Average Age of GTSwarm Posters

[dressedcheeseside]

Yep they are...old that is. Just like the old "hanging jury" in the west stands in Bobby Dodd's day. Some things never change. I am 63 and can remember Tech beating number one Alabama in 1962. That, my friends, is old. I was old school before old school became cool.

Did you ever party with the rat pack?

 

[Jim Prather]

To me the most interesting thing is how even the distribution is from 20 - 59. I had expected it to skew much more heavily in the 30-39 range...

 

[YJMD]

To me the <20 is the telling part. That segment overall is one with fluid allegiances, less historical knowledge, quick to jump on trend and flash rather than substance, etc. And it's also really important to be appealing to. It's just like the Russell affiliation. It's not that we're so old, we're just not young. Which is crazy considering what Tech has to offer and how we ought to be at the innovative leading edge. Obviously TStan understands the need and has taken major steps, but we are far from critical mass. It is possible. Schools like Oregon radically changed their appeal to this segment. I'd like to do it in a different way (highlighting innovation), but I think it will take more than creating opportunity for it to happen.

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

To me the <20 is the telling part. That segment overall is one with fluid allegiances, less historical knowledge, quick to jump on trend and flash rather than substance, etc. And it's also really important to be appealing to. It's just like the Russell affiliation. It's not that we're so old, we're just not young. Which is crazy considering what Tech has to offer and how we ought to be at the innovative leading edge. Obviously TStan understands the need and has taken major steps, but we are far from critical mass. It is possible. Schools like Oregon radically changed their appeal to this segment. I'd like to do it in a different way (highlighting innovation), but I think it will take more than creating opportunity for it to happen.

I don't think you can really glean much from the <20 data. This medium isn't where that age group hangs out online, and many of them are too invested in school and social life to frequent sports message boards. This phase comes later in life when you realize the shelf date on your youth has expired...

 

[dressedcheeseside]

I don't think you can really glean much from the <20 data. This medium isn't where that age group hangs out online, and many of them are too invested in school and social life to frequent sports message boards. This phase comes later in life when you realize the shelf date on your youth has expired...

Even though his data is flawed, I imagine his conclusion is pretty actuate none the less. Our fanbase is older than most. The young segment is likely the smallest. When we try to attract younger fans, it really turns off the older ones... rap music blaring through the jumbo tron. At least this really sticks in my craw. (I know, "get off my lawn...")

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

Even though his data is flawed, I imagine his conclusion is pretty actuate none the less. Our fanbase is older than most. The young segment is likely the smallest. When we try to attract younger fans, it really turns off the older ones... rap music blaring through the jumbo tron. At least this really sticks in my craw. (I know, "get off my lawn...")

True. And with the second place is the first loser mentality present throughout our society, we're not likely to draw new, young fans at the same pace the football factories are. That was true even when I was in high school. Even winning the NC in '90 didn't really do much to draw in large numbers of additional fans the way we would have liked it to. GT has been a small fanbase as long as I remember. I don't really foresee this ever changing.

 

[Cam]

Hell....I remember when it rained for 40 days and 40 nights....

You mean this upcoming month?

 

[YJMD]

All good points. This isn't the most representative sample, but if you head over to Reddit, we're not the hot commodity either.

Criticizing people for a loser mentality also seems like a bad way of trying to gain their allegiance. Keep in mind, the shaft has always been a big part of Tech culture. If anything we're a model for taking that mentality and succeeding partly through self-sufficiency and partly through Stockholm syndrome.

 

[Essobee]

As Tech students how many of you wore trousers with a buckle in the back, a vertically striped button down shirt with a single pleat in the back, penny loafers (also with a buckle in the back), dressed up by wearing a button down tie, had a flat top haircut, ate at the V when it was part of another building and V hamburgers were two for a quarter?

