08/07/2015
This is one post I didn't want to write, ECU & myself tried to do everything Guinness asked but the two things that I thought were minor became a major obstacle. ECU wanted to do the record at halftime we had it set up where everybody gets to stand at their seat at halftime for 10 minutes. We showed Guinness that we would have volunteers at every gate and every entrance into the stadium until the record was broke. That would be 300 volunteers which we felt we could do. Guinness came back and said that since everyone would not be dressed as Pirates we would need one volunteer for every 50th person in the stadium and stand at every 50th seat which could add up to 1000 volunteers more. Guinness said records were the hardest ones to break were inside a stadium under those circumstances, there was a possibility of it being done but we believe we could not do it in the timeframe of halftime. ECU could not afford to pay $8000 for adjudicator and their expenses and not guarantee we could break the record the way we needed to do it. Below is a letter from ECU and Shelley.
Wh**ey,
As much as it pains me and after four months of work, I’m going to have to admit that I could not find a way for us to attempt to break the Guinness World Record for number of people “Dressed Like A Pirate” this season. When you first brought this idea to me, I was extremely excited and confident that we could shatter the 14,231 person record if we were able to do it in conjunction with a home football game. I began researching the requirements, talking with my staff, putting together different scenarios and options. I even talked about it on the radio! We came up with what I thought was a great plan (with your help and guidance) that followed all of the rules outlined by Guinness. However, once we began to engage the Guinness Officials, they began to add requirements (i.e. one volunteer per 50 people requiring 1,000 volunteers for Dowdy-Ficklen, paying $8,000 for adjudication, using two auditing firms). After numerous emails and phone calls with them, I cannot see a way to be successful at this time.
By no means is this idea dead, just delayed until we can figure out a way. If we are going to attempt to break the record, I want to make sure we are set up for success. I would hate for us to have more than 15,000 people show up dressed like a pirate and have it not count because of a technicality. I will continue to brainstorm, as I know you will, and hopefully we will be able to come up with a plan that will work in the future. Thank you for all of your help and assistance.
Go Pirates,
Shelley Binegar
Associate Athletics Director for External Operations/SWA
