Thunder Crew’s budget increases

Thunder Crew focuses on student involvement, boosting tailgating, athletics and Homecoming weekWith a boost in its budget this year, the Georgia College Thunder Crew plans to invest in student involvement. Up to $12,000 from last year’s budget of $10,500, the Thunder Crew will spend the extra money giving back to the students, pumping up tailgating and generating buzz or major games, like the Battle of the Cats and Homecoming.
“We’re wanting to spend a lot of our money on handouts for the student section. We spend a good $2,000 on t-shirts to hand out at games. We’re wanting stuff like pom-poms and rally-rags, stuff to sort of impact the game,” Thunder Crew President Pat Gamble said. “We’ll have anything you would want to use as a college student at tailgates or games––coozies, arm bands, T-shirts. We want a good brand on campus.”
“I think we’re going to spend a lot of [the budget] on new T-shirt ideas,” Thunder Crew co-vice president Allyn Harris said. “We’ve got a lot of new exciting shirt designs that we’re looking forward to, along with other promotional items.”
According to Tyler Kemp, co-vice president of the Thunder Crew and junior marketing and management major, about $5,000 or $6,000 will fund the Battle of the Cats game.
Kemp will be taking over as Thunder Crew president when Gamble graduates.
“We’re going to do our own version of the Green Towel, with Battle of the Cats logo on one side and Thunder Crew on the other,” Kemp said. “We’re also going to have megaphones for that game, and we’re going to give them out to people in the student section. And we do have three or four T-shirts that we’re hoping to give out this year.”
Kemp says they will spend about $300-$500 on bands for the big tailgates. The Thunder Crew hopes to be able to bring in bands such as Elastic Skyline and Brantley Gilbert.
“A lot of money has to go to tailgating because we have to rent generators for every game,”  Kemp said.
“We’re also working on launching ThunderCrew.com, where we’ll advertise more games, sell Thunder Crew and GC merchandise, and students will be able to sign up for away-game bus trips,” Gamble said. “All the stuff is very interactive, churning back and forth between the Thunder Crew and the students.”
Kemp says about $600 will be spent on the website.
Plus, the Thunder Crew was recognized as the loudest student section in Division II.
“We want to get to a point where we rival Division I in loudness, organization and competitiveness,” Gamble said.
“We’re just trying to improve the overall experience for the students and the fans,” Harris said. “We’re working on improving the atmosphere of the games and the tailgates.”
“A lot of money we spend goes right back to students, and it’s working. Game attendance is up 45 percent in the past few years,” Gamble said. “The student section was huge last year – 275 seats with people still standing in the aisles. We set the bar last year, but we’re always trying to improve,” Gamble said.
“It’s more than just the student section,” Gamble said. “When people develop ‘Bobcat pride’ they want to do more on campus.”

Posted by Caitlin Renn on Sep 8 2011. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.