Attendance

[Oakland]

1) student attendance bad. Grateful for the two lower North sections that are active but otherwise they're not showing up. Don't sugarcoat it by saying they are.

2) South End Zone used to be full and active. It can be again.

3) the Swarm has degraded over the last several years. What happened to all the gold shirts in their designated section?

4) "attendance is down everywhere" is really overstated and overblown. No, Alabama does not have a problem with attendance, just shut up already.

5) those of you in love with "symmetry" I just don't get it. Bobby Dodd is classic and shoehorned into a small Urban space. All those symmetrical stadiums look so cookie cutter. No charm at all. BDS just needs to be filled up.

6) I've long advocated tarping off the top half of the upper North for low demand games. Restrict about 4k up there for opposing fans only, displace fans up there to the corners of UW and UE.

7) game day experience is horrible. Our traditions have been watered down instead of built-up, lighting, PA, music is Bush League. Very sad. Look to UGA. Hire their people as consultants. They are doing it right and at an extremely high level. We aren't even trying.

8) interior and exterior of stadium is badly maintained and neglected. Rust, faded banners, cheap. Screams that we just don't care. Coke sign above scoreboard has been broken half of the season. How we present ourselves just isn't a priority. The powers that be see this everyday and have blinders obviously. HOF names on UE look so dated and cheap. Replace with ribbon boards. So focused on big changes (new Edge building, beer gardens), zero attention to details.

I agree with everything you have written here except using tarps to cover the upper north seats. My suggestion, make the top 5 rolls, $25 season tickets with all of the same benefits regular season ticket holders get except for the MBS game.

 

[g0lftime]

My initial reaction to this is "No" because I just can't think of a program anywhere that plays off campus that has solid fan support and attendance. Maybe Miami in the Orange Bowl back in the day when they were competing for NC's. Can you think of any others?

NCSU has good fan attendance and the stadium is a few miles from campus. They have large parking areas around it too.

 

[majorQ9]

Swarms been the section to the right of the band for years. They still give the shirts away. I can't remember Swarm being in the South endzone. My rat year was 2012.

 

[bobongo]

It’s really unbelievable that when every other stadium in the country was expanding, they managed to keep a symmetrical look, but the world renowned engineering institute couldn’t. The fact that Sanford Stadium is such a great looking piece of infrastructure is absolutely disgusting to me. But it doesn’t stop at that community college. Bryant-Denny, Jordan-Hare, Tiger Stadium, Memorial Stadium, Doak Campbell, the Big House, the Horseshoe, and essentially every other stadium in the country. How can all of those places get it right, and GT failed miserably? Even if they wanted to keep the original squared-off and angled look of Grant Field, they couldn’t have at least built it symmetrical?

I love our whop-sided, ancient ballpark. I think it has a lot more character than those boringly symmetrical factory stadia. They're now building major league parks to resemble the old parks which were built asymmetrical to fit into old neighborhoods. I think the quirks of our quaint stadium lend it a charm lacking in those more perfect constructions.

The only thing wrong with it is it isn't full enough.

 

[JacketOff]

1) student attendance bad. Grateful for the two lower North sections that are active but otherwise they're not showing up. Don't sugarcoat it by saying they are.

2) South End Zone used to be full and active. It can be again.

3) the Swarm has degraded over the last several years. What happened to all the gold shirts in their designated section?

4) "attendance is down everywhere" is really overstated and overblown. No, Alabama does not have a problem with attendance, just shut up already.

5) those of you in love with "symmetry" I just don't get it. Bobby Dodd is classic and shoehorned into a small Urban space. All those symmetrical stadiums look so cookie cutter. No charm at all. BDS just needs to be filled up.

6) I've long advocated tarping off the top half of the upper North for low demand games. Restrict about 4k up there for opposing fans only, displace fans up there to the corners of UW and UE.

7) game day experience is horrible. Our traditions have been watered down instead of built-up, lighting, PA, music is Bush League. Very sad. Look to UGA. Hire their people as consultants. They are doing it right and at an extremely high level. We aren't even trying.

8) interior and exterior of stadium is badly maintained and neglected. Rust, faded banners, cheap. Screams that we just don't care. Coke sign above scoreboard has been broken half of the season. How we present ourselves just isn't a priority. The powers that be see this everyday and have blinders obviously. HOF names on UE look so dated and cheap. Replace with ribbon boards. So focused on big changes (new Edge building, beer gardens), zero attention to details.

