Sidewalk Fans

[UgaBlows]

GT has to win and win consistently. Get in the playoffs. Be sexy.

Atlanta loves front runners. Atlanta loves success.

Outside of that.
You can sponsor little leagues in the area to games.
Have the team do services in the local area. (I never see GT players working with APS, Fulton, & Dekalb are high schools)
Get the club groups to come out Asian American Association, Latin American Association, Key Club special group tickets. Embrace the nerd, Pokémon contest at the stadium, dungeon & dragons contest, some fun things to bring to the stadium and games.
Corporate seats sections.
Build soccer like clubs for the football team. That's another way of embracing the nerd.

I totally agree with you, lets fill those empty seats with Atlanta youth. My Dad became a Tech fan (and showed me the light) after serving as an usher at Bobby Dodd as a boy scout in the 60’s.

 

[GT_05]

I totally agree with you, lets fill those empty seats with Atlanta youth. My Dad became a Tech fan (and showed me the light) after serving as an usher at Bobby Dodd as a boy scout in the 60’s.

Maybe GT fans could donate to the GTAA in the name of ______ Youth Group or _______ Special Group and then the GTAA could disperse the tickets to these groups. Good experience for youth, investment in our fan base, possibly more money for athletics, and more butts in seats. Aside from the UGA game, I don’t remember another sellout at BDS this year. Don’t hate. Business is not my forte and maybe this is not a plausible idea or it already exists.


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[Jacket in Dairyland]

Yep...brothers. Saw him at Christmas. He’s still big GT “sidewalk” fan.

My kids were a few years ahead of Austin’s and Searcy. I got to know Austin’s dad through band boosters, he was HS principal. Good folks.

Cool. He probably wouldn't remember me ,but I remember him.

 

[B Lifsey]

Cool. He probably wouldn't remember me ,but I remember him.

If you want, send it to me in PM and I’ll tell him next time I talk to him.

 

[jeffgt14]

Appreciate your support of GT. Also, I had never really heard of TTU until moving to TN. Over the years, I worked with and hired a few TTU grads (engineering). My experience is that TN Tech, while a bit "under the radar" outside of the state, turns out really top-notch engineers. In fact, I have recommended it to others looking to hire engineers right out of college.

Thanks! I always hear the same thing. Although they shut down my IE program right after I left so I'm a little bitter.

 

[DroppedOut]

Up here in the Nor'east, GT was only really a name because of Lethal Weapon 3 and Bobby Cremins. They drew some sidewalk fans and are the reason why I read the flyer when college application time drew near. As such, it saddens me that sports aren't seemingly seen as more of an opportunity to spread renown nationally. When I try to get fellow sports fans here to follow college basketball or college football, I have to explain that Clemson or Stanford don't have academic challenges like GT does, even though the general public sees them as impressive academic institutions.

The popularity of college football made zero sense to me - until I saw my first game in person!

 

[BleedGoldNWhite21]

I grew up a Tech fan in a mutt house because I wanted to rebel. I ended up going to GSU and took Marta to every Tech home football game while I was at GSU.

 

[LibertyTurns]

Tailgating is always a good way to meet likeminded people. The smell of barbecue, a good game of corn hole, a few hearty " To Hell With Georgia" shouts are sure to draw others your way. But to prime that pump, contact the AA to locate a local chapter and get involved. Someone in that chapter will be going to the game and would like to see you there...

This is great advice. I’ve got a lot of friends I made over the years from the different clubs I joined for game watching around the country. I run into some nearly every game day now & usually meet up with them for beers before/after games.

 

[lauraee]

True tech is probably still paying for leaving the sec, but I so dislike the sec and am honestly glad we are in the acc now.

This is a fascinating and layered topic, and I think it's one that goes along with the thread @ATL1 started:

https://gtswarm.com/threads/outstanding-article-on-cfb-atlanta-gt-hbcus.14107/page-2

Personally, I think Bobby Dodd gave up lot of ground with "sidewalk" fans when he decided to pull GT out of the SEC. Some blame pro sports, but the South is a college sports region, and the pro sports that came here were not very good teams. GT was a very good product, and because Dodd left the SEC and our program was bleeding money, we also become less attractive to recruits. Teams that use come into Atlanta started to build up their own "sidewalk" fan bases...more specifically, it helped UGA rise in stature.

As @Supersizethatorder-mutt attested, GT was packed for games during the last years of our SEC membership, but it wasn't only for SEC games, and BDS was full of GT fans.

It was unfortunate that Dodd let personal idealism get in the way because GT is still paying for that decision today.

 

[Sideways]

I agree. Tech has little in common with the SEC nowadays but in the ACC there are several schools similar to us in that they are not the STATE school of choice. Think Duke, Boston College, Pitt, Virginia Tech, Syracuse, Wake Forest, NC State, even Miami and Clemson are in their own way second fiddle to a state university. I know many of those are private but they are much more similar to us than say LSU or Alabama. I know the ACC has football factories but at least it is not quite as pronounced. Clemson and FSU are doing their dead level best to be sure. I grew up going to games in the 1960s and yes there was a certain excitement to playing Auburn, Tennessee, Alabama and Florida that playing Virginia just does not seem to have. Those days are gone and we best be trying to get better quick or the rest of the ACC is going to be using the Institute as their version of Vanderbilt.

