Bobby Dodd Renovation in the NE Stands

AUFC

Helluva Engineer
Messages
2,851
Location
Atlanta
I’m not exactly sure why it would be any different than before. There were just walls there before and how there’s a fence. Why the refusal?
Take this with a grain of salt because it's all just theories and guesses, but I suspect security leads strategized heavily about how to prevent students with South endzone tickets from going over capacity in the North endzone (which has historically been a thing but is now finally leading to fire code/safety issues with the increased student demand). When it came to game time, they were unable to pull off this single direction filter and decided to deny access from both directions. Extremely poor design leading to a brute force strategy with not enough staff to pull it off.

There is an easy fix for this next season: the entire student body should be located in the North endzone and Northeast corner of the stadium - sell cheap tickets for the South endzone to the general public. Demo the entire thing and replace it with a beer garden like Duke did when the funds are available to do so.
 

gtee91

Jolly Good Fellow
Messages
278
Take this with a grain of salt because it's all just theories and guesses, but I suspect security leads strategized heavily about how to prevent students with South endzone tickets from going over capacity in the North endzone (which has historically been a thing but is now finally leading to fire code/safety issues with the increased student demand). When it came to game time, they were unable to pull off this single direction filter and decided to deny access from both directions. Extremely poor design leading to a brute force strategy with not enough staff to pull it off.

There is an easy fix for this next season: the entire student body should be located in the North endzone and Northeast corner of the stadium - sell cheap tickets for the South endzone to the general public. Demo the entire thing and replace it with a beer garden like Duke did when the funds are available to do so.
The concept of splitting the student section just seems odd to me...in ancient times when I was there they had rat seats, blocks seats, etc but basically we were all the same general East area and could move around somewhat once the game started...I saw Security hassling students in the third quarter...like dude you should be HAPPY that students WANT to be there after the half
 

doobie

Georgia Tech Fan
Messages
1
Who were they trying to restrict? Were people moving to better sections that were unoccupied? This just sounds crazy. On tv it looked like parts of UE and South end zone had seats open. Who cares if the seats were open. Let people move.
About 1000 students were given overflow seating in the south end zone and they were all trying to sneak into the north stands. They tried a whole new system that essentially removed org blocks and it was a total disaster.
 

AUFC

Helluva Engineer
Messages
2,851
Location
Atlanta
The concept of splitting the student section just seems odd to me...in ancient times when I was there they had rat seats, blocks seats, etc but basically we were all the same general East area and could move around somewhat once the game started...I saw Security hassling students in the third quarter...like dude you should be HAPPY that students WANT to be there after the half
Cash-strapped GTAA contracts a security company (as cheap as they can find) for gameday enforcement. The inexpensive security company is so cheap because they staff employees for low wages. Unhappy, low wage employees with little to lose give no damns about doing their job properly or well. I'm not sure there's much GTAA can do aside from give the leads/sales team from the security company hell and threaten to find another security company for future games (which would add more expense as far as migrating and training a new staff) if they don't provide their services well and keep GTAA's customers (us) happy and safe.

EDIT: "How was your game day?" email just arrived in my inbox as I hit submit. If you got this as well, fill it out. They read the surveys and use them to iterate on the experience.
 

Northeast Stinger

Helluva Engineer
Messages
10,775
I think a really cool tradition for Tech to start would be that any Tech student with a valid ID can sit wherever the hell they want to where there is an available seat. Encourage all other fans to honor this, acknowledge this, and applaud any student who comes to sit in your section. Even buy them a drink. Tech students are among the hardest working students in the nation and deserve respect because they are the backbone of the Tech experience,
 

AUFC

Helluva Engineer
Messages
2,851
Location
Atlanta
Just spent 10 minutes filling out the survey with detailed answers on gameday experiences, clicked submit and get this

Screenshot 2024-09-02 at 10.17.05 AM.png


Yep, that just about sums it up
 

gte447f

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,085
I think a really cool tradition for Tech to start would be that any Tech student with a valid ID can sit wherever the hell they want to where there is an available seat. Encourage all other fans to honor this, acknowledge this, and applaud any student who comes to sit in your section. Even buy them a drink. Tech students are among the hardest working students in the nation and deserve respect because they are the backbone of the Tech experience,
Interesting idea
 