Couple things
1. Student attendance on a Thursday night when many had class and/or exams the next morning, to see a 2-8 team take on a 4-6 team was not bad. When the majority of the rest of the stadium is empty, you can’t just call out students for not showing up.

4. Yes attendance really is down everywhere, across all leagues in all sports. Alabama does have an attendance problem. It’s just not as relevant because even when their attendance is down, they still get 80k+ into the stadium as opposed to Tech getting <40k.

5. BDS is an older, urban stadium. That’s not an excuse for it to be poorly designed now. Wrigley Field has under gone extensive renovations to bring it up to 21st century standards. Why wasn’t BDS? Why is the most expansive part of the stadium (upper north) widely considered to be the worst seats at a football game? The poor design also works against crowd noise. The stadium doesn’t have to be completely symmetrical, but it also doesn’t have to be ugly.

7. Fact is, GT just doesn’t have the money to do anything close to UGA in terms of stadium atmosphere. Obviously they could hire a new PA guy, but the new LED lighting, costs a lot of money.

 

[MountainBuzzMan]

Inexplicable that when the permanent West & East stands were built all those years ago that not one damn engineer said “Hey, wouldn’t it be better if this was symmetrical?” But hell no.

And they were built long enough ago that the street issue behind the East stands could have been “handled”. But hell no.

With those things done the upper West & East could have been symmetrical, making a North and Upper North stands symmetrical and able to be connected to the East & West.

But Hell No! Idiocy.

This has been answered many times. But I will repeat it. The west stands are not even close to ADA compliant. Had they connected the stands then at the time the north stands would have needed to be ADA compliant. They would have probably needed to tear them down to make it work. It was all about $$$ So not connecting them kept them grandfathered at their current configuration. Now I always wondered why they could have kept them disconnected but maybe by a few inches. But maybe that would have had the same effect???

 

[GT flunkout]

Couple things
1. Student attendance on a Thursday night when many had class and/or exams the next morning, to see a 2-8 team take on a 4-6 team was not bad. When the majority of the rest of the stadium is empty, you can’t just call out students for not showing up.

4. Yes attendance really is down everywhere, across all leagues in all sports. Alabama does have an attendance problem. It’s just not as relevant because even when their attendance is down, they still get 80k+ into the stadium as opposed to Tech getting <40k.

5. BDS is an older, urban stadium. That’s not an excuse for it to be poorly designed now. Wrigley Field has under gone extensive renovations to bring it up to 21st century standards. Why wasn’t BDS? Why is the most expansive part of the stadium (upper north) widely considered to be the worst seats at a football game? The poor design also works against crowd noise. The stadium doesn’t have to be completely symmetrical, but it also doesn’t have to be ugly.

7. Fact is, GT just doesn’t have the money to do anything close to UGA in terms of stadium atmosphere. Obviously they could hire a new PA guy, but the new LED lighting, costs a lot of money.

1) Student attendance was bad. Calling it "not bad because reasons" doesn't make it good. It's bad. Not singling them out, but the majority of them live within walking distance of the stadium and it needs to be fixed.

4) Agree to disagree. Our attendance woes have almost nothing in common with the minor annoyance at other places especially in light of the piss poor effort we make.

5) ugly is in the eye of the beholder. You look at cookie cutter new construction as beautiful and I don't. Difference of opinion. Bringing it up to standard with modern amenities is a different animal. Nothing wrong with the upper north being the worst seats since the only time they are full are with visitors or free and discounted single game tickets. Not a big deal if the upper east and upper west are packed. BDS actually traps more noise than most places because the seats are right on top of the field. There aren't many places louder on the field than BDS when BDS is full and loud (it's pretty magical and admittedly doesn't happen enough)

7) I figured money would come up as an excuse. It would be one thing if we were trying within our means. It's obvious we're not. I'm not talking about the PA guy or expensive flashing lights. It's overall production and marketing and professionalism that is total Cracker Jack. Things that have very little to do with money and a lot to do with simple effort.

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

Your posture on these threads gives the impression “I’m old, I’ve endured this for long enough, and therefore I’m entitled to see what I want to see.” I think that’s in direct conflict of a fun, inclusive fan base that’s inviting of new ideas and new people.

I am all in for new ideas and new people, as long as they don't go against tradition.

 

[cyclejacket]

Alabama is going to start a new renovation of their stadium. Not by a lot, but it will reduce their capacity. Replacing good chair back seats with suites, etc for bigger dollars. A friend of mine is a 25 + year season ticket holder and he is being displaced with poorer seats as a replacement.

