Football games are often a highlight of school cultures, especially for the SEC. More than just the game on the field, the atmosphere that envelops gameday is unlike anything in sports. For Texas, the school has many time honored festivities: Big Bertha, Bevo, the marching band and more recently, during night games, drones.
Texas used about 500 drones during its most recent home game against Georgia. Since the second game this season, the athletic department has used drones as one of the many forms of entertainment that take place between snaps, and it is a big hit among the crowd.
“It goes into our overall philosophy with Texas football gameday. Certainly the game itself is the headliner … but we’ve got over 100,000 people coming to our games, some that never even make it inside the stadium, so our goal is to make sure to provide different elements of the gameday experience,” said Charles Branch, assistant athletics director of marketing.
The idea began in the summer of 2023 when the creative branch of the athletic department was trying to think of new and innovative ways to keep the crowd engaged during football games. It was then that Texas Athletics turned to Verge Aero for help, a company centered around drone shows.
“We never wanna be complacent (and) drone shows were definitely something that were on our radar about a way to really elevate things … this was a no brainer,” said Branch.
According to Verge Aero’s website, the process begins with creating a storyboard with the images and effects the company would like to use. They then used specialized software to animate and synchronize flight paths for each drone. After aligning the show to a soundtrack, the drones are operated by pilot via radio signals from a ground control station.
Before Texas, no drone shows in the U.S. used pyrotechnics, something that changed back in June during the school’s SEC celebration.
“(Verge Aero) actually shared with us the possibility of doing drone shows with pyrotechnics, but at the time … that actually was not permitted by the FAA,” said Branch. “We were the first entity in North America to do a public drone show with pyrotechnics at the SEC celebration down on Lady Bird Lake
As technology constantly develops and football continues to attract crowds in the hundreds of thousands, new forms of entertainment will constantly be in development. The drones may not be a guarantee at every night game Texas hosts, but that makes it even more of a one-of-a-kind experience.
“I think there are definitely several people who do think (drones are) an expectation,” said Branch. “But on our end (the goal is to) continue to evaluate and evolve the gameday experience and if we have a drone show, it’s gonna be fantastic.”
