Pack The Dodd

Wrecked

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
578
If you want to create fans, show them what a gameday on the Flats is with a rocking BDS against a national power and the fans and students making the place electric. Next year the home schedule would have Clemson, ND and FSU coming to BDS. Three prime opportunities to do the above and possibly increase our share of sidewalk fans. Alas our AA pissed away two of those games for nothing. Hopefully the AA gets serious about putting fannies in the seats.
 
okiemon

okiemon

Helluva Engineer
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1,783
forensicbuzz said:
LOL, this is preaching to the choir. The people who come to this message board are going to go to the games if they're close enough to go. Some will plan trips and go even when they're not close. The last live game I saw was when we embarrassed ourselves at ND. I did get to see Gibbs run in real-time. The fans that need to be stirred up are not the fans coming onto a GT message board to talk GT sports. Go Jackets.
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I try to make it once a year or so from Oklahoma. That’s one reason I’m glad SMU is joining the league; it’s only a 4 hour drive!
 

bucknellbison31

Jolly Good Fellow
Messages
221
Location
Pittsburgh, PA
Wrecked said:
If you want to create fans, show them what a gameday on the Flats is with a rocking BDS against a national power and the fans and students making the place electric. Next year the home schedule would have Clemson, ND and FSU coming to BDS. Three prime opportunities to do the above and possibly increase our share of sidewalk fans. Alas our AA pissed away two of those games for nothing. Hopefully the AA gets serious about putting fannies in the seats.
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And even worse, those FSU/ND games won't just be neutral site; they'll be quasi-home games for the 'noles and irish.
 
boger2337

boger2337

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IronJacket7 said:
The lack of support from our fanbase at home games is a direct link to many L's in the history of our team, IMO.

Poor showing by our fanbase through the years has had a huge impact on recruiting, the mental attitude of players and coaches themselves, and many other areas.

If we want to be a top level program, it starts and ends with our fanbase.
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I think the issue is a lack of overall fanbase. People who are truly interested in GT football is probably far and few between within driving distance of Atlanta.

While there are thousands of Tennessee, Clemson, uga, Bama fans who will drive hours (4+) on a Friday/Saturday to see their team play. We are lucky to grab 20-35k of the people who live within 1-2 hours of Bobby Dodd. Have to remember most of our grads leave the state. Then on top of that most of todays students at GT have zero interest in football being from different cultures.

GT has to gain the hype of the city by WINNING to land sidewalk fans more than anything. We need the casual 30-50yr old who enjoys watching football to come to a GT game. Maybe after a couple winning seasons they become true fans. Our alumni alone will never cut it. I'd say for every 1 GT alumni that has serious football interest, there are 15 uga grads that have serious football interest. We have to gain sidewalk fans. Which means winning, and offering things that are different to other places. Sadly we can't make something like the braves have around Bobby Dodd, but GT needs to come up with something.
 
boger2337

boger2337

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Knowing GT fans, I place us at 33k fans tomorrow.

Until something big is on the line, average GT fans don't show up. If we go into the UNC game with a record of 5-2, we probably see 38-42k.

If we have 7 or more wins going into the uga game we likely see 45-50k.

It would take GT and uga being undefeated to sellout Bobby Dodd and have those tickets be butts in seats.
 

yeti92

Helluva Engineer
Messages
3,026
boger2337 said:
Knowing GT fans, I place us at 33k fans tomorrow.

Until something big is on the line, average GT fans don't show up. If we go into the UNC game with a record of 5-2, we probably see 38-42k.

If we have 7 or more wins going into the uga game we likely see 45-50k.

It would take GT and uga being undefeated to sellout Bobby Dodd and have those tickets be butts in seats.
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2021 was abouk 1k less than a sellout, but Bobby Dodd sold out in 2019 and 2017 for the UGA games, and I'm sure dang near every other time before that.
 

bucknellbison31

Jolly Good Fellow
Messages
221
Location
Pittsburgh, PA
Secret_AznMan said:
Because it's only full when people want to see and cheer for the opposing team.
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You're right, we should just move our games to Midtown High School (though we probably couldn't even fill that stadium either). You know what, maybe we should just disband the football team altogether... what's the point of even trying?

Don't be so negative, man — and have a little hope. That's what being a fan is all about!
 
