Improvements to BDS and game attendance and atmosphere...

4shotB

4shotB

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because it was a 3:30 kickoff, I got to attend (sort of a last minute decision). I got two tickets for me and a friend. we get there 30 minutes before kickoff and settle in. Great seats btw! Not 5 minutes after we settle in, here comes a tough guy and his wife and two kids. They have the 4 next to us. Now my friend goes about 6'3 and 275 lbs. The guy next to him is about the same.

This neandrathal makes a big scene about everybody squeezing so he can sit in the 4 seats he paid for. So we all squeezed together to accommodate this. However, the guy's wife, noticing that the row in front of us was devoid mostly of occupants, chose to sit there with one of her two kids. This drove Randy "Macho Man" Savage nuts as his lowly wife would not yield to his demands.A very tense and awkward situation. I offered to change seats with her but she firmly declined. Eventually the occupants of her seats whowed up and insisted that SHE move (even though they were empty seats immediately to the left and right.

At this time, she gave up and squeezed into our row. So we all sat huddled together like emaciated slaves on a Roman galley, despite empty seats immediately around us. the tension between the husband and wife was palpable. Romance with a happy ending did not look like it was in the cards for our protagonist, unless he violated one of the 10 Commandments. After a few uncomfortable moments, my friend and I chose to depart for greener pastures and friendlier people to watch the game with.

I do have a point and I am slowly getting to it - given that the stadium was 60% occupied, and given that the stadium seats were designed in the '30's when the average chap was 5"7 and 125 lbs., why don't we make the seats bigger?? Instead of squeezing 50 into a row, how about 35? It won't hurt attendance and it will make the experience better for those who do show up.

BTW, great time yesterday (excluding the above) and great win. BDS in the fall in the afternoon or night is a magical place.
 
Whiskey_Clear

Whiskey_Clear

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Don’t screw with my stadium seats just because of a single big obnoxious boob. Just “accidentally” spill beverages on him until he finds greener pastures :D
 
OldJacketFan

OldJacketFan

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Old School said:
I think the upper North stands should be taken out and a row of box seats put in. Or offices or something. We need about 48,000 seats. 48,000 full looks a lot better than 56,000 80% full. 48,000 in that stadium is loud too.
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Leave my damn upper North seats alone! Us STHs up there are among the most rabid Tech fans in BDS!
 
4shotB

4shotB

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gtg970g said:
Reducing the seating in prime locations would result in a significant financial loss for the AA. Only 67% of seats were sold but I bet 90% of prime locations with significant Tech Fund donation requirements were sold.
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I understand this but these 90% are going to buy tickets no matter what (imo). I don't have a background or clue re: marketing, but don't we need to target the people who aren't buying and attending? (W/out upsetting your regular customers of course).
 
tech_wreck47

tech_wreck47

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4shotB said:
because it was a 3:30 kickoff, I got to attend (sort of a last minute decision). I got two tickets for me and a friend. we get there 30 minutes before kickoff and settle in. Great seats btw! Not 5 minutes after we settle in, here comes a tough guy and his wife and two kids. They have the 4 next to us. Now my friend goes about 6'3 and 275 lbs. The guy next to him is about the same.

This neandrathal makes a big scene about everybody squeezing so he can sit in the 4 seats he paid for. So we all squeezed together to accommodate this. However, the guy's wife, noticing that the row in front of us was devoid mostly of occupants, chose to sit there with one of her two kids. This drove Randy "Macho Man" Savage nuts as his lowly wife would not yield to his demands.A very tense and awkward situation. I offered to change seats with her but she firmly declined. Eventually the occupants of her seats whowed up and insisted that SHE move (even though they were empty seats immediately to the left and right.

At this time, she gave up and squeezed into our row. So we all sat huddled together like emaciated slaves on a Roman galley, despite empty seats immediately around us. the tension between the husband and wife was palpable. Romance with a happy ending did not look like it was in the cards for our protagonist, unless he violated one of the 10 Commandments. After a few uncomfortable moments, my friend and I chose to depart for greener pastures and friendlier people to watch the game with.

I do have a point and I am slowly getting to it - given that the stadium was 60% occupied, and given that the stadium seats were designed in the '30's when the average chap was 5"7 and 125 lbs., why don't we make the seats bigger?? Instead of squeezing 50 into a row, how about 35? It won't hurt attendance and it will make the experience better for those who do show up.

BTW, great time yesterday (excluding the above) and great win. BDS in the fall in the afternoon or night is a magical place.
Click to expand...
I’ve said in the past we should get seats with arm rest like you would see at pro stadiums. Lowers the amount of seats and makes the stadium look more full aswell.
 
BCJacket

BCJacket

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gtg970g said:
Reducing the seating in prime locations would result in a significant financial loss for the AA. Only 67% of seats were sold but I bet 90% of prime locations with significant Tech Fund donation requirements were sold.
Click to expand...

[Oy, this post got out of hand. TL/DR: IMHO we could make more money with fewer better seats.]

That's true if you assume our per-seat revenue is flat and we just reduce the seats. Which is what the OP seems to be suggesting, just re-numbering the bleachers for more space.

But the best seats (biggest $$ earners) are already the Club area and Tech Terrace, which are already real seats.

