BDS Attendance

Dustman

Dustman

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4shotB said:
It certainly affects me and my attendance. I live 6 hours away in Central time zone. I have a choice of getting up at predawn and hustling like crazy to get in a seat at kickoff. When i do this, I miss any and all pregame festivities such as the players walk and the band playing in front of the student union. Those activities are part of the fun of attending a game since I can see all the events on the field on my large screen TV at home. Bottom line for me is, the actual game is not the draw (although I consider myself a die hard Tech fan). If I cannot tailgate/socialize pregame, I am not going to a game. Even if I drive down late Friday night, I have doubled my lodging expenses and won't arrive until midnight or so. By the time I get up, eat breakfast and get to the game it's almost kickoff anyways. So a noon game is not even on my radar although I will certainly not miss watching it on TV or computer.

So it has to be a (Saturday) afternoon or evening game for me. I imagine there are others who live in a 4 - 6 hour radius who feel the same way.
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I live 5 hours away, but I'm fortunate to have a friend in Lawrenceville who is every bit as passionate about the Jackets as I am. I drive up after work on Friday.

I disagree with you on Saturday morning though. My wingman and I are on campus with our tailgate crew no later than 8:30. Traffic is not an issue. Yesterday we were in the stadium an hour before kickoff. No hassle. No rush. The number of people streaming in after kickoff is astounding and disappointing.

Sorry for the rant. I understand your situation. It takes a lot of effort for us out of town folks. I get tired of the hours on the road. But there's nowhere I would rather be on a Saturday than BDS.
 

65Jacket

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wvangelderen said:
Noon starts can be an issue, but it's not the main one. I have seen Georgia and Clemson both have sellouts at noon games against cupcake teams, so then what is our main issue then? I was watching on TV yesterday and man the stadium looked empty and that looks bad
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The problem is the TV cameras focus on the East, the less filled part of the stadium. I sit in the East, and I left thinking it was a nice sized crowd, because I was looking at the West stands.
 

65Jacket

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Supersizethatorder-mutt said:
I still contend that it can in no way hurt for TStan to express his feelings on the matter. He has absolutely nothing to lose and potentially a lot to gain.
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You don't think he has already expressed his opinion? Do you think he is that dumb? Come on guy.
By the way, the Conyers Mafia arrives at 7:30 AM for noon games. If we kicked off at 9:00 AM, we would be there by 5:00AM.
 
4shotB

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Dustman said:
I live 5 hours away, but I'm fortunate to have a friend in Lawrenceville who is every bit as passionate about the Jackets as I am. I drive up after work on Friday.

I disagree with you on Saturday morning though. My wingman and I are on campus with our tailgate crew no later than 8:30. Traffic is not an issue.

Sorry for the rant. I understand your situation. It takes a lot of effort for us out of town folks. I get tired of the hours on the road. But there's nowhere I would rather be on a Saturday than BDS.
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I don't consider it a rant. It is certainly doable (most things are) but I would find that to be too taxing, especially if the TV option exists. Personally, I probably would not drive all the way Friday night as I don't like driving at night anymore. ( I just recently moved here. Previously I was 4 hours away). I would probably get 1/2 way on Friday, leaving me 2-3 hours Saturday morning anyways. If I were fully retired, I would have no qualms leaving Friday morning and returning Sunday afternoon. I would have the rest of the week for yard work,etc. But, for right now, noon games are not an option. A 3:30 changes the dynamic significantly. I might have felt diffently 30 years ago.
 
Dustman

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4shotB said:
I don't consider it a rant. It is certainly doable (most things are) but I would find that to be too taxing, especially if the TV option exists. Personally, I probably would not drive all the way Friday night as I don't like driving at night anymore. ( I just recently moved here. Previously I was 4 hours away). I would probably get 1/2 way on Friday, leaving me 2-3 hours Saturday morning anyways. If I were fully retired, I would have no qualms leaving Friday morning and returning Sunday afternoon. I would have the rest of the week for yard work,etc. But, for right now, noon games are not an option. A 3:30 changes the dynamic significantly. I might have felt diffently 30 years ago.
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The other missing piece of this discussion is Thursday night games in ATL. They are the most difficult to attend for us out of towners and I have heard from several former season ticket holders that the Thursday night games were the last straw for them.
 
4shotB

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Dustman said:
The other missing piece of this discussion is Thursday night games in ATL. They are the most difficult to attend for us out of towners and I have heard from several former season ticket holders that the Thursday night games were the last straw for them.
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Thursday night games are completely off my radar as far as my attendance is concerned. That would require 2 days off to attend.
 
Supersizethatorder-mutt

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Dustman said:
The other missing piece of this discussion is Thursday night games in ATL. They are the most difficult to attend for us out of towners and I have heard from several former season ticket holders that the Thursday night games were the last straw for them.
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And yet those and the occasional Saturday night games are the best attended and by far most entertaining ones.
 
Dustman

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Supersizethatorder-mutt said:
And yet those and the occasional Saturday night games are the best attended and by far most entertaining ones.
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just going off memory, the night games I recall at BDS in the last 10 years involved Clemson, VT, Miami, FSU, and Ugag. BDS will fill for those teams regardless of the time slot IMO.

