The most disappointing stat from yesterday was...attendance.

[GT_05]

Our attendance for our season opener was 39,719. I’m not sure if this is the actual attendance or it is the number of tickets sold. Based on the large swaths of empty seats, I believe it is the latter and not the former. The capacity of Wallace Wade Stadium, where Duke plays, is 40,004. We wouldn’t have filled Duke’s Stadium! Why aren’t people coming to the games? For the people that do come, why do so many people come in so late? We want to see our athlete’s best effort and I have to think that the athletes would like to see a better effort from us.


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[joehamiltonfan14]

Was there yesterday but was certainly disappointing. Attendance for these type games has dropped the last 2-3 years. Our floor used to be 45K.

 

[684Bee]

Was there yesterday but was certainly disappointing. Attendance for these type games has dropped the last 2-3 years. Our floor used to be 45K.

Not only do we lack in numbers, but our fans lack the commitment to the program.

 

[Backstreetbuzz]

I think the average age of GT fans attending games is 77 years and 3 months. Basically, we have about 1000 fans die a year and about 5 new ones to replace them.

 

[SteamWhistle]

People have been comparing about noon kicks for awhile now, until a change is made you won’t see a change in attendance. No reason Tech shouldn’t be able to choose the kickoff time for a Bought game.

 

[Jophish17]

^ this. I graduated several years ago but this is the first year I didn't buy at least two seats. I'm planning to go to Louisville and VT (would have done USF if it was a night game) and I'll buy tickets to any night games at Bobby Dodd, but my body can't tolerate the noon heat anymore. Some absurd percentage of our kickoffs the past few years have been noon or 1230.

 

[GTBandman]

We have a fan base that complains about Thursday night games as well. We should always open on Thursday night if playing these kind of games.

Notice that Clemson also played early? Clearly they are not winning enough to play later either.

It was really hot but I was there as usual. The best time of day on Saturday in Sept. is 9 am. I’d vote for that - be the only one on TV at that hour.

 

[stech81]

I think the average age of GT fans attending games is 77 years and 3 months. Basically, we have about 1000 fans die a year and about 5 new ones to replace them.

can you look in your crystal ball and tell me how much longer I have to live ?
I know I went to the bathroom 3 times yesterday ( you will understand stand when you get old ) and in the area around there It seemed like each time there was 1,000 people there getting out of the sun most women with kids.

Side note here:
I know some want to stand during the game and people tell them to sit and they don't like it. But I'll report all 3 times I went to the bathroom not one person asked me to sit so they could see.

 

[Milwaukee]

 

[Oldgoldandwhite]

7-7
7-6
11-3
3-9
9-4
5-6

Just sayin....

 

[A Love Supreme]

I want to say that if we consistently win 9 or 10 games a year, more people would show up. In the 2015 home opener against Alcorn, attendance was at 49,196. Maybe it was because fans were still riding high off the 2014 season or maybe it was because the game was at 7:30pm. But I think winning solves this problem no matter what time the games start.

 

[Frenchise]

Was there. The lower east I'd guess averages 30 years old and we all stand. It was pretty full and we were still pretty loud. All in all, for the heat and quality of opponent the attendance was better than I expected. We're never gonna sell out for an FCS noon kick at 90+ degrees. It is what it is.

 

[MountainBuzzMan]

I have been a season ticket holder for 21 years, and I will keep buying tickets, but I am done with noonish games early in the season. After the last few seasons, this has become ridiculous. All things being equal, expect attendance to continue to drop.

 

[herb]

I think there are a lot of factors. From just a view of who I see attending football games, it appears that the two largest groups who do attend, more so alumni than perhaps students as it has been a while since I sat there, are African American and Caucasian. The number for these two groups as a percentage of the school has been declining. The last admission profile shows the number to be 53%. Compare that to the school in Athens where the best I could figure it is about 79%. Not a big difference in African American percentage, but a huge difference in Caucasian. so we are admitting about 4,000 students a year, a little over 2,000 of whom are the traditional make up of the attendees. That other school is admitting about 7,000 a year. Of this number, about 5,600 are the traditional fan base. Until we can find a meaningful way to get the 47% involved, this ain’t going to change and will only get worse because the trend in admissions is going that way heavily.

 

[Jophish17]

I think your analysis fails to capture the increase in Tech enrollments/graduates over the past two decades. The absolute number of "traditional fan base" (sic) graduates probably has not decreased.

 

[UgaBlows]

I think the average age of GT fans attending games is 77 years and 3 months. Basically, we have about 1000 fans die a year and about 5 new ones to replace them.

I think that everytime i go, it’s really pretty sad

 

[GTFLETCH]

7-7
7-6
11-3
3-9
9-4
5-6

Just sayin....

I am a former season ticket holder... We are going to the Miami game this year but that is it...

 

[herb]

I think your analysis fails to capture the increase in Tech enrollments/graduates over the past two decades. The absolute number of "traditional fan base" (sic) graduates probably has not decreased.

Perhaps you are right, I looked and didn’t see numbers for 80s or 90s. according to this https://www.news.gatech.edu/2017/08/18/tech-welcomes-incoming-class-2017 there were about 2,800 fall admissions in 2017 and according to this https://www.irp.gatech.edu/sites/default/files/documents/FactBook/FactBook_2008.pdf there were 2,595 fall admissions in 2008. So for at least the last 10 it has been fairly stable. The percentage of “traditional fan base” over that time went from about 67% to the 53% it is now. Maybe I am wrong about who is actually attending games and this is not one of the reasons

 

[chewybaka]

We have a fan base that complains about Thursday night games as well. We should always open on Thursday night if playing these kind of games.

Notice that Clemson also played early? Clearly they are not winning enough to play later either.

It was really hot but I was there as usual. The best time of day on Saturday in Sept. is 9 am. I’d vote for that - be the only one on TV at that hour.

3:30 start would be great... students would better attend... sleeping off Friday night hangovers, the sun would not be as brutal in the second half for all and we would get these attendance numbers up as a result....

 

[Oakland]

There are several other schools in the same boat as GT.
A sample of games that didn't sell out:
Alabama - Louisville
Auburn - Washington (GT vs Tennessee drew a larger crowd)
Stanford - San Diego State
School presidents and ADs have got to work out an agreement with the television networks. They're going to run off the fans that made college football what it is.