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'Embracing' BRAC: New public awareness program up and running

Sep 24, 2009

By John Boggess, San Antonio Embrace

SAN ANTONIO (Sept. 24, 2009) -- Spurs great and now NBA Hall of Famer David Robinson and Spurs Championship Coach Gregg Popovich are two of San Antonio's more famous citizens. They also have military backgrounds and choosing to make San Antonio their homes in common. They both are now giving of their time to be spokespersons for City of San Antonio's new "Embrace BRAC San Antonio" public awareness program.

"When we were thinking about who might make great spokespersons for the Embrace BRAC campaign, David Robinson and Coach Popovich jumped to the top of the list," said Thompson Marketing President Matt Mohr.

"They have so much in common with what the San Antonio BRAC project is about and are both nationally-known, we decided to approach them both. We were very fortunate that both stars agreed to participate."

The City of San Antonio's "Embrace BRAC" campaign is designed to raise the awareness in San Antonio about the BRAC project's business and job opportunities associated with the multi-billion dollar military base improvements. The program will also be reaching out to families across the country who will have the chance to move to San Antonio as the military relocates all of its medical training facilities from around the country to San Antonio.

"I'm very proud of my military training and service. I'm also glad our family decided to make San Antonio our home," Robinson said. "This BRAC project is a major boost for San Antonio's economy and I was happy to help in the effort to raise awareness of the enormous military work happening in San Antonio as well as welcoming the families that will be moving here."

The military is investing more than $3 billion in construction, mostly at Fort Sam Houston, as part of consolidating its medical training and research facilities and personnel.

Fort Sam Houston will welcome more than 4,100 new Navy and Air Force students each year in addition to the 5,000 Army students currently training at the post. More than 47,000 students will receive medical training annually at Fort Sam Houston. Once BRAC relocations are completed and missions are running at full capacity in the next couple of years, more than 150,000 Army, Navy and Air Force students will be attending enlisted and officer training programs at Randolph, Lackland and Fort Sam Houston annually.

Additionally, the military is reorganizing San Antonio's military bases. At the conclusion of this process known as "joint basing," San Antonio will have the largest base operation within the Department of Defense with a workforce of more than 77,000 people.

Robinson and Popovich join San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro and other city and military leaders in a series of videos, TV and radio public service announcements and print pieces to encourage San Antonio's citizens to stay up to date with BRAC happenings while providing a warm welcome to families moving to the city.

"The centerpiece of our program is a feature-rich website that is not only visually inviting but full of very important information for both of our target audiences," Mohr explained.

"Citizens and entrepreneurs alike can keep up with business opportunities, but families outside of San Antonio can find most of what they'll want to know about their new home. We tried to make the Embrace BRAC website like a 'one-stop shop' but in a concise, friendly way."

For more information on the San Antonio BRAC project, go to www.EmbraceBRAC.org.