Goodyear Blimps Part of Sports Marketing Landscape for Decades

By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com

Photos by Daniel Clark, LVSportsBiz.com

 

Michael Dougherty has one of the coolest jobs in sports.

He’s in the broadcast business. He’s in the sports marketing and sponsorship business. And he’s in the piloting business.

Dougherty is chief pilot of airship operations for Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, the Akron,Ohio-based company synonymous with those iconic aerial video scenes from above places like the Rose Bowl, Notre Dame Stadium and Yankee Stadium.

LVSportsBiz.com interviewed Dougherty Friday morning at North Las Vegas Airport, where one of Goodyear’s three blimps was grounded for maintenance issues overnight after the blimp participated in Thursday’s NASCAR “Burnout Blvd” on the Strip to launch NASCAR’s weekend in Las Vegas. Goodyear was the title sponsor for the “Burnout” event, where the Strip was closed for Sunday’s South Point 400 stock car racers to perform their burnout maneuvers.

Goodyear’s role in the Thursday “burnout” event was intriguing because besides supplying the aerial footage its crew is famous for, the airship showed the blimp — dubbed “Wingfoot Three” — is also a sports marketing tool to drive everything from tire sales to forging sponsorship deals with companies to partnering with sports broadcast companies.

Goodyear has been providing aerial footage at sports events since 1955, when a crew documented the scenes at the Rose Bowl game between Ohio State and USC in Pasadena, California. Goodyear’s blimp, filled with helium, was first launched in 1925.

The advertising end of the business has the three blimps in motion throughout the country. But the Akron, Ohio-based company is most noted for its aerial footage thanks to a trio of 23-person crews that travel as an individual unit with each of the three blimps.

While the 15 pilots who operate the three air vessels travel via air, the crews move via trailers and other ground vehicles from three bases in Pompano Beach, Fla., Carson, Calif. and Suffield, Ohio. Technically speaking, the 246-feet-long airships are what are considered “semi-rigid” airships, which have rigid internal frames.

Here’s our interview with Dougherty, who discussed Goodyear’s role in the sports industry.

Dougherty declined to comment on the blimp’s cost, but the price tag is reportedly in the $20 million-$21 million range. Here’s more on the airship.

When you see those aerial shots from above, you should know that the camera operators and broadcast crew members are Goodyear employees. When an event or a network partners with Goodyear, it’s one-stop shopping because Goodyear supplies its own broadcast crew that interfaces with the sports event’s broadcast director.

Dougherty is from Akron, Ohio. In fact, his brother played against Los Angeles Lakers basketball superstar LeBron James in high school football games in the Akron area. Dougherty said he enjoys piloting the Goodyear blimps for broadcasts of Ohio State and Notre Dame games, which are close to home.

There’s a live mic in the blimp’s gondola when Goodyear is part of a sports broadcast, so Dougherty hears the director’s directions throughout the broadcast. He enjoys looking down on the sports action, but he can also track the game broadcast via equipment in the gondola, too.

Here’s an interview with pilot Taylor Deen.

*

Follow LVSportsBiz.com on Twitter and Instagram. Like LVSportsBiz.com on the Facebook.