Tommy_Taylor_1972

GT Athlete
Messages
202
Who were they trying to restrict? Were people moving to better sections that were unoccupied? This just sounds crazy. On tv it looked like parts of UE and South end zone had seats open. Who cares if the seats were open. Let people move.
I imagine someone in the athletic department told security to do what they did. I also imagine the local police were were paid as off duty security officials like most athletic events do. The athletic department owns the negative outcomes.
 

stinger 1957

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,473
Good management and GT have never been IMO, just not in our DNA just like politics is not what we can do where many of the universities seem to live by it. When tenure was implemented the management part of it seem to become substantially worse.
 

jpw67

Georgia Tech Fan
Messages
58
Location
North Carolina
It does look relatively good; however, for those who were at the game and made any attempt to move between the north and east stands it was a god-awful fan experience - massive chaos involving high numbers of law enforcement refusing to let fans use that corridor. Multiple physical confrontations were observed and reported including one I saw with an officer pushing a father and his young son against a wall causing the boy to cry. I tried to get to our seats three times throughout the first half with no luck until the third try I ultimately had to force my way past the security guards who seemed to calm down slightly toward halftime. It was the worst overall fan experience I've ever observed/experienced for many hundred fans in my 45+ years of attending games at BDS... GTAA needs to figure something else out - and quickly...
I would say Batt needs that feedback - immediately. If that happened to me and my kids we'd never go back, sorry...
 

stinger78

Helluva Engineer
Messages
4,307
Take this with a grain of salt because it's all just theories and guesses, but I suspect security leads strategized heavily about how to prevent students with South endzone tickets from going over capacity in the North endzone (which has historically been a thing but is now finally leading to fire code/safety issues with the increased student demand). When it came to game time, they were unable to pull off this single direction filter and decided to deny access from both directions. Extremely poor design leading to a brute force strategy with not enough staff to pull it off.

There is an easy fix for this next season: the entire student body should be located in the North endzone and Northeast corner of the stadium - sell cheap tickets for the South endzone to the general public. Demo the entire thing and replace it with a beer garden like Duke did when the funds are available to do so.
You really seem to like the beer garden.
 

AUFC

Helluva Engineer
Messages
2,851
Location
Atlanta
You really seem to like the beer garden.
I would never use it - I want to focus on the game and center my social experience around that rather than socialize in an outdoor bar. But I'm 31 and I want friends/peers to come to games and fill capacity. None of them have any interest in coming to games until the experience is more than just a 3.5 hour football game. Sorry but the facts are the facts and the focus groups are the focus groups. There's a reason all the stadiums being built these days aren't just 2 tiers of benches with hot dogs and burgers like the "good ol' days" - you need to make it about more than the game to sell tickets to more than just 60+ year olds.
 

stinger78

Helluva Engineer
Messages
4,307
I would never use it - I want to focus on the game and center my social experience around that rather than socialize in an outdoor bar. But I'm 31 and I want friends/peers to come to games and fill capacity. None of them have any interest in coming to games until the experience is more than just a 3.5 hour football game. Sorry but the facts are the facts and the focus groups are the focus groups. There's a reason all the stadiums being built these days aren't just 2 tiers of benches with hot dogs and burgers like the "good ol' days" - you need to make it about more than the game to sell tickets to more than just 60+ year olds.
Maybe so. I am of the opinion that folks who come for the surrounding experience tend to walk away when that experience becomes old. There is no attachment to the team, so there is no longevity in the fan. Just a few of my thoughts in the matter, FWIW. I really have no issue with a beer garden, but I thought this board wanted it in the UN. I’d put it on top of the new “Edge” building. What a view!!!
 

jpw67

Georgia Tech Fan
Messages
58
Location
North Carolina
I couldn't visualize what the NE corner would look like during the construction and post-construction from the stadium side. I think it looks good now and will really be impressive when finished. I also think a 52K seating capacity is perfect for us.
We’ll be just short of 52, but it is a good number for us. Would be nice though if the AA could find another 50 or whatever seats and make it precisely 52.
 
Top