Tennessee Director of Athletics Danny White met with the media on Tuesday afternoon as the Vols launched their newest partnership with Pilot at Neyland Stadium.
The partnership preserves both the name Neyland Stadium and Shields-Watkins Field while also adding funding for continued renovations to the stadium. The official slogan of the partnership is “Neyland Stadium. Home of the Vols. Proudly preserved by Pilot.” Tennessee has already added new signage to the east side press box at Neyland Stadium that says “Home of the Vols” and a Pilot logo will be added beside it and two Pilot logos will also be on the field.
Meeting with the media, White discussed why it was important not to change the name, why Pilot was the right sponsor for the deal and much more. Here’s everything White said on Tuesday.
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Opening statement
“We’re extremely excited, absolutely thrilled, to embark on — it wasn’t that long ago, we celebrated the a 100-year anniversary of Neyland Stadium. What does the next 100 years look like? And that’s what today’s all about. Y’all have heard me talk about big time aspirations here. This is a big day for our university, for our athletics department and certainly for our football program, our football stadium, fan experience here. But we’re constantly looking for ways to generate revenue, thread the needle between being innovative and finding ways where we can look a little bit like pro sports, but also understand the history and the pageantry of college athletics, certainly here more than anywhere else in the country and with this iconic building.
“So we’ve done a lot of things to try to move the needle and increase our resource space, to move the needle in our corporate sponsorship space and everything that we do. And we’re going to continue to have our foot on the accelerator as we work to build the best athletic department in the country. I’ve still not found a reason why we can’t do that here in Knoxville. Have every intention of doing that. I won’t bore you with all the metrics that you all know about that’s been accomplished here for the last few years. But we are as excited as ever with what can be accomplished here.
“About three and a half years ago, I think it was my first month on the job, we had renderings and we had blueprints and all sorts of things for a Neyland Stadium project that just needed to be pressed go. And maybe I was young and dumb enough to do it without knowing how we’re going to pay for it all. But in all seriousness, we built a business plan on how we’re going to get this project going as quickly as possible. But we knew all along we needed a lead corporate partner for the short and the long term for the viability of this stadium.
“It’s a $337 million project. The vast majority of the improvements to this stadium are for our fan experience. We have the best fans in all of sport, not just college. They’ve proven that time and time again. Neyland Stadium is sold out with a waiting list of 15,000 strong. Our basketball is sold out. Baseball softball sold out. I’m not sure if there’s another school in the country that has that kind of support across the board from our fans. They show up on the road, they show up here in Knoxville like no other. So we will not take them for granted. We are investing in their experience. That’s what this is about.
“Neyland Stadium is iconic, it’s historical, it’s an unbelievable building, but it can get a little more comfortable. The fan experience can get a little better. We know that we need to improve on that and we’re working to do that every day. So when I first met (Pilot CEO) Adam Wright just a little over a year ago, Sabrina, then moved here to Knoxville, and the new leadership and Pilot in talking about the next chapter, not only for Tennessee and Tennessee football, but Pilot and how we can work together to make this happen for our community, for our fans.
“And so I think today is about two historic brands in Knoxville coming together.
And what I’ve been thinking about a lot this week, if Tennessee Athletics is thriving and if Pilot is thriving, the community in Knoxville and East Tennessee is thriving. We can provide value to all of our corporate partners, certainly at this level with national exposure and national value. And then we can work together to make this an even better place to live as we move forward when we’re playing football games, when we’re having concerts and with some of the other stuff we’re working on really 365 days a year. So excited to move forward with this announcement and with the long-term partnership with Tennessee Athletics, with Neyland Stadium and with Pilot. And really appreciate you guys all coming together today. Go Vols!”
On what it means for Tennessee to partner with Pilot on this scale
“It’s a difficult proposition to find the right partner for a building with this much history and pageantry. We feel like we definitely did that with Pilot. They’ve been here, entrenched in our community and such a big part of our athletics department for so long. And this day is a really a celebration about moving forward in the next 100 years of Neyland Stadium.”
