Game Day Attendance

[Em_Jae20]

I have a question that I am genuinely curious about. Aside from winning games (which can cure most sports ills) what can be done to drum up more fan support? What do other teams do? Its an entirely different sport, I know, but how was Atlanta United able to have sooooooo much fan support before an actual on the field product? How do we get ride of that fickle, tentative, and almost skittish attitude that plagues a lot of our fanbase?

 

[JacketOff]

Realistically, I don’t think our attendance will grow large enough to consistently sell our home games regardless of how successful the team is. I think there’s one game every 2 years guaranteed to sell out (and most of those tickets are purchased by people wearing red and black), sporting event attendance is on the decline across the board. If Tech could maintain the current attendance levels over the next 10 years I would call that a success.

Schools like Florida are reducing their seating capacity to create more sellouts. Alabama struggles to fill their student section. Ohio State’s attendance is declining. South Carolina, Michigan, Clemson, etc. are all having record lows in attendance, and overall attendance has declined for 4 straight seasons. NFL, MLB, and NHL are also having record lows for attendance. While it would be nice to pack out BDS with 50k+ every Saturday in the fall, I don’t predict that being the case anytime in the foreseeable future.

 

[iceeater1969]

Its not just the numbers.

I hope we can do something innovative to attract local busness men/ women as fans
For example ( math) dr ness's son attended gf for a short period and still loves gt football. The son is a multimillionaire from residential tree stump grinding. I hope we find a way to recruit these folks and make them feel special.

Even when texas a & m was terrible they had spirit and fan loyalty. Friend s son and my son played on high school championship team. Friend owned a series of painting stores and was a die hard aggie fan. To my friends total delight his son went on to be a punter at texas a m. I latter later found out that he never attended college.

Perhaps we should call a halt to the an snickering jokes about people who don't have degrees as " elite" as gt? We are so good we dont need to put anyone down.

Texas am has twice our living alunmi but they have 7 times our donations and ticket sales.

Its about young loyal creating fans here in the ATL area.

YES, I BOUGHT 2 EXTRA HOMECOMING TICKETS AND HAVE INVITED DR NESS S SON AND WIFE.

 

[brian22]

Step 1) Sell alcohol

 

[TheSilasSonRising]

Have to start beating ugag more. What kind of idiots ......

 

[iceeater1969]

Step 1) Sell alcohol

Unlikely
The following is presented just to show how far behind we

The aggies just added beer sales.

100,000 fans stand and cheer for whole game .

The students fully attend yell practice the night before the game .

They donate and buy tickets at 140,000,000 $/ yr compared to our 24,000,000 per year.

If its true that gtaa has use of the alumni association master list, they could send an email to every alumni within 3 hour drive. It would contain a link to buy a deeply discounted Gold gt football or Gt athletics Tee shirt. The alums would be requested to buy the tee shirt and to wear it on routine outing where they are asked to recruit fans to A NEW WEBSITE. THE SITE IS APART OF GTAA FOR NEW FANS. Their they would get INFO, access to a deeply discounted tee NEW GT shirt and post zip code that pings like a lightning strike a gis map. Gtaa reports the new fan hot spots with link to area with most new fans per alumni. THE TOP PRODUCERS GET BEER CREDITS TO BE USED AT BDS.

We need gt football ambassadors.

The best gt football sales reps are on this site

 

[stech81]

First and I know people will not go with this but there is too much ( football) on TV. It's to the point you don't have to get tickets you can watch almost all of Tech's football games without leaving your home.

The worse thing we did was increase our stadium seating from 46,000 to 55,000. All that did was make it easier from other teams to get tickets if they wanted them. To have sellouts you have to have a demand for tickets.

So how do you get people to want ticket

No one loves beer more than I do and you could sell it but the fact is there are families who do not want to seat around people drinking beer so let call selling beer a wash

Another way to play teams that our fans would love to see. ( Alabama , Auburn, Texas, and others ) but the problem here would be you are more than likely to lose a home game every other year. Plus your odds of win 10 or 11 would be hard . and we know what winning only 5 -6 games a year can do.