Back in the day, the Thursday night games were special. It was a national audience and the only game on. When the NFL started having Thurs night games a lot of the reason for playing them disappeared IMO.

I do love a night game at BDS. But I go to all games regardless of game time. I feel like the players work their tails off for us and it's the least we can do to show them that we care.
 

MountainBuzzMan

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Dustman said:
just going off memory, the night games I recall at BDS in the last 10 years involved Clemson, VT, Miami, FSU, and Ugag. BDS will fill for those teams regardless of the time slot IMO.

Back in the day, the Thursday night games were special. It was a national audience and the only game on. When the NFL started having Thurs night games a lot of the reason for playing them disappeared IMO.

I do love a night game at BDS. But I go to all games regardless of game time. I feel like the players work their tails off for us and it's the least we can do to show them that we care.
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I do as well. Dont want my earlier post to lead people to think I dont. I still dont like 12:00 games but I am always there. But I have heard enough people complain about it and choose not to come to know it is a problem.
 
ClydeBrick

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The reasons we do not have huge GT-fan attendance are legion, and the point of this thread.

The nooners probably contribute to this and many of the reasons that are stated in this thread. Many of those reasons are not unique to GT. There is no doubt that the TV people make decisions based on what pleases them, rather than what pleases a ticket holder.

One thing that I would disagree with is the fact that CPJ's opinion does not matter. If GT - at CPJ's insistence - does not request non-nooners, then we should not be surprised when GT gets nooners.

As evidence for this opinion, I offer this list of game times of a fellow ACC team in 2016:

Friday 7:00 PM (H) vs Tulane
Saturday 3:30 PM (A) vs Duke
Saturday 6:30 PM (H) vs Delaware
Saturday 3:30 PM (A) vs Indiana
Saturday 3:30 PM (A) vs NCS
Saturday 7:00PM (H) vs Syracuse
Saturday 3:30 PM (A) vs F$U
Saturday 3:30PM (H) vs Army
Saturday 3:00 PM (H) vs UVA
Saturday 7:00 PM (A) vs Louisville
Saturday 7:00 PM (H) vs Clemson
Saturday 3:00 PM (H) vs BC

Who is this football powerhouse that gets an entire season without nooners?

Wake Forest.

One of those games is a non-nooner, by design and three were against teams that were media darlings last season. The rest were meh games, matching up meh teams having meh seasons (Wake finished 7-6, 3-5 in 2016). What lead to this 2016 schedule? In 2015 Wake was 3-9, 1-7 - they did however have four nooners in 2015, three were at home.

In fact, the mighty Deacons were waiting for 3:30 PM to roll around to take on the Mountaineers of App State at App State while GT was playing a conference game at home at noon. The good news is that the Deacons eked out a win by blocking a last second field goal. ACC, ACC, ACC.


While this is not proof-positive that CPJ's opinion has influence on the matter of nooners, I believe that there is evidence here to indicate that CPJ's game-time preference - hence GT's - probably has something to do with it. That or the Tobacco Road Mafia really, really hates GT or there are way more Wake Forest football fans watching across the country that I give them credit for.

BTW, Wake's earliest start so far this season was a 1:00 PM game at BC, next week they play F$U at home at 3:30 PM. Then they play Clemson. Wakes first nooner this season might be against . . . GT.
 
GTpdm

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Supersizethatorder-mutt said:
The best anybody can probably do is complain, and use statistics which back up the complaint-----such as 2/3 of our games having had noon starts over the past 3 or 4 years.
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Actually, what we need to do is perform a statistical analysis of how much noon kickoffs impact attendance. If we can determine a dollar figure for lost gate revenue due to unappealing noon kickoffs, we might have a basis for demanding compensation.

If the networks want to claim "revenue issues" as the basis for placing a particular matchup in a lousy time slot, fine. But if that's the case, then they should have to pay the full revenue cost for their decision, by compensating the teams whose gate revenues have been suppressed in the process.
 
Vespidae

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A quick glance at the attendance of 40,2011 and its 18% lower than BDS long-term average of 48,835.

Ugh.

Give unused tickets to the military, GA State Patrol, Delta employees, etc. just make sure they are used!
 

33jacket

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What do folks think when all our games now are at noon? This is going to be common.

Kids have little league etc and alot of our fans are now young parents. Iiwii

Tech needs to stop lobbying for noon games cuz cpj likes em and maybe for once lobby for later games cuz its better for the fans and without the fans exactly where would this program be? And use tv as the excuse.


One of techs prime issues, and still existing issue, is the attitude in the AA its all about them not the outside world. That culture hasn't changed
 
Vespidae

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33jacket said:
What do folks think when all our games now are at noon? This is going to be common.
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The prime games are generally at 3:30pm. Actual times are dictated by tv.

We can't do much about ACC opponents. The average ACC attendance is 51,233. The SEC averages 76,363 ... 50% more.

Want more attendance? Play 3 SEC schools a year. TN, Auburn, and UGAg are no brainers.
 
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