GT getting some love on Atlanta radio

[wuzjrbuzz]

Don't usually listen to this stuff, but 680 The Fan was really giving props to Tech today. Winning solves a lot of things. Belue was defending CPJ and calling out the naysayers. You guys may disagree, because I don't listen often, but today they were saying that the Clemson win was total domination on Saturday, and that Tech is a very good team, one to be reckoned with.

 

[AtWork]

Were you asleep at the wheel? You had to be dreaming this! Tech just can't get it done if you ask anyone on the ATL airwaves.

 

[Jonathan Dees]

They also spent an entire segment pointing out that the fans didn't show up for the game and Kincaid said that it must be because we aren't entertained by CPJ's brand of football.

 

[33jacket]

They also spent an entire segment pointing out that the fans didn't show up for the game and Kincaid said that it must be because we aren't entertained by CPJ's brand of football.

GTAA needs to fix alot of things fiscal about how they deal with tickets, prices, parking costs etc....i am willing to bet it was a large detractor for some. A family of 4 to the clemson game costs 320 plus 20 in parking and whatever else. Nearly a half a grand to see two top 25 teams....thats a lot of money man...especially with many people gutting it out with jobs etc.

GT used to be simple. 6 games, 35 bucks a game or whatever it was, non-mandatory donations but if you donate you get better seats etc etc. Yes I get constant revenue stream, but there is still somewhere between the two methods that is more reasonable...on either end.

 

[GTL]

Well, we got their attention, anyway. Now win at least one of the next two and we'll be getting serious attention. Win both and we could be looking at a high ranking next preseason and mucho serious talk.

 

[Old School]

I wouldn't mind seeing tech tarp the upper 1/2 of the upper North end zone seats for the short term. Squeeze everyone down and create demand. I wrote to DRad a few years ago about changing the price structure and mandatory donations etc. When you have a family of 4 or more, it gets pricy. They need to start thinking about building the future fanbase. The Dodd era fans are dying off, and in the era of ESPN promoting the SEC it's tough to get new fans interested in ACC football. We have such a great product, and when the stadium is full it's a terrific atmosphere. In a city as big as Atlanta, we should be the place to bring a family to a big time football game!! I feel like they are punishing the people who support the program year after year (season ticket holders) and then the week of the game they are scrambling with crazy deals to draw people in. There is no consistent advertising message. Why not reconsider the mandatory donations, and advertise like hell that this is the place to bring your kids. Let em grow up to be Tech fans. Think of all the rust belt families that have moved down and can't go see their old Big 10 teams play anymore. Those kids could grow up going to games on The Flats!

 

[ATL1]

I'd rather listen to yodeling than 680 The Fan

 

[AlabamaBuzz]

Not really sure what to do....engineers are a frugal folk, and I know because I am one. Getting in and out of the downtown ATL is still painful, and I can see why it is hard to attract casual fans. Plus, as a whole, our fan base can be a tough one to be around. Not because we are delusional or mean, but we tend to be a very negative bunch (cup half empty), taken as a whole. If you are a "positive" person, I am NOT talking about you. We do need to attract more "sidewalk" fans, fans that do not currently have an association with GT, but I just don't have any great ideas on how to do this.

No matter what anyone says, we don't graduate a lot of students, as compared to the Floridas, Tennessees, etc. of the world. They graduate 25-35K students every year.....We probably graduate 4-6K students every year, at the most. And many of them are either not football fans OR they take jobs a great distance away from the ATL.

I totally agree with tarping the upper North....it makes perfect sense. We can always "un-tarp" this area for UGAG games or others where we might can sell those extra seats. For most games, our target should be to get at least 48K in the stadium. For GT, that is a pretty good number in recent history. Anything over that number is gravy right now....

It would also be nice if everyone was in their seats early when the TV cameras come on...

 

[Yoda]

They are just building up GT thinking the dawgs are gonna beat us and give them an argument for the playoff.

 

[SolicitorJacket]

I don't know where folks get the idea that it is hard to get in and out of midtown Atlanta for game day. I no longer tailgate but I come to every home game. This past saturday, I left home in McDonough drove up, parked in the AT&T lot on 3rd and Spring. Walked through the tunnel and met my stepfather at the North Ave gate for the West Stands. We were in our seats 10 mins before kickoff and that whole process took less than an hour. No traffic jams, nothing. That is typical.

It is nothing like the traffic cluster that is Athens (spent 7 years there) or Clemson or Auburn.

The ticket prices for Sat did not help, but I think the main culprits are

1) Ease of watching every game in HD on the big screen in the comfort of home.

2) Noon games which present time problems for many with younger kids; and

3) A local media that is in love with all things UGA and SEC. The Dwags preach that "Tech Sucks" and until they are forced to admit otherwise, the media falls in lockstep with that narrative. Hard to attract a nonaffiliated fan base when they are inundated with the message that Tech football is not cool. Only solution there is to beat the Dwags regularly. We will start on Saturday.

