LINCOLN — Nebraska has decided to remove the words “Beat Texas” from a website and video that eventually will be part of an athletic department fan site.
The site, www.redoutaroundtheworld.com, which doesn’t go live until mid-August, has attracted national attention with a promotional “splash page” that features a video highlighting the buildup to the Oct. 16 home football game against the Texas Longhorns — with the slogan “Wear red. Be loud. Beat Texas.”
The Omaha World-Herald is partnering with the NU athletic department on the new fan site, which has recorded more than 103,000 visits since July 8 and more than 130,000 hits on YouTube. It has also been the subject of commentary from espn.com and sportingnews.com.
“It’s a risky move, tacitly declaring that the first five games of the year are mere prelude,” espn.com’s Pat Forde wrote in a column that appeared Tuesday. “But Nebraska, much more accustomed to being the hunted than the hunter and having other programs circle its name on the schedule, clearly is ready to assume the risk.”
NU decided Wednesday to remove the words “Beat Texas” from the splash page and video.
Marc Boehm, NU executive associate athletic director, said Wednesday morning on Lincoln radio station KLIN that each year NU highlights a game to rally the alumni base. In 2009, that game was Oklahoma. In 2010, that game will be Texas, hence the “Wear red. Be loud. Beat Texas” message on the splash page video.
“If you look back (at the planning process that started in February), maybe we should have left out ‘Beat Texas,’ to be very honest,” Boehm said on KLIN’s Jack and John morning show.
“It’s simply a logo and a call to gather all of our alumni around the world. We thought it would be kind of fun, unique and different. Our alumni office is really behind it, and the athletic department and several other folks.”
The World-Herald’s role in the partnership is the technical development and hosting of the website, said Rich Warren, the newspaper’s director of marketing.
The site’s content is and will be provided by NU’s athletic marketing department. The splash page video was produced by HuskerVision.
Warren said the partnership between NU and the newspaper is a marketing one and does not involve the World-Herald’s news and sports departments. He said the newspaper will benefit by being able to sell advertising on the site and by including links from the site to World-Herald content on omaha.com.
Michael Stephens, NU’s assistant athletic director for marketing, licensing and concessions, said the website partnership grew out of an existing business relationship with the newspaper.
“The Omaha World-Herald has been a corporate partner with athletics for several years,” he said “Most recently, The Omaha World-Herald has been a key partner in the design and technical development of the ‘Red Out Around the World’ website. Their web expertise and design creativity have been a key part of the project and are much appreciated.”
Stephens on Wednesday downplayed the site’s focus on the Texas game.
“I think it’s important to note that it is not a ‘Beat Texas’ site, but rather a website that will celebrate, thank and connect Husker fans across the world,” he said. “In doing this, we do hope to create some energy to help our team beat Texas, but that certainly is not the sole focus.”
Warren said The World-Herald has sponsored NU athletic events during the past four years.
The World-Herald pays for its logo to appear as sponsor of football instant replays as well as for a “kickoff kid” promotion at the start of each game, when a contest-winning youngster delivers the game ball to the referees in a World-Herald newspaper bag.
The World-Herald also helps sponsor basketball and volleyball games.
“We’ve got the infrastructure, and we’ve got the IT expertise,” Warren said. “We have the bandwidth to support the traffic that will probably hit this site. Because of our partnership, it was easy to help them out with this.”
Stephens said the new site will differ from other NU-sponsored websites because of its focus on fan involvement from around the world.
Contact the writers:
402-473-9581, leslie.reed@owh.com
402-444-1021, thad.livingston@owh.com
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