Greater Rome and Shorter College scored big Thursday.
Bill Peterson, Shorter College’s athletic director, revealed that the local college will play host to the NAIA football championships this year and in 2009.
Peterson, along with Shorter President Harold E. Newman, officially proclaimed that the national title games would be settled on the gridiron at Barron Stadium during the next two Decembers.
“We are excited. There’s no doubt,” Peterson said.
“I think the main reason that we got this bid is a reflection of this community,” Peterson said. “Great people and a great town. That’s why we got the bid and the NAIA recognized that, there’s no question about it.”
The decision by the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletes, which includes 90 institutions that sponsor football teams, has been a year in the making.
“We have a great way of starting the new year knowing that we have an opportunity to showcase Rome and Shorter College,” Newman said.
The championship game, played was in Savannah, Tenn., for the past 12 years, will be Dec. 20 this year and Dec. 19 next year and will cap off a four-day schedule of events focusing on the participating teams.
“We plan to treat this game just as important as the BCS National Championship,” Peterson said.
Shorter’s initial bid to host the game came last May with a $25,000 guarantee to be paid in part by the Rome City and Floyd County commissions, the Greater Rome Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Rome Conventions & Visitors Bureau.
Each organization will work together to help plan and prepare for the nationally televised event that could draw between 3,000 and 8,000 fans, depending on which teams face off for the national title.
“The people who come to Rome, the people who participate in this game and the people who come to watch that game will have the warmest, best welcome of any community this game has ever been held in,” vowed Rome City Commissioner Harold “Buzz” Wachsteter.
County Commissioner Eddie Lumsden made a similar pledge.
“We indeed intend to put our best foot forward in every respect in regard to hosting this game,” said Lumsden.
“We know we have a great community and now we have an opportunity to broadcast to a much broader audience the type of community we have.”
NAIA President and CEO Jim Carr said he believes the local community, is committed to making the experience special.
“The 2008 and 2009 championship games will showcase the top teams in the NAIA, and it is an event fans across the country look forward to each year,” Carr said.
While Thursday was a celebratory day centered on the announcement, there’s much work to be done in the coming months.
Many of the details and logistics have yet to be worked out, officials say. A gameplan has to be created for the big game and all of the events surrounding it.
To do that a team of local leaders will form a host committee to formulate the timeline, to calculate financial details and resources, to arrange for the needed manpower and to organize related events in the community.
A championship coordinator will be named in the coming weeks to head up the committee that needs to hammer out myriad details outlined in an eight-page host agreement with the NAIA.
But Greater Rome is a community that loves football and is known for its ability to stage big sporting events, whether it’s Tour de Georgia or the South Atlantic League All-Star baseball game.
So Shorter College and local officials are confident that the 53rd annual NAIA Division I National Championship will be another big win for Rome.
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Click here for the NAIA Web site.
Click here for Shorter College’s Web site.
Click here to view the championship host agreement.
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Click here for the NAIA press release.
Click here to see the host requirements.