 

[wuzjrbuzz]

I never listen to this stuff, but I had a doctor's appointment today and was listening on the way there. They were fair while I was listening with Belue taking up for CPJ. Belue even called out Kinkaid on PJ's brand of football not being exciting. Later, the Auburn guy said Tech's smack down of Clemson was an @$$ whipping, no fluke. Even said we were the more physical team. Could our radio coverage be better, of course, but we are winning the big ones, and at least today they were giving credit, including pointing out our wins over VT and Miami.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

I'd rather listen to yodeling than 680 The Fan

 

[Animal02]

I don't know where folks get the idea that it is hard to get in and out of midtown Atlanta for game day. I no longer tailgate but I come to every home game. This past saturday, I left home in McDonough drove up, parked in the AT&T lot on 3rd and Spring. Walked through the tunnel and met my stepfather at the North Ave gate for the West Stands. We were in our seats 10 mins before kickoff and that whole process took less than an hour. No traffic jams, nothing. That is typical.

It is nothing like the traffic cluster that is Athens (spent 7 years there) or Clemson or Auburn.

The ticket prices for Sat did not help, but I think the main culprits are

1) Ease of watching every game in HD on the big screen in the comfort of home.

2) Noon games which present time problems for many with younger kids; and

3) A local media that is in love with all things UGA and SEC. The Dwags preach that "Tech Sucks" and until they are forced to admit otherwise, the media falls in lockstep with that narrative. Hard to attract a nonaffiliated fan base when they are inundated with the message that Tech football is not cool. Only solution there is to beat the Dwags regularly. We will start on Saturday.

I think the ticket prices were crazy.....I paid about the same for a similar seat at the B10 championship last year. They got greedy and got burned. The need to start getting students in those seats for next to nothing....instead of trying to ream the public for the one really good home game for the year.

 

[swampsting]

I'd rather listen to yodeling than 680 The Fan

Amen to that.

 

[Minawreck]

They are just building up GT thinking the dawgs are gonna beat us and give them an argument for the playoff.

I came here to post this. I underestimated my brothers perception.

 

[TheSilasSonRising]

It is great to win conference games - but you build by beating big names.

In the ACC that is um, vt FSU, cu. But the biggest impact would be beating uga more. Second, we should never expect that beating the n.c. schools, UVA, BC, Pitt Cuse will help build anything. It won't. Beating Ville will help. Beating ND will help. Beating better OOC will help.

But beating uga is the first and most important step. MUST win more than 25% of the time.

And as has been said, pricing & marketing will help.

 

[ClydeBrick]

GT used to be simple. 6 games, 35 bucks a game or whatever it was, non-mandatory donations but if you donate you get better seats etc etc.

$35 a game was not too far off for 2014 if you did not mind where you sat:

Cheapest season tix this year were $99 for six games for upper Upper North.
The next level were $170 for six games for middle Upper North.
Third level were $245 for six games for lower Upper North, and the corners.
Closer to the middle of the field, the Tech Fund started to kick in.

So if you commit to a season's worth you could have gotten into Grant Field for an average price of $16.50 - $40.84 per person, per game.

This year I played SubHub roulette and between SH and the GTAA I got into 4 games for an average price of $42.25 with seats in 223, 122, 111 and 210. I paid the most for the Clempson game ($50) and sat in the cheapest section, 210. However, @buzz_wiser© got me tickets to Wofford for free (in 105 - high enough for 2nd half shade, thanks buzz!) to get my actual average down to $33.80. It wasn't simple, but my average seat location was probably better than where $245 season-ticket seats were this year. The game I missed, GS, would have been about $45 for a section 111 seat if I pulled the trigger at the right time on SH and the Wofford game was $25 for the same section. If I had paid for GS & Wofford my average cost would have been $39.84, just under the standard season ticket price.

Based on my experience this year in ticket prices on SH and the GTAA, I will be getting season tickets for next year.

As to tarping the Upper North: That section of the stadium only enhances our opponents ability to pack our stadium (cheaply too!). However, I think that tarping those seats will give the stadium a "has-been program" look. You cannot ignore the presence of those seats coming to the stadium from the north side - the physical structure is overwhelming to look at. We are stuck with them. If GT can only draw 40-45k Tech fans (especially at what the GTAA charges for tickets), it made no sense to build out the extra 10k seats back in 2001. I like the closed in feeling that the Lower North and the seats in front of the Wardlaw Center give. Those Upper North stands were a mistake. Too late now.

 

[stevo0718]

Seriously?! If you want to go to the game, go to the damn game. Don't make excuses.

