Pack The Dodd

AUFC

Helluva Engineer
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2,270
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Atlanta
The fraternities are forced to attend the games or they lose their priority in selecting their seating zone. Aside from when we play georgia, I don't think we've sold out of the free student tickets for a game at BDS since 2015 when we played FSU.
Sounds like we need to incentivize the south endzone. Free beer should do the trick!

I've heard it bounced around on here that students like giveaways. This pains the bike commuter in me but partner with a dealership and giveaway a car or $10,000 cash to one student who attends the game each week. That would drive turnout. Build up a football culture, get the place loud, and show fence-sitting students that it's actually a fun time with great memories to attend the game with your friends whether or not you win the prize.
 
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Secret_AznMan

Georgia Tech Fan
Messages
47
There are some hilarious crackpot theories about the student body in this thread. Have we considered that 3 years of embarrassing losses may have played a role? Have any of you actually been to a home game lately?

Ever since the last Duke game it’s been remarkably easy for me to get my friends and frat group (which consists of lots of “turbonerds” and, GASP, international students) to go to games, be loud, and engage with not just the football program, but athletics as a whole. I’ve been able to talk to just about anyone in class about the latest game. Half the shirts I see on campus are GT athletics related. Despite the 3 hour rain delay I had plenty of company at the SC State game, including lots of RATs. The general feeling I get from most students is that athletics is making a turnaround and that it’s worthwhile to go to games again.

Winning (even the mediocre level of winning we’ve seen this season so far) cures all.
Call me when the south end zone is full, I don't think I've seen it full against a team that isn't from Athens for a while. Even going back to when we had CPJ.
 

Secret_AznMan

Georgia Tech Fan
Messages
47
Sounds like we need to incentivize the south endzone. Free beer should do the trick!

I've heard it bounced around on here that students like giveaways. This pains the bike commuter in me but partner with a dealership and giveaway a car or $10,000 cash to one student who attends the game each week. That would drive turnout. Build up a football culture, get the place loud, and show fence-sitting students that it's actually a fun time with great memories to attend the game with your friends whether or not you win the prize.
I think the south end zone student section should be returned to the general public and when the lower north student section runs out of tickets, you can start to fill the north upper level end zone. I think if they ever "sell out" of the free student tickets they just give away the unsold regular seats, but that doesn't happen very often.
 

TampaBuzz

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
963
Sounds like we need to incentivize the south endzone. Free beer should do the trick!

I've heard it bounced around on here that students like giveaways. This pains the bike commuter in me but partner with a dealership and giveaway a car or $10,000 cash to one student who attends the game each week. That would drive turnout. Build up a football culture, get the place loud, and show fence-sitting students that it's actually a fun time with great memories to attend the game with your friends whether or not you win the prize.
I imagine that a $500 giveaway would do the trick to motivate student turnout....
 

BleedGoldNWhite21

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,298
The scenario of kids who grew up as fans of other football schools attending a different school is not unique to GT. The difference is other programs successfully turn those kids by the end of freshman year through culture, tradition, on field success or a mixture of all of the above. I used to manage a company in my previous career where most of the entry level positions were teenagers. Many of these kids were fans of other SEC teams or BIG Ten teams. We would always talk shop Mondays after the games that weekend. I can’t tell you how many of these kids got accepted to UGA and claimed they would never root for UGA over their childhood team, only to return to work after one semester a full blown mutt. The fact that GT has current students who consider themselves fans of other schools is absolutely our problem and proof that our football culture needs some major improvement. Fielding a good football team is a step in the right direction, but we definitely need to do our part, too, whenever possible. I know there are many who simply can not attend every home game for whatever reasons, and I completely understand that(I can not, myself). There are many things in life that are more important than football, but we can still do better on our side of things, too.
 

Buzztheirazz

Helluva Engineer
Messages
2,314
I am once again asking to DISMANTLE THE UPPER NORTH.
And then? Those seats are valuable for things such as concerts that we can use to bring in other money.

Take the money that you would waste by dismantling and put in seat back chairs throughout the entire stadium. Would lower the amount of seats but provide comfort for our aging fanbase.
 

Secret_AznMan

Georgia Tech Fan
Messages
47
And then? Those seats are valuable for things such as concerts that we can use to bring in other money.

Take the money that you would waste by dismantling and put in seat back chairs throughout the entire stadium. Would lower the amount of seats but provide comfort for our aging fanbase.
The thing about the concert argument is that any show that can draw that many people will simply play at Mercedes Benz Stadium or Truist Park instead because LiveNation has an ongoing partnership with those venues already. When they swapped out the grass for turf and booked Guns N Roses (a show that would probably have been cancelled due to low ticket sales) and BTS, both were cancelled due to covid and neither we rebooked.
 

bucknellbison31

Jolly Good Fellow
Messages
169
Location
Pittsburgh, PA
Call me when the south end zone is full, I don't think I've seen it full against a team that isn't from Athens for a while. Even going back to when we had CPJ.
This simply isn't accurate. Plenty of games were full sellouts before the (redacted) era. For example, look up the Miracle on Techwood on YouTube. That GT team was BAD, and yet there is a packed student section in the south end zone.

