Spring Practice

Whiskey_Clear

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I have always thought that it’s far better to give away tickets to kids to fill the stands than it is to have empty seats at our games. Some of those kids will come back with their families and pay for their seats. I suspect game day walk-up sales are pretty predictable, so it shouldn’t be tough to figure out the projected empty seats and, therefore, the free group tickets to disburse.

Helps concessions too.
 

deeeznutz

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Transplanted college alumni almost never adopt the local college as their new team. They can watch their true team on tv or travel to home games to be with friends. Converting college grads should not be our goal, it's a fool's errand.

On the other hand, it should be our goal to cultivate a fanbase from the Atlanta metro area. We don't do this and it's always left me scratching my head. New fans can easily be made in their youth and it lasts a lifetime. Why we are not giving away, or giving deep discounts, to youth groups to fill seats that would go empty anyway is beyond me. It's killing two hated birds with one stone: building a loyal, lifelong fanbase from the ground up, and filling the dadgum stadium. To me it's a nobrainer.

Yeah I’ve always thought chasing after existing college football fans is a fool’s errand, because they tend to fall into a few categories that aren’t conducive to picking them up: fans of local rivals, transplant fans of other teams, or general “SEC fans”. The only way I really see to get new sidewalk fans is through kids. I’m kind of surprised our AA hasn’t tried connecting donors with local youth groups to do exactly what you talked about. Maybe set up a program where local groups can request to be put on a list that then gets looked at each week to fill seats as needed, then have donors line up to handle some of the cost (although is there any real cost in allowing people to sit in unsold seats?).
 

Gold1

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Yeah I’ve always thought chasing after existing college football fans is a fool’s errand, because they tend to fall into a few categories that aren’t conducive to picking them up: fans of local rivals, transplant fans of other teams, or general “SEC fans”. The only way I really see to get new sidewalk fans is through kids. I’m kind of surprised our AA hasn’t tried connecting donors with local youth groups to do exactly what you talked about. Maybe set up a program where local groups can request to be put on a list that then gets looked at each week to fill seats as needed, then have donors line up to handle some of the cost (although is there any real cost in allowing people to sit in unsold seats?).
Email Tstan and company this!
 

UgaBlows

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Yeah I’ve always thought chasing after existing college football fans is a fool’s errand, because they tend to fall into a few categories that aren’t conducive to picking them up: fans of local rivals, transplant fans of other teams, or general “SEC fans”. The only way I really see to get new sidewalk fans is through kids. I’m kind of surprised our AA hasn’t tried connecting donors with local youth groups to do exactly what you talked about. Maybe set up a program where local groups can request to be put on a list that then gets looked at each week to fill seats as needed, then have donors line up to handle some of the cost (although is there any real cost in allowing people to sit in unsold seats?).

I agree 100% with you! There are kids in Atlanta who would love free tickets to games, this is the path towards building loyal sidewalk fans.
 
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Whiskey_Clear

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I agree 100% with you! There are kids in Atlanta who would love free tickets to games, this is the path towards building loyal sidewalk fans.

I dunno. When people get something for free they rarely assign significant value to it. I think they are more likely to resist paying later for something they got for free before.

Special discounts to groups I can get on board more with. That may not seem a logical difference but I think it might be psychologically.
 

dressedcheeseside

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I dunno. When people get something for free they rarely assign significant value to it. I think they are more likely to resist paying later for something they got for free before.

Special discounts to groups I can get on board more with. That may not seem a logical difference but I think it might be psychologically.
As a high school senior I got a free ticket to GT football game in 1984. My entire high school physics class was invited. I also got a free tour of the now non-existing GT Textile Engineering building as well as a pretty nice sales pitch. Sat in the south endzone horseshoe right before they demolished it. It worked out pretty good for GT as I'm still here.

As you can see, the south endzone seating was a mile and a half from the field. Also, the track that circled the field actually went under the north endzone stands at the time.

BobbyDodd1983.jpg
 
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GTonTop88

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Getting BJS, Vic, Mitchell, and Jaquan on the field at the same time should really improve our defense. Jaquan’s name has been mentioned a lot so far and expect him to be our break out player on defense. Jordan Mason’s name has been also thrown around a lot and I could see him helping us on offense and special teams.
 

tmhunter52

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I dunno. When people get something for free they rarely assign significant value to it. I think they are more likely to resist paying later for something they got for free before.

Special discounts to groups I can get on board more with. That may not seem a logical difference but I think it might be psychologically.

I don’t really think grade school kids are going to enjoy the game any less because their tickets were free instead of having them break their piggy banks for ticket money.
 

bobongo

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I dunno. When people get something for free they rarely assign significant value to it. I think they are more likely to resist paying later for something they got for free before.

Special discounts to groups I can get on board more with. That may not seem a logical difference but I think it might be psychologically.

I think that would apply much more to adults than kids. Giving free passes to kids seems a great idea for helping build a fan base.
 

wesgt123

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Getting BJS, Vic, Mitchell, and Jaquan on the field at the same time should really improve our defense. Jaquan’s name has been mentioned a lot so far and expect him to be our break out player on defense. Jordan Mason’s name has been also thrown around a lot and I could see him helping us on offense and special teams.
We have enough talent. That SHOULD help right?
 

GT_05

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I dunno. When people get something for free they rarely assign significant value to it. I think they are more likely to resist paying later for something they got for free before.

I 100% agree with what you’re saying. I’m wondering however how many kids could go to a game if it wasn’t free or a very reduced price. We could quite possibly have a future 5-Star who walks past BDS everyday that has no idea what GT has to offer.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

augustabuzz

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I dunno. When people get something for free they rarely assign significant value to it. I think they are more likely to resist paying later for something they got for free before.

Special discounts to groups I can get on board more with. That may not seem a logical difference but I think it might be psychologically.
That hasn't been my experience with Masters badges.
 

UgaBlows

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I dunno. When people get something for free they rarely assign significant value to it. I think they are more likely to resist paying later for something they got for free before.

Special discounts to groups I can get on board more with. That may not seem a logical difference but I think it might be psychologically.

You may be right, hopefully not. I’ve always said that if you give tickets to kds, you’ve got to do more to make them feel a part of GT, give them a reason to love this place and this team for life. My Dad was an Boy Scout usher during the Bobby Dodd era, they got a lot of cool perks like meeting Coach Dodd etc. He still loves Tech, and passed it down to me and I to my kids.
 
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