BDS Attendance

[Vespidae]

Every now and again, the issue of filling BDS comes up. In this case, Atlanta United showed what a full stadium could look like and we all wonder what a Jacket experience would be in a full BDS.

So, I looked at attendance data back to 2005. Tech averages 48,835 fans per home game. If you look the range of attendance over time, the standard deviation is about 2900. Over the same 12 year period, Tech exceeded the upper limit twice (in 2005 and 2009) and came up short also twice (in 2010 and 2012).

The Five Year Average attendance was 50, 315 from 2005-2009 and fell to 47,246 from 2010-2014. In the last two years, it's trending back up.

What to make of this? I need to go back and overlay won-loss records as well as quality of opponents, but it doesn't look as bad as others. Tech pretty consistently delivers 49,000 fans per game. And has. For a while.

V

 

[TheSilasSonRising]

Good job and interesting.

I think, based on what I understand as NCAA policy of equating attendance with tickets distributed, the better measure of. "success" in this area is when we will, yearly, sell out our allotment of season tickets.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

Every now and again, the issue of filling BDS comes up. In this case, Atlanta United showed what a full stadium could look like and we all wonder what a Jacket experience would be in a full BDS.

So, I looked at attendance data back to 2005. Tech averages 48,835 fans per home game. If you look the range of attendance over time, the standard deviation is about 2900. Over the same 12 year period, Tech exceeded the upper limit twice (in 2005 and 2009) and came up short also twice (in 2010 and 2012).

The Five Year Average attendance was 50, 315 from 2005-2009 and fell to 47,246 from 2010-2014. In the last two years, it's trending back up.

What to make of this? I need to go back and overlay won-loss records as well as quality of opponents, but it doesn't look as bad as others. Tech pretty consistently delivers 49,000 fans per game. And has. For a while.

V

Long term analysis has to be compared to the rest of CFB. Attendance has waned all over the place.

 

[MWBATL]

Every now and again, the issue of filling BDS comes up. In this case, Atlanta United showed what a full stadium could look like and we all wonder what a Jacket experience would be in a full BDS.

So, I looked at attendance data back to 2005. Tech averages 48,835 fans per home game. If you look the range of attendance over time, the standard deviation is about 2900. Over the same 12 year period, Tech exceeded the upper limit twice (in 2005 and 2009) and came up short also twice (in 2010 and 2012).

The Five Year Average attendance was 50, 315 from 2005-2009 and fell to 47,246 from 2010-2014. In the last two years, it's trending back up.

What to make of this? I need to go back and overlay won-loss records as well as quality of opponents, but it doesn't look as bad as others. Tech pretty consistently delivers 49,000 fans per game. And has. For a while.

V

Also, remember that Atlanta United "filled" Bobby Dodd solely because they closed off the Upper North stands....their attendance there was 46,318. So, let's not beat ourselves up and marvel at how great thing were for Atlanta United. What WAS great then was the enthusiasm and energy of the fans. The chanting and cheering was far superior to the average GT game. The sis due in part to the age of the crowd, and in part (imho) to the way the crowd is handled. Piped in music (imho) causes the crowd to sit on their hands more, and GT has gone more and more to the pro style piped in music. AU games are led by their fan base and cheerleaders....just as GT crowds should be led by our band and cheerleaders. Plus, and GT fan who yells "sit down" should be banned for the stadium! (OK, that's just my own emotion talking, but some of you guys should really get into it more!)

 

[crl85]

I would rather have a packed 46k than have the upper north stands. Those things are either empty, red, or orange.

 

[iceeater1969]

How bout we give to atlanta youth sports , junior high coaches . That would pay down the ro ad. My son coaches hs and gets tickets to various games via online application.

 

[SolicitorJacket]

I think over time a few things have come into play. Number one was the Tech fund which seems to have eaten into the crowds in the upper East especially. Also our ticket sales usually have a pretty wide swing based on opponents. I would hazard a guess that this year many UGA and Tennessee fans snapped up the cheaper non tech fund tickets to get in the door for MBS and COFH. Also as some have mentioned attendance has become an issue for more programs as tv options and quality make it easier to stay home. Also today's college students seem a bit less rabid about football and don't center their fall socializing around it as much.

