The Sonic Boom in Vegas

[Venom Skywalker]

JSU’s Sonic Boom of the South to perform at Las Vegas HBCU Classic

ackson State University’s world-renowned marching band, the Sonic Boom of the South, seems set to be performing at the Las Vegas HBCU Classic.

www.wlbt.com

During a Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning board meeting on July 31, JSU’s request to enter into a contractual services agreement with Principal Jets, LLC, was approved.

This will provide passenger charter air transportation for 370 members of the JSU Sonic Boom of the South Marching Band and approved JSU staff.


The contract agreement would last from October 24 to October 26, and the total estimated cost of this agreement is $447,240.00, with additional fuel costs of $50,000 also granted.

The agreement will be funded with Education and General Program Funds.

Am I reading this correctly?.JSU is about to pay half a mil for the band to perform in Vegas for the game? Why isn't the classic or LVCB covering travel? Kenn had a podcast discussing that its a non traditional classic and JSU will be getting the majority of the gate. Does that mean Gramblings band isn't going? Will they have to spend a half a mil for the bands travel while getting a fraction of the gate?

 

[Tigerpride]

I don't think you are understanding it correctly. I won't claim to know all the specifics, but Vegas is treating this game like it's a JSU home game. We provided them with a "take-home" number that we would accept, and they had to match it. No other HBCU would receive our payout because no other HBCU has our home attendance. GSU is being treated like the visiting team. They wouldn’t have made money coming to Jackson, so they won’t really make money going to Vegas either. However, Vegas will cover their travel expenses. This is revolutionary in the way they are handling this classic.

This reads as if our contract with Vegas has them paying us on the backend or reimbursing us for our expenses. IHL doesnt want to give us any money so they wouldnt just give us money for this. It's probably the equivalent of a "loan". It also makes sense that the IHL is involved in authorizing all JSU travel and travel for state universities. I can't speak to that in detail, but it's likely that our regular season contracts (for air and ground transportation) operate under a separate agreement. This contract is probably out of sync with those and requires its own separate deal. Regardless, JSU only accepted the offer because it was lucrative enough to meet our demands.

I also don't think "gate" plays a part in the payout. The city of Las Vegas is covering all of this, hoping to see a return on its investment. If they don’t get a return from the JSU vs. GSU game, they may never receive one.

 

[Venom Skywalker]

I think that makes sense. Just seems odd that the school would pay 500k to send the band to a classic unless their expected pay out was well over a mil. I'm not sure how revolutionary it is if it's true that they could only do this with one HBCU. I'm curious to see how this plays out for all parties involved. I've love to see a paradigm shift in how classics work on the business side for us. That 500k expense was something that just stood out to me.

 

[GSUperTiger]

Grambling is the draw. West Coast is Grambling West. When I was in Vegas for Memorial Day the digital advertisement of the game was shining brightly on the Allegiant stadium screen as seen from I-15.

This game should draw well as ostensibly Vegas seems to have a jumpstart on advertising.