Improvements to BDS and game attendance and atmosphere...

first&ten

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
880
The upper east has been empty since DRad instituted ticket fees. True, every other school in the country probably has ticket fees, but DRad just dumped it on us without any consideration whatsoever of the side effects it would have. The upper east, at least from the south 40 to the north end zone used to be packed. The year after the ticket fees were instituted, the occupancy decreased by probably 50%
The seat license fee did have alot to do with folks not buying season tickets. However most moved to an area that did not require a fee. If I can be honest here, put a product on the field that can be competitive and fun to watch. Do away with FCS teams, Atlanta is a tough market, schedule FBS teams only. Sure, Tech might lose to some of them, but at least most football fans will come out to see big name teams. The TO is boring after awhile, for crying outloud spice the offense up, the QB follow is mind numbing. Finally, Stansbury should require Johnson to get out and engage current fans as well as potential fans. Just sell yourself and your program.
 

Gold1

Helluva Engineer
Messages
3,372
So the official attendance was supposedly 37k. Truly terrible and im sorry i know CPJ is a great coach right now winning 6 of last 7 but he is certainly a big part of the blame for our declining attendance
 

Gold1

Helluva Engineer
Messages
3,372
The upper east has been empty since DRad instituted ticket fees. True, every other school in the country probably has ticket fees, but DRad just dumped it on us without any consideration whatsoever of the side effects it would have. The upper east, at least from the south 40 to the north end zone used to be packed. The year after the ticket fees were instituted, the occupancy decreased by probably 50%
So how do we get those fees to go away or is the damage done?
 

Animal02

Banned
Messages
6,269
Location
Southeastern Michigan
The seat license fee did have alot to do with folks not buying season tickets. However most moved to an area that did not require a fee. If I can be honest here, put a product on the field that can be competitive and fun to watch. Do away with FCS teams, Atlanta is a tough market, schedule FBS teams only. Sure, Tech might lose to some of them, but at least most football fans will come out to see big name teams. The TO is boring after awhile, for crying outloud spice the offense up, the QB follow is mind numbing. Finally, Stansbury should require Johnson to get out and engage current fans as well as potential fans. Just sell yourself and your program.
You can't be much more wrong in so few sentences.
 

ClydeBrick

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
962
The seat license fee did have alot to do with folks not buying season tickets. However most moved to an area that did not require a fee. If I can be honest here, put a product on the field that can be competitive and fun to watch. Do away with FCS teams, Atlanta is a tough market, schedule FBS teams only. Sure, Tech might lose to some of them, but at least most football fans will come out to see big name teams. The TO is boring after awhile, for crying outloud spice the offense up, the QB follow is mind numbing. Finally, Stansbury should require Johnson to get out and engage current fans as well as potential fans. Just sell yourself and your program.
:Bigcry


Unless you are trolling, then:rolleyes:
 

gtg970g

Jolly Good Fellow
Messages
327
So how do we get those fees to go away or is the damage done?
Tech Fund contributions are no longer tax deductible so I wouldn’t be surprised if the pricing structure changes. We paid ours one year in advance and asked if we could pay more but were told things could change in the future so one year was all they would let us pre-fund the Tech Fund.
 
Messages
13,443
Location
Augusta, GA
Tech Fund contributions are no longer tax deductible so I wouldn’t be surprised if the pricing structure changes. We paid ours one year in advance and asked if we could pay more but were told things could change in the future so one year was all they would let us pre-fund the Tech Fund.
I think Tech Fund contributions will still be deductible, as long as the purchasing of season tickets is not included as a benefit. Every team in the country who relies on ticket fees face the same problem, but I have not yet heard of any move by any of them that would resolve the issue.
 

Lavoisier

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
847
The "looking full" thing hardly matters for the bottom line. Look at the official attendance numbers and we routinely hit 45-55k. I don't know how they come up with that number, but I'm guessing those tickets are bought up by someone even if they don't attend games. I looked up the Jacksonville State game from last year and the official number is listed as over 50,000 which I can tell you does not reflect reality.

Basically I don't see the value of spending money to reduce seats that we are somehow selling still.
 

gtg970g

Jolly Good Fellow
Messages
327
I think Tech Fund contributions will still be deductible, as long as the purchasing of season tickets is not included as a benefit. Every team in the country who relies on ticket fees face the same problem, but I have not yet heard of any move by any of them that would resolve the issue.
Tech Fund contributions are by definition tied to the purchase of season tickets and as of 1/1/2018 are no longer deductible. AT Fund contributions are still deductible if you itemize which is now quite unlikely given the bump in the standard deduction and limit on deductibility of local income and property taxes.
 

GTRX7

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,524
Location
Atlanta
So the official attendance was supposedly 37k. Truly terrible and im sorry i know CPJ is a great coach right now winning 6 of last 7 but he is certainly a big part of the blame for our declining attendance

I have no idea why the attendance was so bad (apart from zero UVA fans). But let me make sure I have this right. We had 40k at Bowling Green when we were 1-3. Then, after winning 5 of the next 6 in a row with more fans at both Duke and Miami in between, it is your hypothesis that CPJ is the main reason fans suddenly decided not to come to UVA?

Again, not sure why attendance was so bad, but odd that the only difference between having 48k for Miami a week ago and 37k for UVA this week was fans being mad at CPJ.

On a personal note, I don’t know a single person that has stopped going to games because of CPJ, but my season ticket group has gone from 9 to 4 over the last few years for totally different reasons (moved away, new job, had first kids, etc).

I am sure others have antecdotes about a few fans that did stop because of CPJ, but if 8 winning seasons out of 10 including three ACC championship games and two Orange Bowl appearances is enough to make them give up their tickets, I question whether they were ever bound to keep their tickets anyway. Much more likely lots of other factors are the main reason— you know, the same factors forcing declining attendance at 90% of schools around the country—none of which has CPJ as the coach.
 
Last edited:

Whiskey_Clear

Banned
Messages
10,486
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.

That’s where the beer pavilion should go also....a very big beer pavilion. Want to bring in sidewalk fans....this would help more than anything else outside of regular 10 win seasons.
 

tech_wreck47

Helluva Engineer
Messages
8,670
Imo we should take the south stands away and put the weight room under, like CPJ wants (if I’m not mistaken) make it glass though where you can see the field from the weight room. You could do a “standing room only” on top. Then take out the bleachers and do actually seats. Both of these things take out seats which makes the stadium fuller with fans, it also enhances the game day experience. The other thing I would like is to get the student section full By making a tailgate area for the students.
 

ibeattetris

Helluva Engineer
Messages
3,606
I'd hate to be the one cleaning up the vomit at the beer pavilion:vomit:
You may or may not be correct, but I believe when West Virginia began allowing beer to be sold, they had a drop in alcohol poisoning as well as other alcohol related incidents.

People generally behave okay when they can buy beer instead of chugging fireball out in front of the gate.
 
Top