Paul Johnson time frame.

[Vespidae]

If I was Stansbury and I was trying to navigate out of this mess I’d do the following:

A. Put all my chips on Woody and pray he works out. If we shore up the D he’s got the flexibility to change the offensive scheme if he wants without going 2-12 a bunch of years in a row. A solid D will blunt any offensive scheme change and allow you to win some games along the way & won’t splinter the fanbase further fighting over who’s right & who’s wrong.
B. As crazy as it sounds, I’d reduce ticket prices except for Clemp & mutt. I’d make the mutt prices outrageous. If they want to infect our stadium, pay for the trash clean up. Frankly, we need the fans.
C. I get CPJ to commit to however many years he needs to in order to get us financially stable with the understanding privately that retirement is on the designated date. You need to hire a not currently coaching coach so the announcement can be made at beginning of the season that this is the last & in time for the new guy to have input into the recruiting process. Not Mack Brown old, but on his last stop kind of guy.
D. That coach needs to coach 3-4 years & get out if he’s changing schemes. It won’t be pretty changing schemes. Att that point you need to either put up the $$ to go big or roll the dice on a hot youngster.
E. At step C, roll out the $250M challenge. With a new coach on the horizon you can get the $$.

Basically that’s the 10 year plan.

Not sure about B. Ticket prices seem to me to be inelastic, so a reduction in ticket prices will usually correspond to an overall reduction in revenue. Most entertainment options price higher in the evening because there is more demand then. I'd be inclined to suggest that noon starts should deliver a refund (after all, Tech makes it up because of TV revenue) and evening starts charge a premium. They can do this through a net price at ticket time and then provide a rebate based on the scheduling.

I think TStan has a clear path to fixing it. My understanding is that he spends minimal time on the other sports and is laser focused on fixing football. And why not? He knows the sport and ... it's our highest revenue sport. Fix that and it makes fixing the others possible. Or at least more manageable.

 

[MountainBuzzMan]

If I was Stansbury and I was trying to navigate out of this mess I’d do the following:

A. Put all my chips on Woody and pray he works out. If we shore up the D he’s got the flexibility to change the offensive scheme if he wants without going 2-12 a bunch of years in a row. A solid D will blunt any offensive scheme change and allow you to win some games along the way & won’t splinter the fanbase further fighting over who’s right & who’s wrong.
B. As crazy as it sounds, I’d reduce ticket prices except for Clemp & mutt. I’d make the mutt prices outrageous. If they want to infect our stadium, pay for the trash clean up. Frankly, we need the fans.
C. I get CPJ to commit to however many years he needs to in order to get us financially stable with the understanding privately that retirement is on the designated date. You need to hire a not currently coaching coach so the announcement can be made at beginning of the season that this is the last & in time for the new guy to have input into the recruiting process. Not Mack Brown old, but on his last stop kind of guy.
D. That coach needs to coach 3-4 years & get out if he’s changing schemes. It won’t be pretty changing schemes. Att that point you need to either put up the $$ to go big or roll the dice on a hot youngster.
E. At step C, roll out the $250M challenge. With a new coach on the horizon you can get the $$.

Basically that’s the 10 year plan.

Excellent plan!
I think I would add an extensive increase in the recruiting staff to try to find the gems who can be difference makers AND succeed in school here. I think at least 10 if not 15 people on the recruiting staff. That is the kind of investment that pays off over time with extra wins.

 

[wvGT11]

Totally agree on the stat side, I should have clairfied that I was referring to win / loss and championships etc.

The general consensus that I see from others is that we switch from Cpj to a standard offense, we will start winning more, get better recruits , championships etc

But I look around the ACC for example besides Clemson and that standard offense doesn't seem to be doing much better for these teams even with less strict academic standards.

Really?

Because you were 3nd in the ACC in scoring PPG
https://www.teamrankings.com/college-football/stat/points-per-game

and 11th in the country (and 2nd in the ACC) in offensive efficiency
https://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/feioff

I feel like your definition of "everyone else" is different than mine.

