For the past 70 years, the Goodyear blimp has been as ubiquitous in the sports world as the national anthem. The tiremaker’s small fleet of blimps have floated above football games, NASCAR races, golf tournaments and other events, providing aerial coverage to networks and signaling to fans that a sports spectacle is underway.
Goodyear’s relationship with television networks and event organizers is a unique and enduring sponsorship. Since 1955, when NBC asked Goodyear to provide live video coverage of the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl, the company has sent live images of games and events to television producers in return for mentions of the company’s name and logo during the broadcasts. These “blimp pops” run about once an hour and can be worth millions of dollars in ad time.
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In an age of digital inserts, screens within screens and other ways for sponsors to reach viewers, Goodyear’s technology is quaint. The blimps, which are slightly longer than a Boeing 747, hover about 1,000 feet off the ground and rarely move faster than 70 miles per hour. But their ability to capture a skyline, a stadium or the flight of a golf ball down a fairway has made them an indispensable part of broadcasts.
Goodyear’s four blimps, which travel to about 120 events a year, are more visible than usual as the company celebrates the centennial of the blimp’s debut on June 3, 1925. The company plans to fly its helium-filled airships to more than 100 cities this year, and attend concerts, hot air balloon festivals and other cultural events.
Goodyear spends considerable time determining where to send its blimps to get maximum exposure. Golf tournaments and NASCAR races are scheduled far in advance, but the biggest professional and college football games might not be known about until a week or two before.
Schedulers must consider whether there are additional promotional opportunities at an event or location that could provide content for the blimp’s social media feeds — the blimp has its own Instagram feed, with 159,000 followers. The blimps are taken out of service for maintenance. The small crew — there are fewer blimp pilots than astronauts — must be deployed.
Logistics play a role. Snow and storms can ground the blimps, which are housed in Akron, Ohio; Pompano Beach, Fla.; and Carson, Calif. A fourth blimp is based in Essen, Germany. They don’t fly more than about 300 miles a day, which limits how quickly they can be positioned. Ground crews must be in place to accept the blimps when they touch down for the night. Someone must be with the blimp at all times in case winds pick up, which means overnight shifts for the crew.
The blimp’s basic technology hasn’t changed much over the years. Two balloons, or ballonets, inside the blimp are inflated with air and are surrounded by about 300,000 cubic feet of helium.
Air is let in and out of the ballonets to maintain the proper pressure and shape when the ship ascends and descends. Small gas-powered propellers swivel to create lift and thrust.
Goodyear is not the only company to embrace mobile marketing. Oscar Mayer has a fleet of Wienermobiles, and Planters has its Nutmobiles. But for scale and visibility, nothing tops the blimps. In 2014, Goodyear began replacing its rubber-skinned models with zeppelins that are longer and have internal frames and gondolas with a bathroom and room for 10 passengers and two pilots.
With an estimated $20 million price tag, the airships have 37,152 individual LEDs on the exterior that can beam messages from on high, and they are quieter than most cars. Broadcasters are using more drones, but they may not fly as high or as long as blimps, which all but ensures the airships will remain fixtures.
Ken Belson is a Times reporter covering sports, power and money at the N.F.L. and other professional sports leagues.
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