For many students, the high cost and logistical challenges of interstate travel make attending road games in football and other sports unfeasible.
Roman Comer, a sophomore majoring in electrical engineering, hopes to boost road game attendance with his startup charter bus service, Hitch-A-Ride.
It is no secret that traveling can be expensive. When factoring in ticket prices and hotel costs as well as money for food, gas and other activities, a simple one-night trip to an away game can add up to hundreds of dollars — a price that students on tight budgets often cannot afford.
Ryan Perdue, a sophomore majoring in data science, said he had concerns about travel costs. He also said that many students, especially those who are out-of-state, do not have cars of their own.
“I didn’t have a car first semester, so even if I had been able to get student tickets for away games I wouldn’t have made it,” Perdue said.
Comer, inspired by two friends who could not find a ride to last season’s highly anticipated matchup against Georgia, felt the need to address the lack of affordable transportation.
“Trying to travel to away games is a complete logistical nightmare for students, whether or not you have a car,” he said.
Hitch-A-Ride hopes to turn this “nightmare” into a single, stress-free transaction. Through the startup’s official website, customers can purchase tickets on one of two buses rented from Tuscaloosa Charter Service.
“We have two buses going to Mississippi State, and two buses going to Vanderbilt,” Comer said.
Hitch-A-Ride has partnered with Tuscaloosa Charter Service, which has helped Comer’s mission of affordability. For Mississippi State, a two-way ticket costs $79, while a seat on the bus to Vanderbilt will run students $99.
On the morning of each game, the bus will pick up all ticketholders at Innisfree Irish Pub, another strategic partner with the service. The buses then drop students off near the opposing stadium one to two hours before kickoff, pick them up in the same spot after the game’s conclusion and travel back to Tuscaloosa to unload at Innisfree.
Business logistics are a continual battle for Comer as the service gears up for its first trial run of operation.
“Originally we were planning to go to Tennessee, but that has been scratched for now,” he said.
With money invested into charter buses and the service ready to test operation, Comer now faces the daunting challenge of filling seats.
“Marketing and selling tickets is my biggest problem right now,” Comer said.
Helping Comer navigate these issues and get Hitch-A-Ride up and running has been Earl Evens Jr., the executive in residence for the Alabama Entrepreneurship Institute.
Evens, who was introduced to Comer at the Crimson Entrepreneurship Academy this summer, emphasized the importance of Comer’s entrepreneurial qualities throughout this process, especially since the idea of a travel service for sporting events is not entirely unique.
“The idea sounded good, it sounded interesting, but there’s nothing like having someone that’s on the fence and been sold. They become the biggest advocates for whatever it is,” Evens said. “The thing about Roman was that he was so passionate about it … and at every single instance and every single turn, when I posed a question to him, he had a truly legitimate answer.”
Comer remains focused on filling all available seats across the four student buses this fall, primarily through social media content and continual pitches to potential strategic partners. He is also working on coordinating travel buses for alumni for road games this season, although those details have yet to be finalized.
“If Hitch-A-Ride can make it cheaper or more convenient to get to games … I really don’t see how it could fail,” Perdue said.
While the focus this fall will be on trips to Starkville and Nashville, Comer has plans to expand Hitch-A-Ride beyond a service for football games.
“The goal right now is to figure out how to market this to students and figure out what students want on these buses,” he said. “I’m looking into doing potential basketball games in the spring, airport transportation for breaks, expansion to other SEC schools, as well as just capitalizing on more away games.”
This fall, Comer will look to fine-tune his business’s execution so that Hitch-A-Ride can become fully operational and make a meaningful impact on Tuscaloosa’s student population.