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

 

[ramblinwreck1378]

A. Umm..I was there this year. Me and 30,000 others watched an exciting win vs UVA. Where were you? There were plenty of seats available!

B. LMAO - true but there's an entire thread dedicated to that guy so I'm hardly alone in my dislike of him.

"Winning" - if that's the case then were are all the fans? If CPJ is so great at winning, why are attendance #s dropping every year he's here?

As stated earlier by @ilovetheoption - attendance is falling everywhere. This is average attendance over the last 10 years for GT, the ACC, and for all FBS programs - GT is right on trend, and actually above trend in some cases.

 

[Vespidae]

As stated earlier by @ilovetheoption - attendance is falling everywhere. This is average attendance over the last 10 years for GT, the ACC, and for all FBS programs - GT is right on trend, and actually above trend in some cases.

View attachment 4586

This is consistent with an analysis I did going back to 1990. For the most part, attendance has been within historical norms and has held up better than most of the FBS programs. Tech's permanent attendance should be in the 50K range ... or at least, that's what I would target. I would stop with the billboard advertising and hit the major employers and ask them to buy blocks of 1,000 seats at a discount for their employees. Lower ticket prices but offset by no marketing expense.

 

[RamblinWreck92]

As stated earlier by @ilovetheoption - attendance is falling everywhere. This is average attendance over the last 10 years for GT, the ACC, and for all FBS programs - GT is right on trend, and actually above trend in some cases.

View attachment 4586

big decline post-2015. not surprising. I wonder what 2018's final avg is?

 

[Animal02]

If I was Stansbury and I was trying to navigate out of this mess I’d do the following:

A. Put all my chips on Woody and pray he works out. If we shore up the D he’s got the flexibility to change the offensive scheme if he wants without going 2-12 a bunch of years in a row. A solid D will blunt any offensive scheme change and allow you to win some games along the way & won’t splinter the fanbase further fighting over who’s right & who’s wrong.
B. As crazy as it sounds, I’d reduce ticket prices except for Clemp & mutt. I’d make the mutt prices outrageous. If they want to infect our stadium, pay for the trash clean up. Frankly, we need the fans.
C. I get CPJ to commit to however many years he needs to in order to get us financially stable with the understanding privately that retirement is on the designated date. You need to hire a not currently coaching coach so the announcement can be made at beginning of the season that this is the last & in time for the new guy to have input into the recruiting process. Not Mack Brown old, but on his last stop kind of guy.
D. That coach needs to coach 3-4 years & get out if he’s changing schemes. It won’t be pretty changing schemes. Att that point you need to either put up the $$ to go big or roll the dice on a hot youngster.
E. At step C, roll out the $250M challenge. With a new coach on the horizon you can get the $$.

Basically that’s the 10 year plan.

WRT to ticket pricing.......set up some system for reduced price ticketing....only for Tech affiliated students, alumni, parents and staff....will call tickets only and the purchaser shows a photo id to receive the tickets.......keep them out of the hands of the scalpers and mutts etc. Set up a rewards program / raffle / give away at the end of the game for students to encourage them to come early and stay for the entire game.
(My wife attends a conference every year to get CEU's they checked going into the session at at the end in order to qualify for the CEUs.....seems are smart engineers could set up a swipe system for the student section before and after the game inside the stadium (and monitor so no one uses multiples) for student buzz cards...that would log arrival and departure times and automatically enter them into drawings etc.
Discounts to vets, High schools etc on game day if they show up wearing white / gold / GT gear,

 

[ramblinwreck1378]

big decline post-2015. not surprising. I wonder what 2018's final avg is?

You can't point out the decline post-2015 without noting the jump post-2014. If you average those two years, you're still above our average for the 10 years.

 

[Animal02]

You can't point out the decline post-2015 without noting the jump post-2014. If you average those two years, you're still above our average for the 10 years.

2016 was a UGAG away game as well.

 

[MountainBuzzMan]

big decline post-2015. not surprising. I wonder what 2018's final avg is?

Considering that 2015 was the best year out of the 10, that would be cherry picking. But I do expect to see a significant drop for 2018

 

[RamblinWreck92]

You can't point out the decline post-2015 without noting the jump post-2014. If you average those two years, you're still above our average for the 10 years.

true. the continued decline after 2016 is telling though.

