Jason Cook details new Kyle, combating issues, SEC Network & more

Key quotes from Jason Cook interview

“I caused a little tempest in the teapot last week about that September 5th game, but it is fascinating how much focus is on the September 12th game, and rightfully so. This is the largest stadium redevelopment in the history of college football and is something that I personally have been working on for three years now and I am very excited about it. Sometimes, we tend to lose a little focus on the huge game against Arizona State in Houston. It’s not just that we are playing against a top-15 team that is really good with a lot of returning talent, there is a lot of conference pride on the line as well, because if you look, there is a lot of dialogue about the Pac-12 now being the top conference over the SEC, so we need to rep the SEC well in Houston.”

“The neat thing about Kirk Herbstreit is that he does his homework. There are a lot of guys on the radio and TV that just parrot talking points that are already out there, but Herbstreit does his homework. He knows the game. His picks were a little surprising. Arizona State in the playoff, LSU was very surprising to me as well, but you look back, very seldom are these preseason predictions right, so I’m holding onto that.”

“A lot of people are wondering about playing this neutral site game, but what it did was buy us another week on the stadium. It was a week we needed to get things done. Also, it is the next best thing to playing a home game. We go down to Houston, down to NRG, a place we’ve been before. Our largest alumni base in the world is in Houston, so we need the 12th Man to be there. We have some seats available, but they are selling at a pretty good clip. Overnight, we sold 200 tickets, so we’re closing in. I’ll make it easy for you, 12thman.com/tickets.”

“I did sneak in a family vacation this summer, but it is wild. The main thing I’ve been working on with Kyle Field, as well as all the branding, is the Hall of Champions. We have the manufacturing group in Seattle, the design group in Salt Lake City and the interactive elements are in Boston, so we got some of the top people in the country working on this. I’ve been crisscrossing the coasts, it’s been crazy. Summers have been crazy for Texas A&M, if you rewind for the past five years, in 2010, we had the failed conference realignment experiment. 2011, we actually made it happen. 2012, we actually made the transition to the SEC. 2013, we had Manziel Mania and everything that went into the summer of Johnny. 2014 we had Kyle Field and the launch of the SEC Network, now we had Kyle Field part two. So it has been remarkable for us from a workload standpoint for staff, but even for fans, we just keep it going all the time.”

“We’re at the point now where if you have ever bought a house and you are two weeks from closing, you have to be out of your old house and things are a little helter skelter, but somehow, someway, it is coming together. I’ve built a couple houses and that’s what has happened there, but it doesn't help the stress level any. Yesterday, we were testing a lot of the connectivity and audio and got a lot of good feedback on that. Every day, there are more things happening. I did a walk-through of the stadium on Friday and then again yesterday, and it was remarkable what had been done from Friday to Wednesday. Then, I had a seven o’clock walk-through and a four o’clock walk through yesterday, and it was even more amazing what happened in just a day’s period, so we feel really good. The things you can see look incredible. I mentioned walking through twice yesterday and in that time period, half of lot A was paved. There is a lot of moving and shaking, but we feel good.”

“I think that if you rewind to last year, we didn't start the concessions off on the right foot. With the stadium project and where it was going, they didn't have enough time to get into the facility, get set up and get supplies. Then, the first game didn’t start until a few hours later than it was supposed to and then the freight elevator breaks. So there was a lot of things going on. You could look at that and say, 'Jason, you’re just giving us excuses.' But the truth is, a lot of things didn't go our way last year. I’m big into fan experience and I’m on the SEC fan experience working group for Commissioner Sankey now. We didn't get good feedback on concessions last year, but we have a new team working on it, not only on the Levy side, but in the athletics side too. We have a lot of communication, a lot more positive interactions happening. Also, we are able to get into a lot of the stadium a lot sooner. You’re able to prepare, able to have more time to hire staff to come into the facility. So, we feel a lot better about where we are going to be in terms of the offerings, the points of sale, and the whole fan experience component.”

