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When Ross Bjork has been asked about things he’s looking to improve after his first year as Ohio State’s athletic director, he’s brought up one topic repeatedly: Gameday atmosphere.
Bjork sees room for improvement in both the Shoe and the Schott as Ohio State looks to create a more engaging atmosphere for its fans and a more intimidating atmosphere for its opponents in both football and basketball – and other sports as well. And the Ohio State athletic department is hard at work behind the scenes looking for ways to make that happen.
“I think you just have to evolve with the times, but also I think people are clamoring for that,” Bjork told Eleven Warriors in April. “I think we've seen a lot of other technology movements around the country where people see lighting and they see different music. So gameday script, how do we script out our game day? How do we utilize the technology? What kind of technology upgrades are on their way? Which there are, we're working on several things to upgrade technology in the Schott; baseball stadium, we need a new scoreboard, softball needs a new scoreboard. Obviously, Ohio Stadium, sound system, LED. But in the meantime, there's a lot of things we can do before we get this new technology. And so those are the kind of things that we’re focused on.”
Enhancing the gameday atmosphere was already one of Bjork’s focuses before last year’s College Football Playoff, but Ohio State’s first-ever home CFP game against Tennessee showed just how great the atmosphere inside Ohio Stadium can be at its best. Bjork said after Ohio State’s national championship celebration that former Buckeye captain Jack Sawyer told him that the Tennessee game was the best atmosphere he ever played in.
Now, the goal is to create that kind of environment for every game – and make it even better.
“The noon games last year, obviously that put kind of a strain on the environment. And then people saw the night game against Tennessee and it was like, ‘Oh, that's what it can be.’ And I thought it was great, but to me, it can even be better if we do all the right things,” Bjork said. “So there's a lot of things that we're working on together.”
The atmosphere for the Tennessee game benefited from a perfect storm of factors that could be tough to duplicate in the average regular-season game. The historic significance of the first-ever playoff game in the Shoe certainly boosted fan excitement, as did the game’s high-stakes nature with the Buckeyes’ championship hopes on the line. The “Tennessee Takeover” attempt from Volunteer fans didn’t hurt, as it gave Ohio State fans extra incentive to be loud and ensure the Buckeyes had a home-field advantage. The Buckeyes themselves gave fans a lot to cheer about as they raced out to a 21-0 first-quarter lead on their way to a 42-17 win. And of course, it helped that the game was played under the lights with an 8 p.m. kickoff, making it Ohio State’s only home night game against a marquee opponent (the other being against Western Michigan) last season.
Ross Bjork hopes Ohio State can duplicate the atmosphere it had in Ohio Stadium for last season’s College Football Playoff game against Tennessee – and make it even better.
That said, there’s still a lot that Ohio State can learn from what worked well in that game that it can apply to every game going forward. Due to CFP rules, Ohio State’s in-game sponsor activations that typically occupy many of the media timeouts inside Ohio Stadium were replaced by concerted efforts to hype up the crowd, and Bjork believes OSU can use that as a blueprint for improving the environment for future games.
“That game day script was really controlled by the CFP, meaning we couldn't do a lot of our same elements. So we're going to make sure we protect tradition, but also modernize,” Bjork said. “So when we play certain things, how we play certain things, when we flash LED and video all the same color; you can still do those things, even though you might play at 3:30 or 12. We can definitely upgrade.”
“People saw the night game against Tennessee and it was like, ‘Oh, that's what it can be.’ And I thought it was great, but to me, it can even be better if we do all the right things.”– Ross Bjork on improving the Ohio State football game atmosphere
While a lack of noise inside Ohio Stadium for regular-season games has been a point of contention for Ohio State football fans for several years, the mundane atmosphere at Ohio State basketball games has drawn scrutiny for even longer. Ohio State’s attendance for men’s basketball games has plummeted over the past two years; its average attendance this past season was the second-lowest since the Buckeyes moved into the Schottenstein Center, ahead of only the previous season.
That’s largely a reflection of the team’s lack of on-court success, as the Buckeyes have missed three straight NCAA Tournaments, but the Schottenstein Center’s reputation for being a cavernous arena that lacks the soul of other Big Ten basketball venues precedes the team’s recent struggles. So Bjork knows one step to rebuilding Ohio State basketball into the powerful program it should be is to make Value City Arena a more exciting place to be.
“You can't really downsize the Schott, but how do we make it a tighter feel?” Bjork asked rhetorically. “Is that lighting? Is that seating sections that we look at? How do we get students more involved? What's our messaging around the program?”
Jake Diebler said in a video message to Ohio State fans this week that he and Bjork are working together on coming up with ideas to improve the gameday atmosphere for Buckeye basketball games.
"He and I have met and we've discussed ways we can make the environment here better and one of the best in the Big Ten," Diebler said. "His commitment to doing that has been great. What we've been able to come up with, I'm really excited about the changes, and we can't wait for you to see that. We'll be rolling that out as we approach the season."
