{"id":239149,"date":"2026-03-27T12:26:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T12:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/239149\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T12:26:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T12:26:07","slug":"fresno-state-football-bulldogs-targeting-fan-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/239149\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresno State football: Bulldogs targeting fan experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fresno State and its new multimedia rights partner<\/a> are targeting the fan experience at its sporting events, which means at football games fans could be on the business end of a Gatling gun, a rapid-fire, C02-powered<\/a> cannon that fires rolled up T-shirts or other promotional items as far as the top rows at Valley Children\u2019s Stadium.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s one of the upgrades to refresh and drive stronger engagement with fans eyed by Chris Pacheco and Bulldog Sports Enterprises, which on July 1 will partner with athletics on its multimedia rights.<\/p>\n

There is a double-barrel gun that can blast 60 T-shirts every 10 seconds to fans in the seats, and a triple-barrel gun that can fire 114 T-shirts every 10 seconds.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also a quadruple-barrel cannon that can send 186 T-shirts flying in 15 seconds.<\/p>\n

Pacheco seemed entranced at the prospect. He said he was going to get one. Which one? That hasn\u2019t yet been decided. One thing is certain, though. \u201cI\u2019m so sick of the single-shot T-shirt gun that every third T-shirt doesn\u2019t even make it to the stands,\u201d Pacheco said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to invest in new ideas, new opportunities, and we\u2019re going to be willing to try things that maybe haven\u2019t been done here before. That to me is a critical piece, being willing to try something different.\u201d<\/p>\n

The gun would be a novel add for Fresno State, with an in-game experience now highlighted by former coach Pat Hill calling the Hot Dog Race<\/a>. There\u2019s also the marching band, and the fan sing-along to Don\u2019t Stop Believin\u2019 by rock band Journey. There has been a good bit of winning, too. The Bulldogs have won 77% of their home games over the past five seasons, so more often than not, the fan base has left a dreary, 45-year-old stadium that lacks many modern fan amenities at least with a winning smile.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a great fan base here. We always have,\u201d said Pacheco, who played on the defensive line for the Bulldogs in 1984-\u201885 under famed coach Jim Sweeney. \u201cBut there\u2019s more we can do. We can refresh the experience, make it better, make it something people are excited to be a part of, and not just on game days.<\/p>\n

\u201cJim Sweeney used to say, if you always do what you\u2019ve always done, you\u2019ll always be what you\u2019ve always been, so it\u2019s time for us to make some changes, and I\u2019m excited about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

From a merchandising perspective, opportunities abound. The Gatling barrel can be branded, the base of the guns include advertising panels. There are badges that can be affixed to the gun. There are, of course, the T-shirts or other promotional items coming out of the business end of the cannon.<\/p>\n

And, of course, food. FXinMotion, which produces the T-shirt guns in Wisconsin, created what it calls a thermal delivery device for hot dogs or smaller promotional items that also can be branded. It\u2019s essentially an aerodynamic foam tube. \u201cIt helps keep your hot dog or brat, or whatever you order, nice and secure when you\u2019re shooting it out of the cannon,\u201d said Cole Janz, a sales rep with FXinMotion.<\/p>\n

In a city that prides itself on tacos, they also would work with the thermal delivery device.<\/p>\n

All of those advertising opportunities can easily be changed, for a different sponsor, week to week.<\/p>\n

And, even fans near the top of the stadium, could have a chance to go home with a souvenir.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey go really far,\u201d said Janz, the FXinMotion rep. \u201cThey all have an adjustable base to it, if, for example, you want it to shoot higher. If you want to bring it to a baseball game where they have those safety nets that you have to shoot over, you\u2019re able to crank that thing up higher, that way it shoots up and over.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if you\u2019re wanting to bring it to a football game, they don\u2019t have those nets, you can angle it down and have it go a lot further back as opposed to super high in the air.\u201d<\/p>\n

The guns have been around and evolving for decades, and are in use in college football and basketball stadiums and arenas, at Major League Baseball stadiums and NBA arenas.<\/p>\n

Texas Tech has had one the past two years, a double-barrel hit that the Red Raiders break out at football, basketball and women\u2019s basketball games. \u201cWe\u2019ll have it forever,\u201d said Jon Parnell, assistant athletics director for promotions and fan engagement. \u201cIt burns through a lot of T-shirts. If you use it multiple times a game, just be ready to increase your annual T-shirt allotment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are a huge hit, no matter where you\u2019re going,\u201d Janz said.<\/p>\n

That is what Klassy and Pacheco are looking for, increasing fan engagement and game environment. The two already have had multiple conversations about upgrades, Klassy said, at a press conference announcing the partnership with Bulldog Sports Enterprises.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the ideas that he\u2019s bringing to the table, and I know the Red Wave is going to see some considerable differences at our football games and our basketball games, and all our sporting events moving forward,\u201d Klassy said. \u201cThat\u2019s important. That is something in my first two years here, I know that we need to improve.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat doesn\u2019t fall on our marketing office \u2014 they have probably the smallest budget in college athletics when it comes to in-game experience. We need to find new creative ways to really enhance our student experience and our fan experience at all of our events, and we plan on doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Fresno Bee<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fresno State and its new multimedia rights partner are targeting the fan experience at its sporting events, which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[1321,48656,11154,112,114,113,742,35294],"class_list":["post-239149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-college-football","tag-engagement","tag-fan","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news","tag-fresno-state","tag-pac-12"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}