 

[GTRhino24]

Went to Tech for a few semesters, walked on, and got kicked out for not attending classes (thanks Starcraft). I had a hard time joining back up with Tech due to having to explain that I didn’t graduate from there.

 

[FredJacket]

I agree. Tech has little in common with the SEC nowadays but in the ACC there are several schools similar to us in that they are not the STATE school of choice. Think Duke, Boston College, Pitt, Virginia Tech, Syracuse, Wake Forest, NC State, even Miami and Clemson are in their own way second fiddle to a state university. I know many of those are private but they are much more similar to us than say LSU or Alabama. I know the ACC has football factories but at least it is not quite as pronounced. Clemson and FSU are doing their dead level best to be sure. I grew up going to games in the 1960s and yes there was a certain excitement to playing Auburn, Tennessee, Alabama and Florida that playing Virginia just does not seem to have. Those days are gone and we best be trying to get better quick or the rest of the ACC is going to be using the Institute as their version of Vanderbilt.

One extremely minor tweak that has nothing to do with your overall point... but as a resident of Virginia, the state school of choice (if I understand your context... mainly football) is Virginia Tech here. Maybe hasn't always been that way... but for at least the last 15 years or more.

 

[1974]

Grew up a Tech fan. Never wanted to go there since I new wanted to teach and coach football. But oddly enough married a Tech grad and athlete haha.

 

[buzzwilder]

Lifelong sidewalk GT fan here too. Family has had football season tix forever & I've been going to games since a kid in the 80's. Like CPJ said, you need thick skin & a willingness to punch someone in he nose from time to time. It's not for everybody. And you better have a quick explanation on why you like GT when you didn't attend the school....you will literally be asked EVERY time you tell someone you're a GT fan. <insert the "y tho" meme>

 

[GT05]

Grew up in a house full of Dawgs. Went to GT baseball camps as a kid and that swayed me over. I have been a die hard ever since. Known among friends and family as the Tech fan. I have a wife that now loves Tech and hates the bulldoggies. We didn’t go to school there but appreciate what it stands for.

 

[BuckeyeJacket]

Good to see you on here if you are the one from the other site.

I am. I find this page to be more serious and informative.

Which is also why I usually don't post much.

 

[takethepoints]

I'm a sidewalk fan too.

My dad was a Navy flier and got killed by one of the new jet fighters right after WW2 (the ejection seat didn't work). So my uncle-in-law took over some of his duties. Uncle Don was a former Tech track star and general BMOC. He got me and my brother Tech sweaters and rat caps and took us to games pretty regularly until he moved. By then I was hooked and I've remained a fan ever since. The general redneckness of Ugag fans also played a role. I'm a former football player and I take the game seriously. Getting drunk before a game and being obnoxious to those around me has always struck me as lacking respect for the effort made by the players on the field. Besides, I enjoy watching how plays develop. You don't find too much of this at Sanford Stadium.

But this, I think, describes the difficulties we have drawing sidewalk fans in. A lot of them are like Ugag fans; all they want to do is gloat about how good their players are and talk about "dominating" the other team. This, frankly, I can do without.

 

[Sideways]

One extremely minor tweak that has nothing to do with your overall point... but as a resident of Virginia, the state school of choice (if I understand your context... mainly football) is Virginia Tech here. Maybe hasn't always been that way... but for at least the last 15 years or more.

Good point. A poor choice of words on my part. I did not mean "school of choice" to be exclusively football. I meant that term to be universities with many, if not most, of the inherent advantages that UGA has. A supine Board of Regents that will do its bidding, a "wall mart" fan base that is huge in numbers, a disproportionate share of media coverage, a political establishment bound and determined to favor said school, etc. Virginia is somewhat different I will grant you that. Even so, there are rumblings from Blacksburg that Virginia Tech is not getting quite the quality of recruits that it once did. To be sure, none of the other state colleges be they Pitt, Miami, Wake Forest or Duke face the challenges we do. The insistence of the BOR in having a calculus requirement is the one that burns me up. That requirement is in place for no other reason except to ensure that Tech faces a major stumbling block in recruiting.

 

[Sideways]

I couldn't agree more...michigan is the uga of the North.

Interesting did not know that. Curious is there any real difference between the fan bases of say Michigan State and Michigan or perhaps Ohio State and Michigan? I am totally ignorant of Big 10 football.

 

[Sideways]

I grew up a Tech fan in a mutt house because I wanted to rebel. I ended up going to GSU and took Marta to every Tech home football game while I was at GSU.

I went to college in LaGrange and took the Greyhound home to Atlanta every Friday to go to the football games in the fall and basketball in the winter. Not quite the same as the MARTA but yes that takes some dedication.