You could take out 1 or 2 seats in each row and add a little more space to each seat giving us fat guys more room not many will do like me and buy an extra ticket to get more room. If you do take out 1 or 2 seats in each row you would be able to put chair back seats in Bobby Dodd. But again the fact is they are not going to do this.

All I know is we have to trust our AD to make the right calls, he has shown he is a smart person.

 

[stech81]

Unlikely
The following is presented just to show how far behind we

The aggies just added beer sales.

100,000 fans stand and cheer for whole game .

The students fully attend yell practice the night before the game .

They donate and buy tickets at 140,000,000 $/ yr compared to our 24,000,000 per year.

If its true that gtaa has use of the alumni association master list, they could send an email to every alumni within 3 hour drive. It would contain a link to buy a deeply discounted Gold gt football or Gt athletics Tee shirt. The alums would be requested to buy the tee shirt and to wear it on routine outing where they are asked to recruit fans to A NEW WEBSITE. THE SITE IS APART OF GTAA FOR NEW FANS. Their they would get INFO, access to a deeply discounted tee NEW GT shirt and post zip code that pings like a lightning strike a gis map. Gtaa reports the new fan hot spots with link to area with most new fans per alumni. THE TOP PRODUCERS GET BEER CREDITS TO BE USED AT BDS.

We need gt football ambassadors.

The best gt football sales reps are on this site

You may want to check and see now many sidewalk fans that buy season tickets. You could be surprised. Some of the most dedicated fans are sidewalk fans who could support any team. Fact is I would work on them if you really want to fill the Stadium. Make them feel like they are not wanted and watch attendance decline.

 

[Gtbowhunter90]

Join the SEC lol

 

[GTFLETCH]

I have a question that I am genuinely curious about. Aside from winning games (which can cure most sports ills) what can be done to drum up more fan support? What do other teams do? Its an entirely different sport, I know, but how was Atlanta United able to have sooooooo much fan support before an actual on the field product? How do we get ride of that fickle, tentative, and almost skittish attitude that plagues a lot of our fanbase?

Nothing...ok maybe better OOC but we are doing that but when you loes to Tenn on 2OT and blow a lead at USF...nevermind...take FSU for example 2014 they sold 45K or 100% of season tix... 2019... they have sold 23K.... Winning year in and year out solves everything.
What has caused this drop in season ticket sales? Here are two factors:

• 2014 was coming off a national championship season; 2019 is coming off a losing one.
• The 2019 FSU home schedule is nothing to write home about, except for Miami. Clemson and Florida are both away in odd years, and even the Boise State game was moved to Jacksonville.

Link
https://accfootballrx.blogspot.com/2019/07/fsu-season-ticket-trend-2014-19.html

 

[LibertyTurns]

Maybe we can try not being 2 decades behind everyone else determining marketing trends? We’ve got 15k or so Engineers on campus yet a sound system that’s pathetic, we just got wifi, we can’t figure out a concession line, video boards need some work on content, etc.

 

[g0lftime]

Step 1) Sell alcohol

State of NC just made it legal to sell beer and wine at university sporting events but left it to each school to decide if they want to sell it.

 

[g0lftime]

Would come to several home games even though I live over 6 hour drive away. I did it for 3 seasons but situation with my place to stay has changed. It's also a much longer drive home when we lose. I always come to at least 1 game and sometimes 2.

 

[Gtbowhunter90]

Would come to several home games even though I live over 6 hour drive away. I did it for 3 seasons but situation with my place to stay has changed. It's also a much longer drive home when we lose. I always come to at least 1 game and sometimes 2.

I did the same when I moved 6 hours away and I'll keep doing it the best I can. Anytime the Jackets are within 3 hours of my home, I drive there. But coming home to Atlanta is much harder as I get older.

 

[NorthAvenueNation]

I did the same when I moved 6 hours away and I'll keep doing it the best I can. Anytime the Jackets are within 3 hours of my home, I drive there. But coming home to Atlanta is much harder as I get older.

Same. I live in NC and I’m guaranteed at least one NC game (Duke or UNC) to go to and then my family and I always come down to ATL for at least one home game a year (5 hr drive).