Finally, with all due respect to iceeater1969, the youth sport ticket giveaway gets mentioned every time this issue is raised, but the problems there are two fold. Number one, unlike years ago youth sports have a lot of games and travel on the weekends. In fact, I hear many people say they can't get to the games (especially nooners) because they have youth sports obligations. Second, you would have to have a good portion of all area youth sports kids at every home game to even make a dent in our 8-10k shortfall.

 

[iceeater1969]

I think over time a few things have come into play. Number one was the Tech fund which seems to have eaten into the crowds in the upper East especially. Also our ticket sales usually have a pretty wide swing based on opponents. I would hazard a guess that this year many UGA and Tennessee fans snapped up the cheaper non tech fund tickets to get in the door for MBS and COFH. Also as some have mentioned attendance has become an issue for more programs as tv options and quality make it easier to stay home. Also today's college students seem a bit less rabid about football and don't center their fall socializing around it as much.

Finally, with all due respect to iceeater1969, the youth sport ticket giveaway gets mentioned every time this issue is raised, but the problems there are two fold. Number one, unlike years ago youth sports have a lot of games and travel on the weekends. In fact, I hear many people say they can't get to the games (especially nooners) because they have youth sports obligations. Second, you would have to have a good portion of all area youth sports kids at every home game to even make a dent in our 8-10k shortfall.

Good point about youth league's conflicting schedule especially w the times of our games being flexible for tv.

We need buzz to attract younger fans.

 

[GTRX7]

Also, remember that Atlanta United "filled" Bobby Dodd solely because they closed off the Upper North stands....their attendance there was 46,318. So, let's not beat ourselves up and marvel at how great thing were for Atlanta United.

To be fair, Atlanta United did completely sell out the only game in Bobby Dodd where the upper north wasn't closed for construction. They also put over 70k in Mercedes Benz last Saturday. Now that it is said and done, I think we can all agree that situation was great for both Atlanta United and Georgia Tech. While I heard a lot of fan complaints about Bobby Dodd after the first Atlanta United game, by the end, I think most fans absolutely loved being there and were actually worried that Mercedes was going to be a downgrade! That created a whole lot of good will for Bobby Dodd that didn't exist before.

I think Tech does an okay job filling the stadium for a small school, and especially one with a spread out alumni base. That said, I agree with the folks who think we simply over expanded with the upper north. Bobby Dodd should probably be 50k instead of 55k. There is something to be said for a more full stadium on a regular basis and even hard to come by demand for big games. In the future, I could see us increasing the amount of "luxury" seating and decreasing the overall capacity. Given the trend in stadiums these days, I think that would be a good thing. Now we just need a donor to chip in the 20 (50?) million. lol.

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

I sit in section 225 (upper east), and for the first time in years (other than Clemson and Georgia), my section was almost full for the JSU game. I don't know if those tickets were all given away for free or what, but it was awesome. I didn't ask, but I doubt that many of them there were hurricane refugees, and I frankly don't care. Most, but not all, were blacks, and they really got into the game. A father and his two sons sitting in front of me were all decked out in Tech gear and had a blast. If it takes giving away tickets to those who otherwise might not be able to afford them. whatever the reason, then by all means DO IT !!!!

 

[Deltajacket]

Tech would do well to reach out to the student bodies at both Emory and GCSU. Neither has a football team and a student package could draw a fair number of fans we couldn't get otherwise. When my daughter toured GCSU, the student center ran regular ticket deals for Braves games that included both a ticket and bus transportation. There's no reason something similar wouldn't work for our home games and it would help generate sidewalk fan interest.

 

[SteamWhistle]

Section 111 was more packed for JSU than it was for Vandy last year. A lot of side walk Tech fans start showing their faces when we beat UGA.