On how to thread the need between having a pro sports approach in some areas while maintaining the traditions of Tennessee’s athletic department
“It’s important because we are different (than pro sports) and we have 20 sports, we have 670 student-athletes, the connection to academics in our university. And we’re really proud of the way our student-athletes compete in a classroom. And we have philanthropy and donors and donations that don’t exist on the pro sports side. But there are some things that we’ve implemented that we can continue to learn from on some of our other revenue silos. And we’ll find the best of what pro sports does and make sure that we’re taking care of what’s paramount to higher education in the college athletics model.”
On why they settled on Pilot as the ideal partner for the deal
“We didn’t settle. We sprinted to what I think is a great partnership for us and for Pilot. I think it’s a huge win for both sides of the aisle. And we couldn’t be more thrilled. I think it’s the right brand to be sitting here on this field and representing all of Vol Nation when we play football here and host other events in the stadium as well.”
On if he learned anything from the Food City Deal at Thompson-Boling Arena that helped him with this one
“We were having conversations and thoughts both probably around the same time. I don’t know that one is— they’re very different buildings with very different histories. We’re really excited about the Food City Center at Thompson-Boling Arena, and we’re thrilled about Neyland Stadium and this long term partnership with Pilot that really allows us to do some things for our fans that we probably wouldn’t be able to do without it.”
On if he expected the general positive reaction from fans
“I did. It’s taken me a little bit of time to get to know our fan base. I don’t know if I’ll ever know exactly how they’ll react to things, but I think it’s been what I’ve seen extremely positive as we all expected. This is a major win for Tennessee Athletics. There’s never been a closer connection to resources and competing for championships than there is right now in college sports. As we move forward to the new world order in college athletics, everyone knows that things are changing drastically. That relationship is going to become even more important. So we need funding to operate at a high level operationally, and we obviously need funding to get our facilities back to the top of the SEC and the top of the country.”
On why it was important to not change the name of the stadium
“We wouldn’t be standing here if it wasn’t for General Neland. Just a little over a hundred years ago, he had the vision for what this building could be. This is a generational, iconic building that we knew that was never an option. And (Pilot CEO) Adam (Wright) and the leadership at Pilot and his team knew that too. It’s not like that was a negotiation piece. It was more about how do we structure a partnership that preserves that legacy and allows us to move forward and innovate for the future. We were all on the same page from that from the beginning.”
On if the possibility of adding a corporate sponsor to Lindsey Nelson Stadium
“We have a lot of different assets that I think provide a ton of value for corporate naming opportunities. That could be one of them. But there’s a bunch that we’re always looking to make sure we’re generating as much revenue as we can, but again, while also being good stewards of Tennessee tradition and the fact that we’re here in a university setting in a higher education environment.”
On what the Haslam family means to the university of Tennessee
“The Haslam family is phenomenal. They’ve been so gracious to us and to me personally, and they obviously built a great company and the new leadership at Pilot with Adam and his team are doubling down on that support and have a vision for us with the future. Obviously the Haslam family still has and continues to have a great relationship and extremely supportive with the university and the athletics department. So it’s all very special and it’s a historical relationship with the Haslam family and as it is with Pilot and and also as we look into the future.”
On what he hopes for the future of this partnership with Pilot
“I think it’s innovative. I think it threads that needle with honoring the past and innovating for the future. Kudos to the Pilot team and I know they worked with great support, Intersport out of Chicago was kind of the leader in sponsorship valuation. Our folks with Learfield, the parent company of the Vol Network. A lot of really talented people kind of put their heads together to think about how do you take this iconic building that we don’t want to mess with the memories And so much of the value of this stadium is because of the memories and our fans coming in for decades through the highs and the lows. But then also we all know that it needs a forward looking approach. So I think we threaded the needle perfectly and testament to everybody involved.”
