We got to get fans in the stands!!!

[alagold]

I almost can not think of a WORST start for a season and the effort to try to increase attendance. Pathetic.

 

[bobongo]

Attendance? You can forget it. I read all of the NCAA studies on attendance and it's declining everywhere. It is particularly a problem for urban schools with a limited alumni density within 5 miles of campus. (Sound like Tech?) It will not matter if Tech wins the ACC or not ... attendance is NOT going to recover given the ten different options people have to watch games today (streaming, cable, phone, bar, etc.)

The fact is, ESPN and other broadcasters don't care what the attendance is. It's programming content. Period. We (schools) traded game day experience for money. Lots of money.

We should reconfigure BDS for a 40,000 seat experience. And that's being generous. I love BDS but ... compared to modern stadium design, it is woefully out of date. Keep the site, but ... we need a modern stadium. I'm very impressed with some of the smaller programs and their new facilities.

We should have taken all the money we threw away on installing empty seats and spent it on coaches' salaries and recruiting budgets. Then we could fill the 42,000 seats we had.

 

[YellowJacket55]

I’m a student and the sound system is a mystery. We had an event during the freshman week of welcome where we watched Avengers Endgame and the sound seemed good. It was LOUD, the only issue was quiet audio in the movie was hard to make out, but I feel that’s almost to be expected in a stadium given I can have a hard time hearing that kind of thing in a movie theater. The parking situation for fans needs to be addressed. I’ve heard everywhere that parking is an issue, and while I don’t have to deal with it I recognize it’s just one more hurdle for fans that shouldn’t be there. I have to move my car from Peters every game day, and most students have to move their cars to make room for gameday parking. There’s no way there shouldn’t be enough room for people driving in/tailgating.

 

[jeffgt14]

Sidewalk fan in Rome GA, my whole life people asked me what year my dad went to Tech.

It's the worst. Everyone assumes that's the only way you're a fan is if you went there.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

Because their fans don't care if they win or lose, I guess.

My wife is originally from Detroit. That is a serious sports town. I don’t know what it is like now but in the past all their pro teams from baseball to basketball to hockey packed in the fans. When she moved to Atlanta she was kind of stunned at the fan apathy. Attracting fans in Atlanta is not a simple thing to do.

 

[Vespidae]

My wife is originally from Detroit. That is a serious sports town. I don’t know what it is like now but in the past all their pro teams from baseball to basketball to hockey packed in the fans. When she moved to Atlanta she was kind of stunned at the fan apathy. Attracting fans in Atlanta is not a simple thing to do.

That’s been true for 50 years. All the other teams have weekly meetups. Hell, my ME prof, Kezios, was a diehard Bears fan. Everyone in Atlanta is from somewhere else.

 

[RamblinRed]

As others have mentioned college attendance at football games have been dropping consistently nationwide for well over a decade now.

We have seldom sold out our stadium - frankly it was always a mistake to build the North stands but that is due to O'Leary wanting a 'big program'. All it really did was create debt and give our opponents more tickets.

GT has never come close to selling out these games against smaller programs that the fanbase knows nothing about.

The only reason Nebraska had a sellout is because 2 individuals bought up all the excess tickets so they could call it a sellout.

From a simple numbers standpoint, GT has too small of a fanbase to fill out its current stadium. It doesn't produce alot of grads compared to most P5 schools and then 50% of them leave the state. GT has only the 9th largest alumni base in metro Atlanta.

 

[chewybaka]

This has been an issue for years at tech . Sadly more of our students would likely rather be at dragon con than the first game.
Collins plan for the 404 takeover , whiteout all that marketing fluff doesn't seem to actually help get fans to the stands.
Reality is with covid and a mediocre product last year, I think many are still not going to go to the games.

We don't have a diehard base like Clemson or ga that will always show to games no matter what. That culture will take years to changes

We aspire to mediocrity…we are bad, it’s so sad

 

[wvGT11]

We aspire to mediocrity…we are bad, it’s so sad

It's not that we are bad, but it's that other schools have evolved to make sure they are football centric, and have a large fan base.

Tech has never been a place where we sell out every game, even on years like 2009 and 14.

Collins is trying to change the entire football culture and Tech, which we need but is just too much for a coach to do and will take years to Do. The first step is having a product on the field people want to watch

 

[BuzzStone]

Speaking of fans in the stands. I gave away my seats to this game because I couldn't make it. I feel like I ripped another fan off.

Should I let the seats sit empty for the rest of the year?

 

[VRTechFan]

We've had issues filling the stadium for years. It wouldn't of made a difference if we had the stadium packed. Coaching is the issue for the product that was on the field Saturday evening. We had the better athletes, we were favored to win by double digits, this was Collins' players he recruited and we fell flat on our faces on national television. If I were the players I would be embarrassed to have a coach that had them ill prepared.

 

[RickStromFan]

....We are as much to blame as the coaches and players are!!!!

No, we are not. We aren't to blame for missed FGs, poor throws, missed assignments, blown coverage, no DL pressure, and terrible clock mgmt. Adding another 20,000 fans - with no other changes - doesn't change the outcome of Saturday pm.

 

[g0lftime]

I am driving down 6 hours to come to the game Saturday. In the past I have taken MARTA from Lindbergh but decided to stay at the GT convention center Sat night. I already dread figuring out where to park before the game. i hope to be able to park there before the game. The parking situation around campus is one of the obstacles for gameday. I would have come for NIU but my wife would not ride Marta that late so opted for this week. I will be back for homecoming.

 

[Buzzbomb]

I didn’t see a game program available(feel someone joking that we did not have a program to start with), and yet have been hearing this is one of our smallest crowds ever? 33k, with a new variant of Wu coming out. I’m too lazy today to look up coronageddon numbers, which probably shouldn’t really count. I do recall not being able to give MTSU tickets away. Some other poor crowds in lean years by the later end of those seasons.

I do think this coming week, we will be pressed to get 25k, unless Kennesaw treats this as a home game and organizes bus trips and the like.

Small chicken bone to pick, and it most likely falls in the lap of Chick-fil-A rather than the Club Level of the GTAA.…however it goes, if you are charging $10 for an entree sandwich….a credit card receipt should be mandatory.….some type of machine tape or receipt booklet….yes, it was over $20.