Empty Seats

[Old School]

Just took a look at the seating map on ramblinwreck.com. A BUNCH of empty seats. Hard to believe.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Apparently you have not been following GT for long then.

 

[pauley_GT]

fwiw, tickets are $70+ on stub hub. Usually a good sign.

 

[Old School]

Apparently you have not been following GT for long then.

Just 31 years. I know our fanbase is apathetic, but Hell this is Clemson, and for a chance at the coastal!!

 

[yellowRambler]

they're also chagring 82.50, 93ish, and 104 for tickets. Clemson fans bought almost every upper endzone seat last time, but they're not undefeated and #4 in the country like last time

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

Tech fans need to reproduce more.....time to abstain from birth control and abstinence ;p

 

[Bruce Wayne]

"Just 31 years. I know our fanbase is apathetic, but Hell this is Clemson, and for a chance at the coastal!!"

And the game time was not even decided until late Saturday night. Other than season ticket holders how many people do you expect to have pre-purchased tickets before knowing a game time given that Tech rarely sells a game out and when they do sell it out it is usually game-day or the day or so before when that happens? (My point there, to be clear, is that there is no reason to purchase much in advance rather than waiting and planning week of the game). Have you gotten worked up over ticket sales every week for 31 years in similar circumstances?

I don't think Tech fans are apathetic, those are your words not mine.

I think Tech has a great fanbase that holds its own or even regularly beats out many fanbases of similar sized schools with BCS level teams in terms of indicators of support.

 

[steebu]

Just took a look at the seating map on ramblinwreck.com. A BUNCH of empty seats. Hard to believe.

Not really. Remember, the year after we won the national title we couldn't fill a 44,000 seat Bobby Dodd. Related to one of the reasons why Ross left.

 

[mts315]

fwiw, tickets are $70+ on stub hub. Usually a good sign.

Tickets from the ticket office are $80 plus fees. So, I am not sure how good of a sign that is.

Really don't know who looked at the GT market and decided the demand for this game would warrant and $80 face value.

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

Well Clemson fans will pay 80 lol. I think it will be a near packed house by game time. There will be a lot of orange though.

 

[Old School]

"Just 31 years. I know our fanbase is apathetic, but Hell this is Clemson, and for a chance at the coastal!!"

And the game time was not even decided until late Saturday night. Other than season ticket holders how many people do you expect to have pre-purchased tickets before knowing a game time given that Tech rarely sells a game out and when they do sell it out it is usually game-day or the day or so before when that happens? (My point there, to be clear, is that there is no reason to purchase much in advance rather than waiting and planning week of the game). Have you gotten worked up over ticket sales every week for 31 years in similar circumstances?

I don't think Tech fans are apathetic, those are your words not mine.

I think Tech has a great fanbase that holds its own or even regularly beats out many fanbases of similar sized schools with BCS level teams in terms of indicators of support.

Not apathetic. We're 8-2, drilling people, and our coach is having to take to twitter to beg fans to come to a great rivalry game. I'm not worked up, just confused!!

 

[AlabamaBuzz]

Our fan base is NOT that large. And, I believe for years now, it has been dwindling. We don't graduate tons of kids, and the ones we do, I believe there are fewer and fewer interested in big boy football. Yes, there are still many that are, but I believe the % of graduates today that are interested is much less. Lastly, and this has always been a problem, so many of our graduates do not stay near Atlanta, and some will fly in for a game or 2, but very few will do that for an entire season. It is what it is....we never should have expanded Bobby Dodd. The only time this really is worthwhile is against UGAG or maybe Clem's Son, if they bring in an extra 5-7K fans.

 

[ClydeBrick]

Living Social had a tie-in for the Miami game: $45 with a drink & hotdog voucher ($10 value) for 223/227. Those seats were $65 without the deal.

For this game they have another tie-in: $80 for 223/227 (no voucher). Those seats are $93 without the deal.

The GTAA wanted as much White in the stadium as possible last time, I guess this time money is more important than butts in the seats.

I expect the Upper North to be Orange/Purple as the $99 season tickets were probably sold to lots of Clempson fans, similar to it being solid red & black when UGAg plays here.