Secret_AznMan

Secret_AznMan

Georgia Tech Fan
Messages
73
boger2337 said:
I think the issue is a lack of overall fanbase. People who are truly interested in GT football is probably far and few between within driving distance of Atlanta.

While there are thousands of Tennessee, Clemson, uga, Bama fans who will drive hours (4+) on a Friday/Saturday to see their team play. We are lucky to grab 20-35k of the people who live within 1-2 hours of Bobby Dodd. Have to remember most of our grads leave the state. Then on top of that most of todays students at GT have zero interest in football being from different cultures.

GT has to gain the hype of the city by WINNING to land sidewalk fans more than anything. We need the casual 30-50yr old who enjoys watching football to come to a GT game. Maybe after a couple winning seasons they become true fans. Our alumni alone will never cut it. I'd say for every 1 GT alumni that has serious football interest, there are 15 uga grads that have serious football interest. We have to gain sidewalk fans. Which means winning, and offering things that are different to other places. Sadly we can't make something like the braves have around Bobby Dodd, but GT needs to come up with something.
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Atlanta is 47% black, Georgia as a whole is 32% black, however GT only has a black student population of 7%.
More outreach to local Atlanta prospective students (who are mostly black) would go a long way in growing the local area fanbase.

To add to this, 40% of students come from out of state, and 8% of students are international students, I assume many graduate and move away from Atlanta, so not even the families of the alumni are around to come to games.
 
boger2337

boger2337

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3,435
Secret_AznMan said:
Atlanta is 47% black, Georgia as a whole is 32% black, however GT only has a black student population of 7%.
More outreach to local Atlanta prospective students (who are mostly black) would go a long way in growing the local area fanbase.

To add to this, 40% of students come from out of state, and 8% of students are international students, I assume many graduate and move away from Atlanta, so not even the families of the alumni are around to come to games.
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Ding ding ding!

GT football appeals to old white men. And, well... that's about it.

Yet, GT is based in one of the most black influenced cities in the US if not the most. uga is appealing because it sends kids to the league, and they are a FOOTBALL program that also has a school. Where GT is a school that also has a football program. I'd bet a decent % of the Georgia population only cares about football.

75% of students at GT should be from the state of Georgia. To help breed a foundation of local alumni for the future. GT doesn't truly understand the game that has to be played to build a fanbase and a powerhouse program. Accepting more in state kids gives you so many more people who can come to local events/games/fundraisers for the school and GTAA. As you will likely have more people who retain work around metro ATL.
 
GTJackets

GTJackets

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
807
Location
Moncks Corner, South Carolina
Secret_AznMan said:
Because it's only full when people want to see and cheer for the opposing team.
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Couldn't that be said about every section of our stadium right now though? Maybe we should demolish the entire upper level so we could pack out the bottom bowl. I'd much rather sit in the middle of row 23 in corner section 121 than on the front row of the upper north.

What about the outer parts of the upper sections of the sidelines? If you check the GT ticket site right now, there are no seats available in 215 and 213 in the UN. Every section on both sidelines has seats available. And of course there are tickets in every section available on the second-hand sites, but those tickets have already been paid for once as far as the AA is concerned.

Of course this was all tic. Including my original post. I was just saying stop trying to do away with my seats. If you want to get rid of seats, there are plenty of other empty options that won't require me moving.

My two seats in the upper north are full every home game. Great view. Unobstructed. Budget-friendly. Controlling what I can. I'll let someone else figure out what to do with the fact that we've probably been the only people sitting in our row most of the last three years. And just hope they don't come here for advice. And yes I realize that means I'll likely be surrounded by red and black at the end of November.
 
UgaBlows

UgaBlows

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6,792
Secret_AznMan said:
Atlanta is 47% black, Georgia as a whole is 32% black, however GT only has a black student population of 7%.
More outreach to local Atlanta prospective students (who are mostly black) would go a long way in growing the local area fanbase.

To add to this, 40% of students come from out of state, and 8% of students are international students, I assume many graduate and move away from Atlanta, so not even the families of the alumni are around to come to games.
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I have long said that we should be giving away blocks of tickets every non premium game to inner city youth to try and build a sidewalk fan-base, and get some local rappers to perform at halftime or after the games
 

JacketFan137

Banned
Messages
2,536
for all the stupid **** geoff did i do think leaning into atlanta a little more was an avenue we should have explored. would go a long way to winning back the sidewalk fans
 
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