I swear that people on this site love to be pessimistic whenever they get the chance.
 

Ramble1885

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,272
Location
Atlanta
Fighting a very uphill battle to gain any sidewalk fans right now. UGA looks like they’re about to do what Bama did for 10+ years and be the absolute dominant force in college football. And the ACC teams do not have as large of brand recognition in the south as the SEC, as well as potentially being blown up in the next few years. There’s really just not a whole lot of reason for someone without a connection to Tech to root for Tech. It’s gonna take several years of consistent winning from both football and basketball, baseball wouldn’t hurt, for Tech to make any real headway in growing the fan base.
This honestly makes me feel better as a Tech fan somehow. I like being the underdog fan! If we're all we got... we're all we need.

Obviously I want as many people on the GT bandwagon as possible, but if they don't want to hop on, then **** em.
 

Secret_AznMan

Georgia Tech Fan
Messages
47
This simply isn't accurate. Plenty of games were full sellouts before the (redacted) era. For example, look up the Miracle on Techwood on YouTube. That GT team was BAD, and yet there is a packed student section in the south end zone.

I swear that people on this site love to be pessimistic whenever they get the chance.
That was 8 (eight) years ago brother, I already said that may have been the last time we packed the entire student section below. Mind everyone the student tickets are F R E E (paid for with mandatory Athletic Fee).
The fraternities are forced to attend the games or they lose their priority in selecting their seating zone. Aside from when we play georgia, I don't think we've sold out of the free student tickets for a game at BDS since 2015 when we played FSU.
 

Secret_AznMan

Georgia Tech Fan
Messages
47
This honestly makes me feel better as a Tech fan somehow. I like being the underdog fan! If we're all we got... we're all we need.

Obviously I want as many people on the GT bandwagon as possible, but if they don't want to hop on, then **** em.
All I want is for the student population to care about it again, and not come into the stadium wearing the opposing team's gear.
 

bucknellbison31

Jolly Good Fellow
Messages
169
Location
Pittsburgh, PA
That was 8 (eight) years ago brother, I already said that may have been the last time we packed the entire student section below. Mind everyone the student tickets are F R E E (paid for with mandatory Athletic Fee).
"Even going back to when we had CPJ". You said that, not me. I provided an example of a late-CPJ era game that refutes what you said.
 

yeti92

Helluva Engineer
Messages
2,627
That was 8 (eight) years ago brother, I already said that may have been the last time we packed the entire student section below. Mind everyone the student tickets are F R E E (paid for with mandatory Athletic Fee).
Student tickets are only free in the Swarm section, unless something has changed somewhat recently. They were cheap in the block seating area, but not free.

The thing about the concert argument is that any show that can draw that many people will simply play at Mercedes Benz Stadium or Truist Park instead because LiveNation has an ongoing partnership with those venues already. When they swapped out the grass for turf and booked Guns N Roses (a show that would probably have been cancelled due to low ticket sales) and BTS, both were cancelled due to covid and neither we rebooked.
What makes you think Guns and Roses would have been cancelled for low ticket sales? They had 40,000+ in attendance the last time they were in Atlanta 4 years earlier.
 

Root4GT

Helluva Engineer
Messages
2,462
I think there are enough that did. uga and other schools don't fill the stadiums and walmarts with their alumni, they fill them with their fans. Tech has to make better with our sidewalk fans. We're not as good at that as we used to be.
Many sidewalk fans come about through connections to GT students and grads. About half of GTs undergrads really aren't very interested in football. Much of that comes from not growing up in families or situations that had interest in college football. That limits the size of the circle of friends for potential sidewalk fans.

Many GT grads do no favors getting sidewalk fans with what many precevies as a I am superior to you as I went to GT.
 

Oakland

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,206
Location
Georgia
There were two concerts planned. One of them was a group from Japan (I can't remember their name) that was popular with teenage girls. Those concerts would have brought money in and then Covid hit. I don't know if there was much of an effort to try again since every concert went to MBS. I believe the other concert was a return of the Rolling Stones instead of G&R. BDS has a better sound system than MBS and could be a nice music venue with the right effort.
 

LargeFO

Helluva Engineer
Messages
3,186
There were two concerts planned. One of them was a group from Japan (I can't remember their name) that was popular with teenage girls. Those concerts would have brought money in and then Covid hit. I don't know if there was much of an effort to try again since every concert went to MBS. I believe the other concert was a return of the Rolling Stones instead of G&R. BDS has a better sound system than MBS and could be a nice music venue with the right effort.

Maybe the BDS sound system magically gets better for concerts. It sucks for the games mightily.
 
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