 

[RamblinWreck92]

Considering that 2015 was the best year out of the 10, that would be cherry picking. But I do expect to see a significant drop for 2018

true. the continued decline after 2016 is telling though. 2015 was a lot like 2010 - a big letdown and failure to maintain momentum. I think the post-2015 decline is the growing # of fans coming to that realization, combined with an unattractive home schedule and the malaise setting in after 2017. Like I said, the 2018 numbers will be interesting.

 

[MountainBuzzMan]

true. the continued decline after 2016 is telling though. 2015 was a lot like 2010 - a big letdown and failure to maintain momentum. I think the post-2015 decline is the growing # of fans coming to that realization, combined with an unattractive home schedule and the malaise setting in after 2017. Like I said, the 2018 numbers will be interesting.

Starting the season 1-3 really hurt attendance and fans missed some really great games. But the drop you mention from 2016 to 2017 was on average with attendance drop across the country so I cant throw that at CPJ feet like I think you are trying to do.

 

[Animal02]

Considering that 2015 was the best year out of the 10, that would be cherry picking. But I do expect to see a significant drop for 2018

So 2017 was at about the same level that it was in 2008...meanwhile averages in the ACC (and the nation) have fallen to the point that they are now almost equal to Tech compared to significant;y higher in 2008.....yet the CPJ haters whine about falling attendance.

 

[AlabamaBuzz]

I realize we would have difficulty competing (although I do think it would help recruiting), but if we were in the SEC, my guess is that our attendance would be consistently better. UVA, Duke, etc. still doesn't excite the "casual" fan. Plus, the SEC fan bases generally travel well, so we would get an uptick on the visiting fans.

I know. "ifs and buts were candy and nuts". Still think our leaving the SEC is impacting us, even today.

 

[RamblinWreck92]

Alcorn St: 39719
Clemson: 50595
Bowling Green: 40740
Duke: 41709
Miami: 48217
UVA: 37543

Avg: 43087

that's about 4K less than the similar 2016 schedule (Clemson home game inflation, Duke, Miami, UVA)

 

[Animal02]

I realize we would have difficulty competing (although I do think it would help recruiting), but if we were in the SEC, my guess is that our attendance would be consistently better. UVA, Duke, etc. still doesn't excite the "casual" fan. Plus, the SEC fan bases generally travel well, so we would get an uptick on the visiting fans.

I know. "ifs and buts were candy and nuts". Still think our leaving the SEC is impacting us, even today.

If we were still in the SEC, we would be another Vandy..........and anybody who thinks it is such a great idea to fill the stands with opposing fans is beyond crazy.

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

If we were still in the SEC, we would be another Vandy..........and anybody who thinks it is such a great idea to fill the stands with opposing fans is beyond crazy.

I don't think we would be another Vandy, but we wouldn't be another Alabama either. We would probably be as good as SC, Mizzou, KY generally, and the Miss schools.

 

[AlabamaBuzz]

If we were still in the SEC, we would be another Vandy..........and anybody who thinks it is such a great idea to fill the stands with opposing fans is beyond crazy.

Animal - we can agree to disagree. I am not so sure if we could have been marginally successful or not. We had a TREMENDOUS following (almost like the ND of the south) through the 1960's, and Dodd took us out of the SEC in 1963.

Vandy NEVER had any traditional success. We had a lot of it prior to the 1970s. I agree with you that competing would still be very difficult, even if we got a little bump in recruiting, but I do think our fans would be more interested (win or lose) in seeing us play Auburn, for example, than Virginia. Also, I don't want to "fill the stands" with opposing fans, but if we had 5000-7000 of them instead of 2500, it would help the bottom line.

 

[RamblinWreck92]

Starting the season 1-3 really hurt attendance and fans missed some really great games. But the drop you mention from 2016 to 2017 was on average with attendance drop across the country so I cant throw that at CPJ feet like I think you are trying to do.

CPJ is a part of it but not the entire problem.