Dec. 18, 2012
THE FLATS – Georgia Tech Athletics announced today it has reached an agreement with IMG College, the nation’s leading collegiate marketing firm, to extend its current 14-year multimedia rights partnership through June, 2021.
The agreement includes IMG College’s exclusive representation and management of game broadcasts and coaches’ shows for radio and television, publications, digital assets, corporate partnerships, stadium and venue signage, game promotions, and game day hospitality.
“We are thrilled to not only continue, but extend our multimedia partnership with IMG College,” Georgia Tech acting athletic director Paul Griffin said. “Our relationship with IMG has benefitted Georgia Tech athletics across all our multimedia platforms on a local, regional and national level for many years.
“We are happy to join a long list of elite programs in college athletics in solidifying our long-term commitment to our partnership with IMG College.”
Through IMG College’s representation, Georgia Tech has benefitted from the support of large national brands as well as new and enhanced relationships with many local and regional companies. By consolidating schools’ media rights coast to coast, IMG formed the first national collegiate marketing platform giving companies easy access to the largest, wealthiest and best-educated fan base in sports. With GT’s involvement in this groundbreaking platform, major sponsors including UPS and Lowe’s are now providing support to GT Athletics. Additionally, IMG College has forged school sponsorships with brands such as AT&T, Coca-Cola, Delta Air Lines, Georgia Power, Aaron’s and many others.
“IMG College is thrilled to continue to serve Georgia Tech, an historic institution with an athletics program on the rise,” said Ben Sutton, President of IMG College. “This partnership with Tech and our continuing presence in Atlanta – a top 10 media market and headquarters for many leading U.S. companies – is important to our groundbreaking national program that the Institute will continue to benefit from.”
The ground-up rebuilding of Alexander Memorial Coliseum – now known as McCamish Pavilion – is providing new opportunities for Georgia Tech IMG Sports Marketing, led by General Manager Tom Stipes. The facility is a cornerstone of the program’s revitalization efforts under new Head Coach Brian Gregory and features state-of-the-art digital scoring and entertainment systems, theatrical lighting and many additional benefits for the patrons in attendance.
Each year on the GT IMG Sports Network, more than 250 hours of GT sports programming is produced and distributed, including play by play and pre- and post-game shows for football and basketball games. The GT Game Day Radio Network stretches across approximately 30 stations throughout Georgia.
IMG College represents eight of the member institutions of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
About IMG College
IMG College is the nation’s leading collegiate multimedia, marketing and licensing/brand management company, representing more than 200 of the nation’s top collegiate properties, including the NCAA and its 89 championships, NCAA Football, leading conferences, and many of the most prestigious colleges and universities in the country. Headquartered in Winston Salem, N.C., IMG College employs more than 700 people in nearly 100 offices throughout the U.S., capturing consumer devotion to college sports through partnership opportunities in multimedia rights, licensing, events and hospitality, marketing, stadium and arena development, stadium seating solutions, ticketing, sales, and consulting. IMG College produces nearly 30,000 hours of radio programming on the largest independent sports network in the country, manages nearly 5,000 hours of local television programming, and is the leading publisher of college sports publications and the largest manager of university athletic websites. IMG College is a division of IMG Worldwide, a global sports, fashion and media business. For more information, please visit www.imgcollege.com
About Georgia Tech Athletics
Since 1892, when the first football team was organized on the Flats, Georgia Tech teams in all sports have represented the Institute in outstanding fashion while producing some of the best-known names in athletics.
The Georgia Tech Athletic Association is a nonprofit organization responsible for maintaining the intercollegiate athletic program at Tech. The Athletic Association is overseen by the Georgia Tech Athletic Board, chaired by the president of the Institute, and composed of nine faculty members, three alumni members, and three student members.
The director of athletics oversees teams in 17 sports and follows in the footsteps of some of the most honored men in college athletics: John Heisman (for whom football’s Heisman Trophy is named), William Alexander, Bobby Dodd, Dr. Homer Rice, Dave Braine and Dan Radakovich.
Tech has won four national championships in football, in 1917, 1928, 1952 and 1990. The Yellow Jacket football teams have one of the nation’s best records in bowl games at 22-18, and their string of 16 consecutive bowl appearances is the fourth-longest active streak nationally.
Other major highlights in Georgia Tech athletics have been two Final Four appearances by the men’s basketball team, in 1990 and 2004, when the Yellow Jackets reached the NCAA title game, a WNIT women’s basketball title in 1992 and three College World Series berths in baseball. The Georgia Tech women’s tennis team captured the 2007 NCAA championship, the first title ever won in an NCAA team championship.
In 2008, Amanda McDowell became the first Yellow Jacket tennis player to earn an individual national championship by winning the NCAA Singles title.
Some of the most prominent names in Georgia Tech athletic history have been Grand Slam champion Bobby Jones, former Masters champion Larry Mize, British Open champions David Duval and Stewart Cink in golf; Billy Lothridge, George Morris, Robert Lavette, Maxie Baughan, Marco Coleman, Shawn Jones, Joe Hamilton (runner-up in the 1999 Heisman Trophy race) and Calvin Johnson in football.
Also, four Olympic gold medal winners in track, Antonio McKay, Derek Mills, Derrick Adkins, and Angelo Taylor, as well as three-time NCAA high jump champion and 2004 U.S. Olympian Chaunte Howard in women’s track; Major League Baseball stars Mark Teixeira, Nomar Garciaparra, Matt Wieters and Jason Varitek; and Roger Kaiser, Rich Yunkus, Mark Price, John Salley, Kenny Anderson, Stephon Marbury, Matt Harpring, Jarrett Jack and 2008 Olympic gold medalist Chris Bosh in men’s basketball.
Georgia Tech teams participate in the Atlantic Coast Conference, generally regarded as one of the finest collegiate conferences in the country. The primary purpose of the Athletic Association is to help each student-athlete grow as a person, develop as an athlete, earn a meaningful degree and become a good citizen.
