Initial Impressions

YJAlleyCat

Jolly Good Fellow
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478
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Atlanta
Any other season ticket holder get an email asking why you didn't attend the game?

I told them "other", but noted that I WAS ACTUALLY THERE AND HAD THE TICKETS SCANNED. Plus had two GT fans in the free seats they gave away.

Then I also added that any game before mid-September should not start before 5PM. Just too darn hot for players and fans.

Yep. I answered pretty much the same way. Told them I didn't know why they sent that survey since we were there the whole time. The only home game I've missed since 2007 was the Garner-Webb game (for a wedding). There is not much that would keep me away.
 

Northeast Stinger

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9,561
Tech did so much better than I had expected, especially on offense. Both Clemson and South Carolina had far worse games against Wofford, who is a well coached, well disciplined, tough opponent. This is the kind of game that gives the Tech coaches information on what to work on. And they will.

My optimism is building for the rest of the season now.
 

Bruce Wayne

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1,870
I am sure they had some sort of software that auto-generated the emails or at least the attended/not attended lists so they could send the feedback emails. I am glad to see they are trying to put an effort into getting feedback either way. It indicates the AA is taking seriously trying to improve sales, overall experiences, and so forth.

TV schedules game start times and there will always be many noon ones throughout the south in August and September. It has been that way for years and will never change in the future so far as anyone can see going forward. Therefore it is an idle complaint to make.

If sun is a concern I suggest wearing sunblock and a hat and buy season tickets so you get the clear tote bag and can then bring in a bunch of bottles of water. Or spring for club tickets and get in the shade under the overhang or inside.
 

Animal02

Banned
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6,269
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Southeastern Michigan
I am sure they had some sort of software that auto-generated the emails or at least the attended/not attended lists so they could send the feedback emails. I am glad to see they are trying to put an effort into getting feedback either way. It indicates the AA is taking seriously trying to improve sales, overall experiences, and so forth.

TV schedules game start times and there will always be many noon ones throughout the south in August and September. It has been that way for years and will never change in the future so far as anyone can see going forward. Therefore it is an idle complaint to make.

If sun is a concern I suggest wearing sunblock and a hat and buy season tickets so you get the clear tote bag and can then bring in a bunch of bottles of water. Or spring for club tickets and get in the shade under the overhang or inside.

If enough people complain there might be some pushback......on the other hand if everyone just sucks it up we will continue to see empty seats on TV across the stadium.....especially in the club section where they are hiding in the shade underneath. ;)
 

dressedcheeseside

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14,027
Tech did so much better than I had expected, especially on offense. Both Clemson and South Carolina had far worse games against Wofford, who is a well coached, well disciplined, tough opponent. This is the kind of game that gives the Tech coaches information on what to work on. And they will.

My optimism is building for the rest of the season now.
But wait, Wofford is FCS and we should roll every FCS team regardless, right? (;), just trying to sound like some of our brothers on the board.)
 

Northeast Stinger

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9,561
As for the sun . . .
I have contended for years that in the heat of the summer the Braves should only play night games or have a late afternoon starting time and that in early Fall Tech should play at night. Starting in October I could see Tech playing these "mid-morning" games like they do now. That would help some.
 

danny daniel

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2,476
As for the sun . . .
I have contended for years that in the heat of the summer the Braves should only play night games or have a late afternoon starting time and that in early Fall Tech should play at night. Starting in October I could see Tech playing these "mid-morning" games like they do now. That would help some.

Actually the whole baseball-football seasons should be reversed, perhaps with a little earlier start to each's season. It would help the pitcher's arms and would more gradually acclimate football players to the heat.
 

DCSS

Ramblin' Wreck
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687
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Tennessee
If enough people complain there might be some pushback......on the other hand if everyone just sucks it up we will continue to see empty seats on TV across the stadium.....especially in the club section where they are hiding in the shade underneath. ;)
That was the case this past Saturday. It looked like a scene from the London blitz in the club lounge.
 

GTNavyNuke

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....... TV schedules game start times and there will always be many noon ones throughout the south in August and September. It has been that way for years and will never change in the future so far as anyone can see going forward. Therefore it is an idle complaint to make. ........

Nothing wrong in trying. With the health concerns for people in the hot sun (especially our older patrons who get sun stroke easily) as well as desire to increase attendance, there may be something which can be done for these FCS and maybe GSU type games that are projected to have very low TV viewership. Maybe ESPN cares that the 10,000 people watching our game wouldn't be watching Clemson / UGAg, but I doubt it.

Last year we suggested to the GTAA in an end of the year survey to be able to bring in water since we were season ticket holders and it was distasteful to be nickle & dimed for water after contributing $1600 to GTAA. This year season tickets holders have bags they can bring food and water in. Change is possible, although unlikely. If no one tries, there won't be change.
 