I don't think Tech is anywhere near the vertex point of the revenue curve for football/BDS. Clearly, our supply/demand of tickets is out of equilibrium. My read is that we have too much supply of an overpriced product. If the goal is maximum revenue (which is what I think it should be), then I believe Tech should offer a lower quantity of a premium product (BDS is definitely not 'premium' at present.) and aggressively price-discriminate. (If max attendance is the goal, then cut the costs of parking, tickets, concessions, partner with Uber, Lyft and Marta to give transit discounts, make the "cost" in time and money as low as possible. And a better experience would help too.)

Lower the gross attendance goal and get more money from fewer fans for a premium experience. Make 75% of the stadium "club seating" and cut the capacity some. Install real (wider, more comfortable) seats, better concessions, some air conditioned areas in the concourses with TV monitors, sell alcohol, let people bring stuff in, look into installing sun shades, more overall staff to serve customers across the board, bathrooms that aren't 50 years past needing a renovation... Stimulate demand by making the experience of going to the game much better while simultaneously lowering supply and your equilibrium price will rise.

Have some of the upper stands (ie upper north) as cheap[er] general admission tickets with a "party deck" to have something to offer the fans who want to come and don't want to pay for the full ride.

Look at how much better the Brave's attendance/revenue has been since they moved to the new ballpark with a much better overall experience. It's a smaller park, but they're filling it up and making much more money per fan. A lot of the folks going aren't "Braves fans", they're there for the party. Suntrust park has 4 different "club areas"- Delta Club, Suntrust Club, Infinity Club, Home Depot Club, plus the Chop House, the Top of the Chop deck, Coca Cola deck... all of those are revenue generators.

TStan talked in his latest podcast about the revitalization of the midtown neighborhoods and how we should be trying to get those people involved. Lots of young professionals with social lives. Some have college teams they follow, some don't or their team is playing later/earlier. I don't think it's unrealistic to think Tech football could be a cool/fun 'thing to do' on a fall Saturday in Atlanta for a lot of people.

Just for example: if we were able to fill the stadium with 'only' 45,000 but they're paying 50% more on average for a better experience, we make ~18% more revenue vs a 55,000 sellout baseline. (Assuming the marginal cost of the experience improvement isn't prohibitive.)

I also believe Tech, more-so than other schools should separate donations from ticket purchases. I think there are STHs who could donate more, but see their AT-fund ticket contribution as their donation for the year. There's a lot of alumni who don't live near Atlanta and can't justify buying tickets, but might donate to athletics if asked. I'd also be interested to see if we could find ways to involve/monetize out-of-state fans. Let out of town folks "sponsor" parts of the gameday, organize watch party donation drives, work with the ACCN to develop a paid streaming broadcast custom for Tech with our radio team for the audio and Tech-centric infographics...
 
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stech81

stech81

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4shotB said:
because it was a 3:30 kickoff, I got to attend (sort of a last minute decision). I got two tickets for me and a friend. we get there 30 minutes before kickoff and settle in. Great seats btw! Not 5 minutes after we settle in, here comes a tough guy and his wife and two kids. They have the 4 next to us. Now my friend goes about 6'3 and 275 lbs. The guy next to him is about the same.

This neandrathal makes a big scene about everybody squeezing so he can sit in the 4 seats he paid for. So we all squeezed together to accommodate this. However, the guy's wife, noticing that the row in front of us was devoid mostly of occupants, chose to sit there with one of her two kids. This drove Randy "Macho Man" Savage nuts as his lowly wife would not yield to his demands.A very tense and awkward situation. I offered to change seats with her but she firmly declined. Eventually the occupants of her seats whowed up and insisted that SHE move (even though they were empty seats immediately to the left and right.

At this time, she gave up and squeezed into our row. So we all sat huddled together like emaciated slaves on a Roman galley, despite empty seats immediately around us. the tension between the husband and wife was palpable. Romance with a happy ending did not look like it was in the cards for our protagonist, unless he violated one of the 10 Commandments. After a few uncomfortable moments, my friend and I chose to depart for greener pastures and friendlier people to watch the game with.

I do have a point and I am slowly getting to it - given that the stadium was 60% occupied, and given that the stadium seats were designed in the '30's when the average chap was 5"7 and 125 lbs., why don't we make the seats bigger?? Instead of squeezing 50 into a row, how about 35? It won't hurt attendance and it will make the experience better for those who do show up.

BTW, great time yesterday (excluding the above) and great win. BDS in the fall in the afternoon or night is a magical place.
Click to expand...
Here is what I do I know most would not I buy 3 season to tickets for my daughter and me so have room.
If you don't like that idea try passing gas and tell them next year you need to change sections cause this one has a bad oder.
But it would be nice to reduce each rows by 2 seats and make more room.
 
Coloradojacket

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LOL....Tech has had problems filling the stadium since I started going in 1969. It is full when we play Clemson, Georgia, Auburn, Notre Dame and used to be Navy would fill it up. Back in those days we would play Florida State or some other lousy team and that South end of the Horse Shoe would be empty. Bobby Dodd created band day, for those of you that remember that. He invited about 10 high school bands and parents to the games for free. In fact we did that into the 90's. heck let's bring that back, along with the card section.
 
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