The college baseball schedule is just not conducive for drawing fans to RCS. The cold weather with 4pm starts on work days in the beginning of the season make it near impossible for anyone to get to the game unless they have a specific reason to go ie: they have a son/brother/nephew/grandson/etc. playing, their job is to watch college baseball games as a scout, agent, or reporter, or they’re just retired with nothing else to do. Midweeks and early season OOC (save UGA) weekends just aren’t enticing enough for people to make plans to fight Atlanta traffic and try to find parking on campus for a game. Especially not while kids are still in school.
Where Tech can and should be better for attendance is the late season conference weekends. The temperatures get into the 70s & 80s so gametimes are later in the day and it’s amazingly beautiful out at the ballpark, and kids start getting out of school so it’s something for parents to take their kids to. A lot of that will come with winning and actually making it to the nationally broadcast Supers and maybe to Omaha. Vandy is in a similar position as Tech where they struggle to draw fans early in the season for many of the same reasons Tech does. But when conference play starts their small-ish stadium is packed. If Tech starts showing progress towards becoming a Vandy-like program we’ll start to see attendance trends like they do.
People talk about GT football being a sleeping giant, which maybe it is. Probably more like a sleeping Shaquille O’Neal, really big but far from a giant. GT baseball on the other hand, now that’s a sleeping Titan. Something that could be colossal. The student attendance has been much better in recent years which is a good step. Now we just need the program to take that step back into the national spotlight. GT should dominate UGA in baseball and basketball. Give the sidewalk fans something to consider. There’s a ton of kids in the metro Atlanta area that would probably love to come to GT games if we were nationally dominant, and even the dumbest mutt fan dads would see that driving 30 minutes from Kennesaw to Midtown is easier than driving an hour and a half to the cesspool.
Long story short: win and they will come.
You make some good points but I have to disagree with a few things. For many years I made the trip from Buford down to the games, first taking my son when he was younger and then later my grandson. First, parking is easy. You just park in the building across the street in the Klaus parking deck. It only costs a few dollars and always has available parking.
You seem to have no interest in OOC games outside of UGA. I go to the games to see Tech's new players and how the returning players have progressed more than worrying about who the opposition is. But to your point, some of those lesser known opponents have excellent players including pitchers that are fun to watch as well. Sure it may be more exciting to take on the bigger named opponents, but as a baseball junkie I enjoy watching us play anyone.
As far as traffic being a determining factor as to whether or not you go to a game....when does Atlanta not have traffic? I understand if you have a job that prohibits you from being able to make a game in time. But if not, you just plan around the traffic like every resident of the Atlanta area knows all too well. You leave earlier if you can. I personally never had any trouble waiting in traffic if I had to in order to watch my Jackets play.
As you mentioned, winning will always draw better crowds whether we retaking about Tech or any other place that competes for the entertainment crowds. Some places, like a lot of the SEC parks, are college towns where there is little else to do but go watch your local team play. That's not the case in places like Atlanta, Miami etc. Ultimately, you are spot on when you speak about the potential of the Yellow Jackets. And that comes with winning. I am old enough to remember CDH's early teams with players like Garciapara, Varitek, Brown, Payton, Wieters, Texiera....the list goes on and on. The crowds were big (though the stadium was much smaller then) and loud. Given the fact the Rusty C is one of the most beautiful venues in all of college baseball with the backdrop of midtown Atlanta and the most pristine field in all of college baseball. Where you sit so close to the players on the field and only pay a few dollars to get in. Start winning more regularly and I am confident the attendance numbers will return.