 

[ThatGuy]

Tech would do well to reach out to the student bodies at both Emory and GCSU. Neither has a football team and a student package could draw a fair number of fans we couldn't get otherwise. When my daughter toured GCSU, the student center ran regular ticket deals for Braves games that included both a ticket and bus transportation. There's no reason something similar wouldn't work for our home games and it would help generate sidewalk fan interest.

Agreed. Add Oglethorpe to the mix as well. After growing up with Tech season tickets (my dad was a GT grad) and getting a nice scholarship offer from GT, I ultimately chose to go to Oglethorpe - primarily because I wanted more of a liberal arts education. My 4 years on OU campus were very much "in the bubble" - I didn't go to one GT game during that time.

While I'm not sure how much uptake there would be from OU students (it's tough to move the needle with an entire student body of <2000), it would go a long way to generating sidewalk fan interest (& building bridges that would continue over time). Every little bit helps.

 

[BigDaddyBuzz]

What they need to do is get rid of the bleachers and put in actual seats like the club section in the whole stadium. This in itself would probably eliminate 5K just off the space.

 

[Old School]

I think it would be wise to tear out the bleacher seats and replace them with individual chair seating. It would reduce the maximum available attendance, probably to just shy of 50k. We'd sell it out a heck of a lot more and even when it wasn't sold out, it would look pretty full b/c it's rare to have less than 48k. My wife asked me how many people the Mercedes dome seated and when I told her 75k she was shocked. She said it looked like way more than 25k more than we put in Bobby Dodd. That's all because of the individual chair seating. It'd be expensive, but a great move. Maybe charge slightly more for tickets to make up for the decreased attendance (might not even be a decrease). A full stadium makes a huge perceptual difference.

 

[Vespidae]

OK ... in today's installment of BDS Attendance, I looked at how BDS compares to FBS schools overall. In the period 2005-2016, Tech's average game attendance exceeded the FBS average in all years but two. Tech averages 48,835 for the period and FBS in general averages 45,176. Both are within normal variation.

Tomorrow, I'll compare Tech and FBS by conference. My initial scan tells me that while some conferences have eroded attendance significantly (greater than 10% and on a downward trend), others (like the SEC) have grown attendance. Before we comment on this topic, let's get the full data set working.

V

 

[iceeater1969]

V
If u can I wonder how we and Duke stack up for say the last 20 years. The away games at duke seen on film look pretty sparse.

Is net revenue from stadium that different Can it be that a half full and paid down stadium renovations has a larger cash flow than 3/4 full and payments for renovated stadium.?

 

[Vespidae]

V
If u can I wonder how we and Duke stack up for say the last 20 years. The away games at duke seen on film look pretty sparse.

Is net revenue from stadium that different Can it be that a half full and paid down stadium renovations has a larger cash flow than 3/4 full and payments for renovated stadium.?

I'll take a look at Duke shortly. Re cash flow ... most likely you are correct. However, what is becoming clear is that attendance looks to be (imho) heavily driven by a) size of alumni network, b) size and execution of merchandising programs (somewhat re-inforcing), and won-less records (which I will look at soon). Just a hunch.

 

[furant]

...Plus, any GT fan who yells "sit down" should be banned for the stadium!...

Very few things motivate me to stand more than that.

 

[Vespidae]

OK, I couldn't wait and was mostly done anyway. In this installment, I compare Tech's performance to all FBS conferences. In general, Tech has been solid in it's attendance, having only one down year. By "down year", I'm looking at the number of years that a school was below it's average attendance for the period 2011-2016.

Here's the kicker: Of all FBS schools, only the SEC is on a positive attendance trend. The ACC can be called neutral by the same measure. All other conferences are either lagging their average or on a downward trend.

Now, to be completely transparent, I need to go back and look at the number of times a conference has exceeded or lagged its upper and lower control limits to statistically look at the trend, but my initial read is ... if you are not in the ACC or the SEC, things aren't looking too good.