Atomic Jacket

Banned
Messages
238
From the upper north. I really like the vantage point from my seat location. You can see a lot that you don't from the sideline view. Man it is good to be back in ATL. Pretty hot today though. I had to leave early. My wife was feeling it. She is so hot to begin with that when you put her in the sun on a 90 degree day she is about ready to combust.

I thought Wofford played really well. I have a lot of respect for their QB.

Justin had some good and bad, but most importantly, he showed us that he is the most capable QB in the CPJ era. I thought he missed a couple reads in half 1 with gives that should have keeps and a couple keeps that should have been pitched out. He also had a string of 3 missed throws in a row in Q2, any of which would have been a huge play. Other than that, he personally was pretty much lights out. He showed how well he sees the field, going to the right guys. He showed arm strength. He settled down to show accuracy and touch. He was elusive. Right now I have a high level of confidence that he will burn teams over playing the run. It was his first time being out there so long and he settled into the game nicely. He has the IT factor.

Our defense, as I feared, seems soft in the belly. Playing against our style of offense is tough though. Maybe I should see us against a more conventional offense before I make sweeping conclusions. We got burned by our own tricks a few times.

Film review tomorrow. Go Climpsum!


After digesting this weekend's results across the league and having a chance to dial back some of the over-reactions I may have had about some teams, including ours, I am left with the same impression I had in the preseason. I see us having the first bowl ineligible season we've had in a long time, going 5-7 overall, 2-6 in the ACC. I still believe the key games are Duke, at NC State, and at Pitt. I think we'll win one out of those three. Nothing in Week 1 has convinced me to change my preseason prediction.
 

Bruce Wayne

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1,870
Nothing wrong in trying. With the health concerns for people in the hot sun (especially our older patrons who get sun stroke easily) as well as desire to increase attendance, there may be something which can be done for these FCS and maybe GSU type games that are projected to have very low TV viewership. Maybe ESPN cares that the 10,000 people watching our game wouldn't be watching Clemson / UGAg, but I doubt it.

Last year we suggested to the GTAA in an end of the year survey to be able to bring in water since we were season ticket holders and it was distasteful to be nickle & dimed for water after contributing $1600 to GTAA. This year season tickets holders have bags they can bring food and water in. Change is possible, although unlikely. If no one tries, there won't be change.

But as the creation of conference specific networks goes forward than the noon starts will only become even more entrenched, especially given that the conferences have expanded numbers of members as well. There is only so many time slots on a Saturday that one channel can schedule the games it has for broadcast. The networks and conferences do not care about attendance at these games. If the revenue is generated at the level of the tv contracts then there is no chance, under the current and foreseeable model, that the GTAA can do anything about noon home games in August and September.

The same phenomenon has been seen with bowl games for years, no television channel cares about attendance at the game. if the start time discourages attendance it doesn't matter. What matters is not 20-30-50k people there not watching your commercials but the 250-400K or however high the number goes of tv sets with the game on.

Here is the SEC tv schedule for noon/2 p.m. games this coming Saturday:

Florida Atlantic at Alabama, noon, SEC Network
Missouri at Toledo, noon, ABC/ESPN
Arkansas State at Tennessee, noon, SEC Network
UAB at Mississippi State, 2 p.m., ESPN3

I suspect the Bama fans are gonna be pretty hot in Tuscaloosa. Same for the Ole Miss fans in Starkville and both towns are on the approximately same line of latitude as Atlanta. Knoxville is farther north but It could still be a scorcher for Vols fans.

The GTAA cares about attendance and comfort so it was nice that they disregarded the insane lockdown mentality of American public venues enough to allow a way for season ticket holders to bring in water. But I stand by my contention that it is an idle and (for them) likely tedious complaint to lodge about start times in the summer. The only way I see the GTAA to have any role in influencing these is if they could get the conference to schedule conference games to open the year (like when we played VT on Labor Day) or end up with some higher cache OOC games in these hotter weeks to try and entice networks into moving the Tech game to a later slot. Even Bama gets the noon slot when they play a lower cache team early in the season.

One thought I had was that while umbrellas are properly not allowed because they block other spectators views, maybe there could be strategic areas set aside for these kind of games where a tent or overhang is erected? It could possibly be in the nosebleed corner sections in which tickets are already going to be sparsely sold for these games. With help from some ushers they could keep such areas from overcrowding. Or some other kinds of standing room only areas with shading or overhang.
 

Animal02

Banned
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6,269
Location
Southeastern Michigan
But as the creation of conference specific networks goes forward than the noon starts will only become even more entrenched, especially given that the conferences have expanded numbers of members as well. There is only so many time slots on a Saturday that one channel can schedule the games it has for broadcast. The networks and conferences do not care about attendance at these games. If the revenue is generated at the level of the tv contracts then there is no chance, under the current and foreseeable model, that the GTAA can do anything about noon home games in August and September.

The same phenomenon has been seen with bowl games for years, no television channel cares about attendance at the game. if the start time discourages attendance it doesn't matter. What matters is not 20-30-50k people there not watching your commercials but the 250-400K or however high the number goes of tv sets with the game on.