If it's the price, obviously you've not gone to a tech game recently. Anyone who pays for tickets online before the game from stubhub is overpaying. There are so many tickets from scalpers or other gt fans out there looking to sell you tickets for $25 each. My parents come down for 2 or 3 games a year, and they rarely pay more than$40 for the pair. They don't go to Clem, VT or UGA, so it's easy.

I have season tix with my wife, I got it in the lower level from the GTAA for $145 a piece. I love it, what a steal! The bottom line is, if you really wanted to go, you could afford it. If this is a problem, you're lucky you're a tech fan, because you couldn't afford to go to a game with this good a product anywhere else for the same value bottom line.

Quit complaining about traffic, it's non-existent. Like a previous poster said, go to a Gaggers game, or Clemson or any other game in the sticks. There are like 2 roads out of those towns, it takes hours. In Atlanta there are a plethora of options, in 20 minutes you'll be on 285.

My friends who aren't tech fans, I tell them to come to tech games because it's cfb so it's fun, it's super easy to get to it's not a big ordeal like going to Athens or auburn or wherever they went, it's extremely family friendly and it's cheap! They have ticket deals, and availability. I say com to a tech game as a outsider because it's as convenient as it gets for cfb!

The problem is we don't have enough fans that think $99 for a whole season of tickets is worth it. That's ridiculously cheap! Anyone complaining about price should just look at that fact, you could have had a ticket to every game for $99. Just come to half of the home games and it's $33 a game, is that too much? For 1 cup of cheap coffee a week you could have tech season tickets.

And don't complain about the $99 seats being not good enough for you. Once you're in, you can move to sit in any seat you want, there are obviously open ones...

Also, you shouldn't need to be marketed to, you should already like GT enough to give them $99. If you need tech marketing to be better to give you a reason to go, you're missing the point. We as fans need to make the games fun to go to, get into it be excited cheer for our team, be passionate. Our team wins games, and when we don't they're always close, so it's fun! Show up and show it!

I'm tired of the excuses, if you got a problem come to the damn game.

 

[vamosjackets]

I wouldn't mind seeing tech tarp the upper 1/2 of the upper North end zone seats for the short term. Squeeze everyone down and create demand. I wrote to DRad a few years ago about changing the price structure and mandatory donations etc. When you have a family of 4 or more, it gets pricy.

They did a special for the Clemson game $50 tickets. So, that made it a little more reasonable.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

Seriously?! If you want to go to the game, go to the damn game. Don't make excuses.

If it's the price, obviously you've not gone to a tech game recently. Anyone who pays for tickets online before the game from stubhub is overpaying. There are so many tickets from scalpers or other gt fans out there looking to sell you tickets for $25 each. My parents come down for 2 or 3 games a year, and they rarely pay more than$40 for the pair. They don't go to Clem, VT or UGA, so it's easy.

I have season tix with my wife, I got it in the lower level from the GTAA for $145 a piece. I love it, what a steal! The bottom line is, if you really wanted to go, you could afford it. If this is a problem, you're lucky you're a tech fan, because you couldn't afford to go to a game with this good a product anywhere else for the same value bottom line.

Quit complaining about traffic, it's non-existent. Like a previous poster said, go to a Gaggers game, or Clemson or any other game in the sticks. There are like 2 roads out of those towns, it takes hours. In Atlanta there are a plethora of options, in 20 minutes you'll be on 285.

My friends who aren't tech fans, I tell them to come to tech games because it's cfb so it's fun, it's super easy to get to it's not a big ordeal like going to Athens or auburn or wherever they went, it's extremely family friendly and it's cheap! They have ticket deals, and availability. I say com to a tech game as a outsider because it's as convenient as it gets for cfb!

The problem is we don't have enough fans that think $99 for a whole season of tickets is worth it. That's ridiculously cheap! Anyone complaining about price should just look at that fact, you could have had a ticket to every game for $99. Just come to half of the home games and it's $33 a game, is that too much? For 1 cup of cheap coffee a week you could have tech season tickets.

And don't complain about the $99 seats being not good enough for you. Once you're in, you can move to sit in any seat you want, there are obviously open ones...

Also, you shouldn't need to be marketed to, you should already like GT enough to give them $99. If you need tech marketing to be better to give you a reason to go, you're missing the point. We as fans need to make the games fun to go to, get into it be excited cheer for our team, be passionate. Our team wins games, and when we don't they're always close, so it's fun! Show up and show it!

I'm tired of the excuses, if you got a problem come to the damn game.

All that is fine and dandy for local fans, it doesn't help out-of-towners who want to see a big game at a fair price. I drove 6 hours and paid $80.00 a pop for two tickets in the upper east. Luckily, I can afford to do that once a year. A lot of guys can't. It really boils down to what the GTAA values more, butts in seats or gouging fans when demand is high. Well, I guess it wasn't quite high enough now was it?