It would be awesome if GT could find a way to renovate bobby dodd stadium into a multi-use facility. Hear me out. and allow me to take for granted the up-front costs & perhaps even architectural feasibility (as the M-train taught me, we can always hire people to figure these things out).
Instead of having sky-boxes (bad food, bad seats, very pricey), why don't we replace them with offices? yes, actual business offices. you could host ATDC companies. You could have law-firms sponsors office space for early stage companies. (similar to atlanta tech village). You could have big corporations, coke, delta, etc. have offices. each office could have a sign above it, facing the field (promotion). and each office would be allowed to use the box for the games, obviously, as well as concerts.
You basically turn bobby dodd into a venue that generates revenue every day, rather than on only 10 days. You also have more money to support renovations for better food (open up bobby dodd restaurants to the public during the non-game days, why not??). better bathrooms. better facilities (reserve the weight room for GT athletics, except for certain limited times where building employees can use it. you could keep people off the field during non-games, but you also have a cool video board that you could use for movie nights or academic conferences, whatever.
It's not a terrible idea. Companies are moving to inner-cities and co-locating near universities, especially GT, where we have super advanced computing and internet infrastructure, world class researchers, and the cheapest educated labor you can buy (interns). Moreover, i worked in biglaw for a few years. the head of our global admin department talked about the future of office buildings. law firms don't need massive office space anymore, mainly because law firms are leaner and store documents digitally now (surprisingly recent development). the current model of prime real estate + huge offices + naming rights on towers is going to go way really fast. it's one of the biggest fixed costs & clients don't care about it anymore. that said, this might open a new, untapped marketing channel. i know some big law firms sponsor office space at tech incubators around the country. it's good name recognition and they build relationships with early-stage companies who may become huge clients in a few years. low risk, high reward. GT could be this on steroids, especially with the other projects we have in works + partnership with emory. Tech + health care = U.S. economy.
There's a lot of corporate & private wealth in atlanta. let's use it. There's a lot of economic potential at GT. let's capitalize on it. Bobby Dodd is in a great location on the campus of one of the best tech universities in the world. . . why not maximize its value?
I'm just so tired of doing things the way they've always been done. i could give a **** about clemson's wiffle ball court. it actually makes me a little less patriotic everytime i hear something like this b/c i want to know what ****head donated 10 million to build that. everything i've written may sound radical or looney toons, but, would you admit that it's technically possible? And at GT, if something is possible + better, isn't it in our ethos to build it??
How long has this been percolating in your brain?
