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...Click here for the 2008 NAIA National Championship Game.
In exactly five months, the NAIA national football championship will be decided on the field at Barron Stadium.
And for the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, that means it’s time for a check-up of their newest representative city.
With more than six months of work already put into making the title game on Dec. 20 a reality, the host committee for the contest will welcome a delegation from the NAIA for a site visit on Monday and Tuesday.
Committee co-chairs Bill Peterson and Bob Berry are optimistic that the visit will do nothing but assure the NAIA that they chose wisely.
“I think the NAIA people are going to be excited that they picked the right place,” Peterson said.
“We’re really very well prepared for this and I think that they will not help but be impressed with the progress that has been made toward Dec. 2
Hall’s Masonry workers Rodney Griffin (left) and Kenneth Hall wash the track in front of a new faux-brick facade at Barron Stadium. Ryan Smith / Rome News-Tribune |
0,” Berry said.
Peterson, who is also Shorter’s athletic director, and Berry have watched with anticipation as local government authorities, community and business leaders and churches have joined together.
Of course, the most visible representation of the nationally televised championship game coming to Rome is the renovations to Barron Stadium.
“That’s something that can’t be missed,” Peterson said. “And I hope that the other people that pass by are as excited as we are.”
Besides the aesthetic enhancements of a new paint job, signs and goal posts, the Rome-Floyd Parks and Recreation Authority has completed a long list of improvements that were both planned and added once Rome had won the bid to host the game in January.
RFPRA Executive Director Richard Garland and Parks Superintendent Todd Wofford have worked closely with the host committee to make sure that the needs expressed by the NAIA are met.
“From our standpoint, we couldn’t be more pleased with what they have done,” Peterson said.
“They have done a tremendous job,” Berry said. “We just haven’t had to keep tabs on them. They just took the ball and ran with it.”
Among the improvements, the playing surface has been laser graded and the sod replaced, structures on either side of the press box have been constructed for each teams’ coaches and the press box itself has undergone drastic renovations on the inside.
Also, the restrooms and officials’ locker rooms have been redone and new trash cans have been purchased and installed.
Recently, the committee has been working on something that the NAIA has never had before — a title sponsor for the national football championship game.
The sponsorship sub-committee, headed by River City Bank president Roger Smith, has been working with a number of companies to try and secure a title sponsorship, including Suzuki Manufacturing of America.
“They’ve been working hard on trying to develop evaluation for the title sponsorship and working a number of different leads,” Peterson said.
“And although we don’t have a title sponsor yet … there’s some exciting prospects out there but nothing we can report on at this time.”
With CSTV broadcasting the game and many opportunities to provide exposure for the title sponsor, Berry said that the possibilities are enticing.
“We have a lot to attract someone to come in and attach their name to this game and our goal is to have that accomplished by Sept. 1,” he said.
A full-fledged sponsorship program will be launched in the coming weeks detailing the different levels that businesses and individuals can contribute.
“That’s more in line with kind of the smaller sponsorships that are really the ones that make or break an event like ours,” Peterson said.
As far as events in the days leading up to the game, Linda Smith and Ann Hortman with the Greater Rome Convention and Visitors Bureau have already set up a tentative schedule and plans are taking shape for the game day fan fest as well as pregame and halftime entertainment.
But none of it would be possible without the backing of the community and the response the committee has received is a sign of their success so far.
“It has been overwhelmingly positive,” Berry said. “I have characterized it as one of those feel-good events.”
Berry, along with other members of the host committee, has spoken to civic clubs and church groups over the last five months.
“Everywhere we have been … there is clearly a lot of, first of all, curiosity about what it is and excitement for having an event of this magnitude come to Rome,” Berry said, “and you just don’t hear any negative comments about it.”
Ann Arnold, the director of the Downtown Development Authority, is leading the volunteer effort and is already receiving interest from people who want to help in any way needed.
“We feel like we’ve been swimming upstream a little bit, getting organized and all,” Berry said, “and certainly doing all of this at a time of the year when football is not on anybody’s mind probably but our’s.”
But the preseason is just around two weeks away for high school and college teams.
“I think that will certainly turn everybody’s attention to this game on Dec. 20,” Berry said.
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