“A lot of things were concessions related and I want people to know that is a priority and we are going to get that right as part of the fan experience. We also added a lot of restrooms, so that dropped down the list. But restroom cleanliness is a big thing for us. Now, some of it, I don’t know if people were responding from the old west side or the new, but it is high on the radar. The third thing is audio. If you remember, we had a temporary audio system last year just to get us through the season. This season, we have a brand new distributed audio system. I was on the field last week and it sounds like a concert with these huge rich bass tones. So what that means is that there are these speakers all around the stadium, so there are no more delays. We can adjust hot spots on the fly, it is all computerized. It will be a good, positive experience.”

“My favorite parts of the stadium change every day, but yesterday I was walking through the All-American club and there are these huge murals, these mosaics of John David Crow and Johnny Manziel, our two Heisman Trophy winners. These pictures are made up of all the All-Americans at Texas A&M to date. So, you look at it from a distance and it looks like a big mural, but you get closer and it is a mosaic of the All-Americans, so that was pretty cool to see an idea come to fruition. These things are two stories tall and there are a lot of elements like that that get me really excited for the season.”

“I’m really excited to see how loud the 12th Man will be in a fully enclosed stadium. I don’t think we truly realize how loud the 12th Man is. So what is that game experience going to be like? Finally, I’m excited about the Hall of Champions. On the west side of the stadium this facility goes 100 yards, or as the video says, 'from goal line to goal line,' But it is an interactive experience that you’ll have. There’s a lot of technology with ribbon boards and video boards, but even units where you can go up and look through the timeline of A&M athletics. You can scroll through it like your iPad or iPhone and select moments. You may have videos or radio calls pop up, even photos and things like that. It will be rich history of all the sports. That’s something I have been working on for three years, so to see that finally happening is really exciting.”

“The SEC Network has exceeded everyone’s expectations. To be the most successful cable launch in history, then look at the programming, the talent. Obviously the revenues are a component of that, but our goal as a league was to produce 1000 live events, across all platforms. That includes the linear channel on TV, but also online with WatchESPN through SECN+. The thing I’m most excited about is the educational component. I was in Birmingham two weeks ago and Commissioner Sankey said that we had 270 students across the league working on the network. 90 of those were from Texas A&M. That’s something we are very proud of, giving our students a chance to get into the sports broadcasting business.”

“I know there are lots of military on TexAgs and we just announced soft launch yesterday that the SEC Network will be available in Europe, the Middle East and parts of Africa as well. So in terms of international reach, any ESPN programming will be available in those regions. All you have to do is go to ESPNplayer.com and there is some information there. The SEC Network goes international, that’s something we are really excited about.”

“With 12th Man Productions, it is nice to walk into a room and everyone knows who you are and what you do, that’s a big difference from 2012. We have made a big commitment that it is great to be in the SEC, but we want to continue telling our story bigger and better. One of the neat things, that has been surprising to me, has been the impact it’s had on recruiting. The availability across all sports for prospective student athletes to get a feel for what it would be like to play for Texas A&M. Also, when these student athletes are on campus, the 12th Man Studios are a big tour stop. Some of the big names you see on campus, those studios played a big part in them coming to Texas A&M.”

“On cost of attendance, one of the things we saw when the NCAA passed this was the SEC trying to take a leadership role and put forth a proposal on transparency. We opened the books on how schools are calculating the cost of attendance. Unfortunately, the other four major conferences voted it down. I think that conversation is coming back around that there does need to be some transparency on how the cost of attendance is being calculated. It is being calculated by the schools financial aid offices. There are federal loans involved in that and the athletics department does not set that amount. Obviously, it is a big talking point and a lot of people are discussing it. Our big thing is, let’s have some transparency and see where the discussion begins.”

“In terms of realignment and expansion, that is a talking point for Commissioner Sankey, but I’ll tell you that from our standpoint and a lot of our colleagues in the SEC, is that 14 is a really good number. We all like each other and there is a wonderful decorum in the SEC. We’re happy with where we are and I don’t think you have to worry about another Texas school.”

“You set the cost of attendance every year. The financial aid office looks at it continuously, but really they set it every year. It's not a set in stone tablet kind of situation. There is some flexibility that can go on with our student athletes where if they have an expense that they need handled, they can go to the financial office and seek an adjustment. There are many ways we can help athletes out, even outside of the cost of attendance.”

“We are aware that the mesh backing of the video board is not a bright brilliant white in terms of the logo. We want to get it cleaned, but a lot of it comes down to crane availability. We're aware, but I don’t know when exactly that will happen.”

“I didn't approve the overall t-shirt. There was no bevel on the A&M log, so you can take that to the bank. Licensing doesn't fall under me and athletics, that is at the university level. I think Shane Hinkley addressed that pretty quickly last night.”

“I don’t want to get too technical here, but there is a thing called aspect ratios, 16x9 aspect ratios, when it comes to the video board. Cameras, when you shoot, are not meant to be shot in long, skinny rectangles here. There will be more full screen moments for big moments; team intros, touchdowns, big plays, things of that nature. But the key is, you have to watch aspect ratios, because the north screens are 16x9, while the south end zone is completely different. If you look around the country, even the Jacksonville Jaguars, who have the largest screen in the country ... we use our video board just like everyone else does. You have to maintain the 16x9 ratio most of the time. But a good thing is, last year we ran our video boards out of an 18 wheeler that showed up on Friday morning, but now we have our studio, so the ability to show side by side replays and utilize more functionality in the board will be there.”

“Pulling the ‘Home of the 12th Man’ from Seattle was big for us from a visibility standpoint. Many years ago, just Seattle indicating that we were the rightful owners of that helped us out from a legal standpoint going forward. I don’t know exactly what Seattle’s strategy is, I can kind of guess, but given the legal situations, I probably won’t say much more about that.”

“In certain categories, the new Adidas deal does prevent other companies from producing A&M apparel. There was some news that came out via the Portland Business Journal. Obviously, when you start talking about that level of dollars, some exclusivity does come into play with certain channels. But, it’s not like other deals around the country where you wouldn't be able to buy a non Adidas t-shirt, for example. There are some schools where everything falls under one provider. That is not the case with us.”

“Adidas realized the strength of our brand, where we are going and there is good synergy. Adidas also invests a lot in the grass roots at the youth level, not just with football, but with basketball as well. It really gives an avenue to introduce our younger adults, potential student athletes to the Texas A&M brand before we can even get in touch with them.”

“Serving alcohol at games goes back to our fan experience. That is a fine line that you have to walk, and we are very proud of our fan experience that we have at all our athletics venues. It is very positive, a very family friendly atmosphere. We want the community involved. I think a lot of it is people around the country are chasing incremental revenues by selling alcohol at athletic invents, but the trend is, you have to pay a lot for additional security and law enforcement without putting additional people into the stands.”

“I don’t know about the SEC Nation location. Last year, they were in Spence because that was really the only picturesque part of the stadium we had. They liked the Spence location. They liked being in the middle of tailgating and it had a good view of the stadium. If College Gameday comes back, I think they will be on Simpson Drill Field again. So we will see, but it looks like SEC Nation will come back later in the season, maybe one of the October games.”

“We are committed to the softball and track facilities. We have to address the softball facility, particularly from a title IX standpoint. It’s about being equitable. When you have a great baseball facility across the street, it is a priority.”

“In terms of the WiFi, I’m not certain on the mechanism yet in terms of password or no password, but I can tell you that we won’t charge for it.”

“The eventual plan for the ‘Home of the 12th Man’ sign inside Kyle is to get it to where the fonts and the branding match it with the rest of the stadium. It won’t be done by the first game, and maybe not by the end of this season, but we’re working on getting that done.”