BTW: This season the cost of single-game seats from the GTAA were: Clem>Miami>UVa=Dook=GS>Wofford.

 

[slugboy]

Our fan base is NOT that large. And, I believe for years now, it has been dwindling. We don't graduate tons of kids, and the ones we do, I believe there are fewer and fewer interested in big boy football.

We graduate a lot more students now than we did 15 years ago, so it's not alumni base. If that were the case, our attendance would be up a good bit.

There are a couple of reasons, but TV coverage is one of them. Attendance is down in the B1G, SEC, Pac-whatever, NFL, and so on, even with more people today than 20 years ago. You can probably find counterexamples, but the arenas that are full are ones that already had a waiting list. Even teams that had waiting lists ten years ago are having empty seats these days. People want to watch on their big screen TV sets.

You may be growing your fan base, just not in the stadium.

There are also a lot more teams in top-level college football, and more in the NFL. That's splitting up the audience.

 

[Old School]

Tech should tarp the upper 1/2 of the north end zone, and pack everyone into the remaining seats. I'm tired of seeing them empty.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Not apathetic. We're 8-2, drilling people, and our coach is having to take to twitter to beg fans to come to a great rivalry game. I'm not worked up, just confused!!

Then you haven't paid attention very well.

See Steebu's comment for starters. Second, who are you comparing our fan base to to come up with all your huffing and puffing and insults about apathy? By what rational basis are you making your criticisms? Some version of reality existing in your head?

Duke won the Coastal last year, has a student body of 14,600 and a stadium capacity of 34,000. They have yet to have a home game sellout this year up to this point.

Tech fans routinely and historically travel very well comparable to school size for away games and bowls. Bobby Dodd is also routinely mentioned as a really loud stadium by opponents. Were you at the Miami game? Did you hear our small travel pep band destroying the microphone during the NCST game? Our band was louder than the TV announcers. Of course that is bad TV production to not adjust the volume levels they piped the stadium noise at over the airwaves but still, our band and "apathetic" fans were doing their part.

I went to see Tech play BC in 2008 at Chestnut Hill and the Tech fans and the pep band absolutely embarrassed the BC marching band in their own stadium. It was a site to behold, witness, and hear.

 

[Oldgoldandwhite]

Have any of you ever sat in the "fringe" seats in the upper deck. You couldn't pay me to sit there again against any team. Did it once, not again.

 

[Lexjacket]

We have to bring them................

I understand not everyone can do this, but we have to literally take people by the hand and introduce them to Georgia Tech football. This is the Virginia Game; of the 7 people here 6 were/are fans without a team. From left to right Phil (a former Ohi0 State fan who was transferred here and he and his family joined our church, I invited him to the GT/Kansas game 3 years ago and he was hooked), his 6 year old son Ethan, me (sidewalk fan for 53 years) Peggy (a missionary nurse from our church to Burkina Faso Africa for thirty years; she loves football and had never been to a game, I told her she was going to be a Jacket, we dressed her in White and Gold, bought her a chili cheese slaw dog and an order of onion rings at the Varsity and she loved it - she's hooked), my wife Donna an Alabama Beauty after 27 years of being married to me and she has a closet full of Tech Gear - not one stitch of crimson and white she's hooked - on GT and me , last but not least Thom and Karen, they go to our church and Thom has been a Professor at Tech for 9 years; they're both from Illinois and are Illini Alums, this was Karens first game and Thom's second game - they loved it - they're hooked. It can be work making Tech fans and can cost a little, but it's a whole lot of fun.

It Can Be Done!

 

[TheSilasSonRising]

We GT fans continue to make the same decades old mistakes .

To win in any endeavor, one must first beat their competition. To beat your competition, you must correctly identify your competition. No amount of advertising or slogans will overcome that.

Beating our real competition will sell more tickets.

In Atlanta GA, winning the Coastal division of the ACC does not make the hair stand up on the back of the neck of people we need to attract and sell more tickets to.

Not rocket science.

 

[MWBATL]

This!