 

[whitegoldsphinx]

As Tech students how many of you wore trousers with a buckle in the back, a vertically striped button down shirt with a single pleat in the back, penny loafers (also with a buckle in the back), dressed up by wearing a button down tie, had a flat top haircut, ate at the V when it was part of another building and V hamburgers were two for a quarter?

Less than or equal to zero?

 

[tmhunter52]

As Tech students how many of you wore trousers with a buckle in the back, a vertically striped button down shirt with a single pleat in the back, penny loafers (also with a buckle in the back), dressed up by wearing a button down tie, had a flat top haircut, ate at the V when it was part of another building and V hamburgers were two for a quarter?

We have a winner for oldest poster!

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

Criticizing people for a loser mentality also seems like a bad way of trying to gain their allegiance.

There is a huge gulf between winning is everything and a loser mentality. My hope is that GT wins big again soon and consistently, but I won't walk away from GT if they never win again. My loyalty isn't bought by wins, or tarnished by losses. For many of our younger generation, this is no longer true.

 

[YJMD]

There is a huge gulf between winning is everything and a loser mentality. My hope is that GT wins big again soon and consistently, but I won't walk away from GT if they never win again. My loyalty isn't bought by wins, or tarnished by losses. For many of our younger generation, this is no longer true.

I think there's a lot to be said with that wisdom being gained through maturity. Beyond that, though, I think youngsters have a lot of the same values inherent in your position. I think it would be better to show them why Tech is worth being a lifelong fan of rather than saying the group doesn't have capacity for the type of character that we represent. Tech is just as much a place to mold our youth as much as it is a mold for special folks to fit through. We can still have positive influence on those who don't get in. That's increasingly hard to do. I would put my odds of getting in at 0.5% based on my high school resume using today's standards. But Tech would still be very much a part of my life regardless.

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

I think it would be better to show them why Tech is worth being a lifelong fan of rather than saying the group doesn't have capacity for the type of character that we represent.

I never stated it didn't have the capacity. I stated that this is simply the current way of thinking that has been ingrained in them for years now. As that age group ages matures, and their values change, (as our values changed as we aged and matured), then some will undoubtedly change their allegiances to GT. Some because they go to school here, or their kids go to school here, some because they like what it stands for, some simply because they move to Atlanta and choose to follow the hometown team. That being said, my larger point remains. Since we are a school that will not sell out for sake of wins on a football field, we will not be overly attractive to the under 20 crowd without some other tie to the school. My point was meant as a reference to their current state, not their possible future. That being said, the odds are that unless something draws them away from the school they support in their teens, then they will support that school for the rest of their life. And because teens today tend to value winning big over athletic and academic integrity, that puts schools like GT at a decided competitive disadvantage in terms of drawing fans from this particular demographic. But this has been true for a while now, so hopefully TStan has plans to better market GT to the teenagers in Georgia who we need to keep our fanbase going strong and growing.

 

[JacketFromUGA]

Now we need a poll of student/alum vs sidewalk

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

Now we need a poll of student/alum vs sidewalk

Not sure sidewalk describes some fans, because some, if not many, season ticket holders are not alums but are certainly not sidewalk fans either.

 

[GT_05]

Now we need a poll of student/alum vs sidewalk

Then we will need a poll of who does or does not like the term “sidewalk fan”.


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[Augusta_Jacket]

Not sure sidewalk describes some fans, because some, if not many, season ticket holders are not alums but are certainly not sidewalk fans either.

Out of curiosity, how would you classify me?

 

[MikeJackets1967]

Then we will need a poll of who does or does not like the term “sidewalk fan”.


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I've been a sidewalk Yellow Jacket fan for as long as i can remember

 

[GT_05]

I've been a sidewalk Yellow Jacket fan for as long as i can remember

I just think we are all fans and I’m not sure why students and alums need to be differentiated from non-students and non-alums. I’m a big fan of anyone who wants to come in and cheer for the Jackets, especially when the mutts come to town.


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