We'll see soon -- when VU actually starts construction, or if they announce a slowdown or "suspension" of the plans. But really, how many luxury suites and skyboxes are there at, say, Northwestern, Georgia Tech, Columbia, Harvard, Tulane or Rice -- all places where college football is NOT the biggest game in town?

But I wish VU luck too.

EDIT ADDED: I think the best targets for marketing VU premium amenities are law firms. Even though most of the big ones in town are also now branch offices, there are probably a good number of VU Law and other SEC-trained lawyers in them who like college football.
Last edited by FayetteDore on Fri Jan 21, 2022 8:51 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Some very initial work starting in South end zone

Post by FayetteDore »

PS -- You wanna see some crazy fan-amenity arms-race shite that's going on elsewhere in the SEC? Hold your nose and take a look at what's underway 180 miles east: https://www.tennesseefund.org/premium-seating/

Click on each of those football premium options -- including the big bars and party decks -- and consider how far we've come in the, what, 2 or 3 years that alcohol has been allowed in SEC stadiums. 8-)
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Re: Some very initial work starting in South end zone

Post by OldDude »

Thanks for the links FayetteDore. I guess my curmudgeon status is showing through, but this whole thing seems madness.
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