Here is the SEC tv schedule for noon/2 p.m. games this coming Saturday:

Florida Atlantic at Alabama, noon, SEC Network
Missouri at Toledo, noon, ABC/ESPN
Arkansas State at Tennessee, noon, SEC Network
UAB at Mississippi State, 2 p.m., ESPN3

I suspect the Bama fans are gonna be pretty hot in Tuscaloosa. Same for the Ole Miss fans in Starkville and both towns are on the approximately same line of latitude as Atlanta. Knoxville is farther north but It could still be a scorcher for Vols fans.

The GTAA cares about attendance and comfort so it was nice that they disregarded the insane lockdown mentality of American public venues enough to allow a way for season ticket holders to bring in water. But I stand by my contention that it is an idle and (for them) likely tedious complaint to lodge about start times in the summer. The only way I see the GTAA to have any role in influencing these is if they could get the conference to schedule conference games to open the year (like when we played VT on Labor Day) or end up with some higher cache OOC games in these hotter weeks to try and entice networks into moving the Tech game to a later slot. Even Bama gets the noon slot when they play a lower cache team early in the season.

One thought I had was that while umbrellas are properly not allowed because they block other spectators views, maybe there could be strategic areas set aside for these kind of games where a tent or overhang is erected? It could possibly be in the nosebleed corner sections in which tickets are already going to be sparsely sold for these games. With help from some ushers they could keep such areas from overcrowding. Or some other kinds of standing room only areas with shading or overhang.

If enough complaints from enough people from enough schools continue, there may be movement...staying silent means accepting the status quo. TV contracts will get affected if stadiums are half empty all the time.......perception is everything. WRT to overhangs.......there used to be a huge one under the East upper stands........have the seats were always in the shade ;)
 

Bruce Wayne

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1,870
Then I suppose I am just disagreeing with the logic that complaints will have any impact at all in the short term or long term specifically with regard to start times. You are free to be an idealist about popular local protest causing systemic changes. I don't think the economics of college football or the power to make such decisions is lodged in any place or manner such that complaints to schools AA's can result in making a change to noon starts in the south in August and September.

In my opinion (from years of dealing with customers in many types of business which comes with being a billionaire CEO) idle complaints are at best responded to with attempts at patronizing sympathy because one wants to agree with your customer as much as possible and certainly wants to "seem to care" but they ultimately go in one ear and out the other if they are wholly disengaged from the reality and structure of the business in its necessary operation.

Getting to bring in water was a positive step. I think that some of Tech's great architects and engineers may be able to put their thinking caps on for other workable solutions and means of offsetting the terror of the beating sun over Grant Field on Saturdays at noon in August and September.

Possibly the aluminum and white concrete structures we sit on that must cause terrible reflection and containment of the heat can be worked upon with some form of heat-reducing coatings/latex/paints.

Or like you mention some kind of easy to erect temporary tenting or overhangs. Possibly retractable canvas shades/tarps.

Maybe even a couple more strategically built skyscrapers to beautify the ATL skyline and cast a shade over the stadium at noon in the summer for those CEO Tech alums who may want to locate their corporate offices in midtown.
 

Animal02

Banned
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6,269
Location
Southeastern Michigan
Then I suppose I am just disagreeing with the logic that complaints will have any impact at all in the short term or long term specifically with regard to start times. You are free to be an idealist about popular local protest causing systemic changes. I don't think the economics of college football or the power to make such decisions is lodged in any place or manner such that complaints to schools AA's can result in making a change to noon starts in the south in August and September.

In my opinion (from years of dealing with customers in many types of business which comes with being a billionaire CEO) idle complaints are at best responded to with attempts at patronizing sympathy because one wants to agree with your customer as much as possible and certainly wants to "seem to care" but they ultimately go in one ear and out the other if they are wholly disengaged from the reality and structure of the business in its necessary operation.

Getting to bring in water was a positive step. I think that some of Tech's great architects and engineers may be able to put their thinking caps on for other workable solutions and means of offsetting the terror of the beating sun over Grant Field on Saturdays at noon in August and September.

Possibly the aluminum and white concrete structures we sit on that must cause terrible reflection and containment of the heat can be worked upon with some form of heat-reducing coatings/latex/paints.

Or like you mention some kind of easy to erect temporary tenting or overhangs. Possibly retractable canvas shades/tarps.

Maybe even a couple more strategically built skyscrapers to beautify the ATL skyline and cast a shade over the stadium at noon in the summer for those CEO Tech alums who may want to locate their corporate offices in midtown.

I agree idle complaints will go nowhere, it will only have an impact with a critical mass of complaints across many schools. Not making any complaints means there is no chance it will ever reach a critical mass.

Maybe we can have the Navy ROTC people manage adjustable shading like in the days of the Coliseum in Rome. :D
 
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