To increase attendance, which is on decline everywhere as mentioned above, I would at least do the following:

1.) Sell Alcohol
2.) Fan Giveaways
3.) Update the halftime experience
4.) Get a hype guy/girl for TV timeouts and halftime. If you’ve ever been to a minor league baseball game, this person is the reason ppl come!
5.) Survey fans on what they want and then produce!

Go Jackets!

 

[LibertyTurns]

We’ve basically got a nerdy crowd like it or not.

We should have stuff like golf’s going now with analytics, bring some nerds in to show off their new robots, etc and some scientists gene splicing. Maybe get corporations in to schlep for interns and experienced talent. Every weekend should be like a trade show on campus. We need some music before during and after, different types because we have such a diverse population.

There’s a lot of things we could do to generate foot traffic. We do very little other than same old, same old and watch the Joneses race ahead of us. Someone whips out a slide rule to calculate how far we’ve fallen back and the abacus is changed accordingly. We do math!

 

[RonJohn]

2.) Fan Giveaways

If they do fan giveaways, I would like for there to be some requirements on them: You have to get through the gates before kickoff, and you have to be in the stadium after the game.

For the older crowd, you could give ticket stubs away inside the gate. Stop giving them out ten minutes before kickoff. Then after the game is over, call out the stub numbers. If the person isn't still there, call out another stub number.

For the younger crowd and especially students, they could use something like the Niantic video games.(Such as Pokemon Go) Have them complete a task inside the stadium at least 10 minutes before game time such as:

• Have them go to an area close to the South end zone and show a video of the Miracle on North Avenue.
• Have them go to an area close to the North end zone and show a video of the Miracle on Techwood Drive.
• Have them go to various places around the stadium and have animated Joe Hamilton, animated Calvin, etc. tell them a story about the history of GT football.
• Have them go to the West stands and show an augmented reality view in which half of the screen shows the camera view of the current stands and half shows the old stands underneath.

After they complete a task, they are entered for the giveaway, but have to be present after the game to win. That would: get them to the game early, keep them at the game until the end, and teach them about the history of GT football.

 

[65Jacket]

Why not pipe in the student radio station. It advertises that it is the station for diverse music. If you have never tuned in, it is an experience. My favorite is called "industrial noise". Talk about weird, or nerdy.

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

If they do fan giveaways, I would like for there to be some requirements on them: You have to get through the gates before kickoff, and you have to be in the stadium after the game.

For the older crowd, you could give ticket stubs away inside the gate. Stop giving them out ten minutes before kickoff. Then after the game is over, call out the stub numbers. If the person isn't still there, call out another stub number.

For the younger crowd and especially students, they could use something like the Niantic video games.(Such as Pokemon Go) Have them complete a task inside the stadium at least 10 minutes before game time such as:

• Have them go to an area close to the South end zone and show a video of the Miracle on North Avenue.
• Have them go to an area close to the North end zone and show a video of the Miracle on Techwood Drive.
• Have them go to various places around the stadium and have animated Joe Hamilton, animated Calvin, etc. tell them a story about the history of GT football.
• Have them go to the West stands and show an augmented reality view in which half of the screen shows the camera view of the current stands and half shows the old stands underneath.

After they complete a task, they are entered for the giveaway, but have to be present after the game to win. That would: get them to the game early, keep them at the game until the end, and teach them about the history of GT football.

The giveaway of Calvin bobbleheads last year was a farce. You had to get inside the stadium an hour (possibly 2, I don't remember for sure) before kickoff to get one. That lets out almost all of the tailgaters, and once in the stadium that far ahead of time, there's not a damn thing to do. I like the idea of ticket-stubs, or at least not starting the giveaway until 30 minutes before kickoff.

 

[SolicitorJacket]

I am hopeful that the excitement generated by the new regime will, when combined with some wins, result in better attendance.

Atlanta loves and supports a winner, but Tech in recent years has not gotten much of a bump even when winning. The dwags pretty much control the media narrative so it becomes hard to build any buzz when potential sidewalk fans are fed a steady stream of "Tech Sux" and that the dwags are the only acceptable in-state team to pull for if you want to belong and be cool.

If we really can change that narrative then I think things will improve.