Minium: Drone Show And Much More Entertainment Returning For ODU Football This Season
By Harry Minium
NORFOLK, Va. – Ricky Rahne was in the Old Dominion football locker room talking to his players at halftime of ODU’s first Thursday night game ever last season, and thus missed the show that everyone left the stadium talking about.
At halftime of ODU’s nationally televised victory over Georgia Southern, more than 350 drones rose behind the Atlantic Bay Football Complex and for nine minutes, put on a show unlike any seen in Hampton Roads.
The drones paid tribute to the military and ODU and joined together to depict tanks, ships, planes and even had an aircraft carrier land a jet.
There was a map of Virginia surrounding the numbers “757,” area code for most of the Hampton Roads region. The formations were created as the ODU Band played in the background.
Fans cheered as they watched the show, which drew a thunderous ovation when it finally ended.
“I wished I’d been able to see it live,” said Rahne, the ODU head football coach.
For all those fans who missed the show and wished they could see it, we have good news.
The drone show, sponsored in part last season by ODU Global, will return again this season. ODU Global, the university’s online learning division, will partially sponsor the drone show once again.
CLICK HERE TO GO TO ODU GLOBAL WEB SITE
We hope to announce in the coming weeks at which game we will put on the drone show.
The drone show is the latest of in-game elements added to ODU football that are designed to entertain fans in way that wasn’t contemplated years ago.
Decades ago, watching a college football game and being entertained by the marching band was enough for most fans. Music might be played over the loudspeaker, but the game itself was expected to be enough entertainment.
But as college athletics evolved, so has fan interests and tastes. Fans now expect to be entertained during timeouts and other long breaks in the action.
The NFL, NBA and major colleges across the country long ago ramped-up their in-game entertainment, and ODU is among that group.
Officials view each minute of a timeout as not time to fill, but a chance to engage and energize fans.
Alyshia Allison, ODU’s assistant athletic director for marketing and promotions, leads the group in charge of in-game entertainment.
And that ranges from pre-game fireworks, as the team runs onto the field; music, light shows, the cannon manned by ODU ROTC students and the camera crews who constantly splash the faces of hundreds of faces of fans on the scoreboard.
“We feel like our job is to keep the fans engaged throughout a game,” Allison said.
And from my perspective, ODU did a far better job of entertaining fans in 2024 than in any of the previous 16 seasons.
The music was crisp and on-time. Obligatory announcements were kept to a minimum. Cameras swooped through the crowds, looking for people to put on the scoreboard.
“Sweet Caroline,” the Neal Diamond song that has become an anthem of sorts for the Boston Red Sox and Carolina Panthers, has become more popular with ODU fans, who sing along with Neal Diamond late in the second half of many games.
Ice Cream and Cake, the song and dance routine that only ODU fans would understand, of course, remains a staple for Monarch football and men’s and women’s basketball.
The light shows, in which the stadium and laser lights combine with music, have gotten more complicated and more entertaining.
When my girlfriend from Germany visited S.B. Ballard Stadium last fall, she didn’t understand college football, but she loved the light shows and music.
Good entertainment, it turns out, transcends language and culture.
If you like what you see, that’s no accident. We survey our fans after every season, and we truly take into account your feedback.
"That's a critical step for us every year, to survey our fans and take a long, hard look at their feedback," said Joe Rafanelli, ODU's senior associate athletic director for revenue generation & external operations.
"We care about our fans and try to accommodate them in every way possible."
ODU fans, you indicated that you loved the drone show and we’re bringing it back.
You indicated that you want to see more of ODU’s marching band and we’re looking for ways to involve the band more frequently.
In recent years we’ve added some on-the-field races involving fans, and you loved races as well as the field goal kicking competition. You’ll see more of that this season.
Everyone seems to love flyovers, whether it involves Navy jet fighters or helicopters, and we intend to keep them coming next season.
You’ve asked for a more diverse music selection, that you don’t want to hear the same 10 or so songs over and over and we heard you.
You love the National Anthem as it is, so we don’t plan to change a thing.
If you have suggestions, complaints or compliments, email them to me below and I’ll make sure the right people see them.
And next Friday, come back to www.odusports.com, where I will preview all that we do to entertain fans before games, including some interesting changes we have planned for 2025.
Football season ticket renewals have begun, and tickets are also on sale for new ticket holders. Purchase season tickets by clicking here.
Minium is ODU’s senior executive writer. Contact him at hminium@odu.edu or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram