How VIPs Will Experience the College Football National Championship Game in Houston – Inside the Premium Ticket World of REVELxp

Going to the game — even a potentially monumental game like the College Football Playoff National Championship Game coming to Houston January 8 — is not enough for many sports fans anymore. Certainly not sports fans who are used to enjoying the best of the best in other aspects of their lives. With the at-home TV viewing experience better than ever (especially for those power players with their own home theaters), there needs to be something else besides a hard seat in a stadium to draw devotees with serious means in.

“There seems to be an insatiable demand for this type of elevated experience from sports consumers and sports fans,” REVELxp CEO Wes Day says.

Day should know. He is the CEO of a company that is tasked with taking the College Football Playoff’s premium offerings to another level. In Houston that means a Champions Party the night before the championship game at The Revaire events venue with country music star Cole Swindell as the headliner and celebrities and sports stars in attendance. Access to a Chalk Talk with ESPN commentators (last year Rece Davis and Kirk Herbstreit took part) where attendees can ask questions and get into the game and everything college football is another offering. Top hotel packages (The Houstonian is the premium hotel for Houston) provide access to a hospitality lounge Sunday afternoon, January 7 and Monday, January 8 prior to the game with special cocktails and an art gift (custom footballs designed by an artist for this Houston game).

Game day brings a champions tailgate party with dueling DJs, photo opportunities and plenty of food. Luxury ground transportation to all the events and a special concierge service to plan whatever else these movers and shakers want to do while in Houston is also included in some of the packages. Tequila tastings and champagne lounges complete the mix.

In other words, it’s much higher end sports experience.

“We look to take it to the next level and to take it beyond just the ticket or the suite,” REVELexp chief marketing officer Lizzie Roediger says. “We do concierge service. These amazing parties. Really no detail is not thought of to create a really first class, one stop shop. Really convenient and high end.”

This is how the other half will experience major sporting events in 2024 and beyond.

The top Premier Travel and Experience ticket packages (which include a two night’s stay at The Houstonian) start at $8,7500, while top of the line suite packages run up to $175,000. Then again, the overriding idea centers around little being cookie cutter. Everything can be customized with special add-ons and tweaks.

“The rest of their lives is personalized,” Day notes. “Whether it’s their Netflix or their grocery shopping. Everything about our lives is personalized. The expectation is their sports experience is going to be the same.

“. . . The overarching experience needed to be amplified.”

If someone who buys one of these premium packages does not come back from the championship game weekend with several you-need-to-hear-this stories to tell their friends, REVELxp has failed. It is about the memories as much as if Michigan, Alabama, Washington or the University of Texas walks away with that big shiny trophy on January 8th.

Take the scene from last year’s College Football Playoff National Championship Game in Los Angeles.

“At some point during the Dierks Bentley concert (The Champions Party headliner), it turned into a dance party,” Day says. “This is like an unplugged intimate concert. Not like I’m at a big show. This is a party with a really cool musical guest, not another big ticket to a concert I bought for an arena show.

“It is a very, very unique thing.”

In many ways, it’s the sports viewing equivalent of the difference between flying private and flying stuck in the middle seat of coach.

“There seems to be an insatiable demand for this type of elevated experience from sports consumers and sports fans.” — REVELxp CEO Wes Day

College Football’s High-End World With REVELxp

REVELxp works with 80 different universities during the college football regular season, building an event atmosphere around games that may or not have a major feel. If you’ve been to a University of Houston football tailgate, you’ve seen their work in action with the various games, booths and giveaways outside TDECU Stadium. REVEL also does game day work for UT, Texas A&M, TCU. Texas Tech, Baylor and SMU.

The College Football Playoff offerings are decidedly more premium — and also a sign of where sports are going in the big event space. REVEL plans to expand its auto racing and horse racing premium offerings in 2024, a reflection of where glossy, high-dollar entities like Formula 1 are driving things.

“There’s almost a more fundamental and universal aspect there,” Day says of the sea change hitting in-person sports viewing. “There’s also the idea that this is more than the game. It’s the party around the game.”

It’s the sports viewing equivalent of the difference between flying private and flying stuck in the middle seat of coach.

Still, college football — even in its season-ending CFP showcase — maintains some of its authenticity, the rabid passion that defines fall Saturdays for so many in America. These playoffs — which will expand to 12 teams (from the current four) and grow from a three game event to an 11 game extravaganza starting next year — still aren’t as close t0 corporate ticket driven as the Super Bowl, the U.S. Open or a Formula 1 race.

“The college football national championship is very unique compared to other national championship events in that it is still very much college football,” Day says. “It’s still a fan event, not a corporate junket.”

The leadership team at REVELxp is made up of sports fanatics at heart, with many of them having worked in the sports business side of things for years. The idea is to amplify what already works about these major events while adding many levels of personalization and VIP worthy perks.

“It’s premium but also bringing a community together,” REVEL chief people officer Kelli Hilliard tells PaperCity. “We’ll create hospitality spaces, get fans together to be part of something.”

No one will know which two teams will meet to decide the national title in Houston until the semifinals pitting Michigan against Alabama and UT against Washington are played on New Year’s Day. Texas winning would create even more demand for national championship game tickets, but it won’t change the desire for something besides just a seat at NRG Stadium.

“In a lot of areas, the game day experience might be. . . Broken might be too strong a word,” Day says. “But it needs to be improved. The modern consumer in all fronts wants to be wowed. And they’re comparing a sports experience to a variety of other things in their life.

“The teams that we work with, it’s not good enough to just put a ball on the field and say just show up.”

Instead, everything must be a show. One designed to make personal memories that stick long after the championship confetti has fallen.

To see all the premium offerings for the College Football Playoff National Championship Game in Houston, click here.