 

[gtstinger776]

I am all in for new ideas and new people, as long as they don't go against tradition.

What’s the value of tradition when the fan base evolves to bleak affairs and poor attendance?

 

[LibertyTurns]

Alabama is going to start a new renovation of their stadium. Not by a lot, but it will reduce their capacity. Replacing good chair back seats with suites, etc for bigger dollars. A friend of mine is a 25 + year season ticket holder and he is being displaced with poorer seats as a replacement.

Our grads are millionaires. Cost for a ticket is not an issue.

 

[cyclejacket]

Our grads are millionaires. Cost for a ticket is not an issue.

Apparently not enough of them if we have to run multi page threads on poor attendance and lackluster financial support.

 

[gtstinger776]

Apparently not enough of them if we have to run multi page threads on poor attendance and lackluster financial support.

I know several grads with high incomes who buy the cheapest tickets possible. As I said before, we are part of the problem

 

[tmhunter52]

We will right the ship, and at least it will never look like this. A JOKE.

nice big screen, though

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

What’s the value of tradition when the fan base evolves to bleak affairs and poor attendance?

I believe that tradition(s) should always be emphasized since they reflect the times when Georgia Tech was great and recognized everywhere. But I also accept the need for new ideas and approaches to doing things again as long as they do not go against tradition, but incorporate tradition(s) into the new ideas. However, neither continuing and capitalizing on tradtion(s) nor ignoring them will solve the problems that Tech has. Only winning will do that, and we've got a long way to go on that.

 

[bobongo]

I believe that tradition(s) should always be emphasized since they reflect the times when Georgia Tech was great and recognized everywhere. But I also accept the need for new ideas and approaches to doing things again as long as they do not go against tradition, but incorporate tradition(s) into the new ideas. However, neither continuing and capitalizing on tradtion(s) nor ignoring them will solve the problems that Tech has. Only winning will do that, and we've got a long way to go on that.

Spot on.

 

[GT flunkout]

I believe that tradition(s) should always be emphasized since they reflect the times when Georgia Tech was great and recognized everywhere. But I also accept the need for new ideas and approaches to doing things again as long as they do not go against tradition, but incorporate tradition(s) into the new ideas. However, neither continuing and capitalizing on tradtion(s) nor ignoring them will solve the problems that Tech has. Only winning will do that, and we've got a long way to go on that.

Yeah pretty much this. It's a total failure of imagination that you can't do cool and Innovative and new stuff with everything that has already made Tech great. Legacy and tradition should be treated as assets and not as something that should be minimized to make way for something new just for the sake of being new. It's just lazy and uncreative.

 

[Vespidae]

I am not promoting this idea but just throwing this out there. To renovate BDS into a really nice stadium with seat backs, aisles with hand rails and treads to meet present codes, up date restrooms, etc., will take bookoos of money we don't have. What if we approached Mr. Blank and the city and explored the possibility of using MBS as our stadium like the Steelers and Pitt? If we went this way, we instantly have a state of the art stadium with no capital outlay, attract more fans, significantly and increase our recruiting appeal. BDS could be converted to a green space for students and tail-gating experience during our season with shuttles to the stadium. Not sure I like this idea but think it is one we should examine.

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I actually like this idea. We could keep the FCS games on campus.

 

[JacketOff]

I actually like this idea. We could keep the FCS games on campus.

If anybody thinks student attendance is bad now, wait and see how bad it would get if games were moved to MBS. I’m all for playing 1 game a year at MBS, especially if it’s a premier game like ND, Clemson, Tennessee, etc. By doing that though, you’re cheapening the Bobby Dodd experience, and basically saying it’s not good enough. Not to mention getting to and from parking lots and tailgates on campus to MBS would be a nightmare. Would you want the majority of people to tailgate off campus?

 

[Vespidae]

If anybody thinks student attendance is bad now, wait and see how bad it would get if games were moved to MBS. I’m all for playing 1 game a year at MBS, especially if it’s a premier game like ND, Clemson, Tennessee, etc. By doing that though, you’re cheapening the Bobby Dodd experience, and basically saying it’s not good enough. Not to mention getting to and from parking lots and tailgates on campus to MBS would be a nightmare. Would you want the majority of people to tailgate off campus?

There really are no good tailgate areas, as you see in other schools.

As to MBS, BDS is ancient compared to modern stadium design, amenities, and convenience. I’m fine with a major makeover at BDS but ... it’s never going to happen. Todd has said they could sell more suites but they just can’t supply them. That’s why we’re going to MBS.