GT Student Engagement

JT8217 said:
There is already a program in place that penalizes/rewards blocks on their timely attendance to the games. There are points rewarded for being buzzed in prior to kickoff and the highest percentage blocks are given first choice the next year. It started last season.
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It obviously isn't working.
 
3GT said:
Face it, the student section tickets in the endzones generally suck.

As an undergrad, the fraternity/sorority sections were on the lower east
from the 40 to the 20 on the North endzone side. We heckled the living crap
out of visiting teams.

Maybe let the GTAA "auction" off Sections(or parts of) 121, 122, 123, 129, 130 on Lower East. Especially 129 & 130, the visitors sections.

The GTAA can never be sure how many visitors tickets will be sold in 129 & 130. However, the GTAA can be more sure how many GT students sit there by letting those seats be auctioned off. If a student has to pay more to get better seats, theyre mire likely to show up.

It's means a higher guarantee of money paid to the GTAA, than the GTAA gets from the uncertainty of visitor ticket sales.

If I were an undergrad I wouldnt be thrilled about sitting in an endzone seat.
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For that matter, let the GTAA "auction" seats in the Upper decks, like:

1. 221 & 222 Upper East/North
2. 228 & 229 Upper East/South
3. 208 Upper West/North
4. 201 Upper West/South

Now, there's likely to be a problem b/c GT ticket hoders in those section would need to get bumped.

However, it would force season ticket holders in those sections to move to other sections, where they would have to...wait for it...pay more money to the GTAA.

It is probably "lost" money to the GTAA when tickets in those sections are not sold. The students might offer as close to a guaranteed ticket purchase as you can get.
 
get professors to give extra credit for attending games, especially volleyball, womens bball and our badminton teams
 
Don't require 'purchasing' a ticket beforehand for general student seating. Although I've graduated already, I think this would be a great idea.

Have the steam whistle go off 45 minutes before each game a few times in a row as an official 'time to get off your ass and get to the game' signal.

Make the RAs and PLs more involved in getting their residents to the game.

Make the first guest pass free and then charge the normal amount after that. Lots of people date non-Tech people who would be more likely to go to the game if it were free. This brings in couples, then they might start to bring their friends...

Get Buzz a t-shirt cannon to launch into the student sections before the kickoff.

Get more security people to check in males (in the south endzone at least). The female line is almost always empty, but guys have to wait a good while.

Don't have the security people patting down peoples' arms when they are wearing a short sleeve shirt... Seriously it makes the line to get in even longer and is the stupidest thing to watch.

I know this one is out of your power, but more people would buy season tickets if we could somehow get off of the Clemson/VT/UGA same season rotation. Need a neutral site game with one of them to even the schedule some.
 
3GT said:
If I were an undergrad I wouldnt be thrilled about sitting in an endzone seat.
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I always liked the endzone seats in the North. You get a better view of the whole field at once. Its pretty Madden-like. Being in 123, if the game is on the south end you just have to watch the jumbo tron and then you only get to see what the camera angle dictates.
 
JT8217 said:
There is already a program in place that penalizes/rewards blocks on their timely attendance to the games. There are points rewarded for being buzzed in prior to kickoff and the highest percentage blocks are given first choice the next year. It started last season.

All members in the blocks pay additional money to be guaranteed a seat to every home game, whereas non-block students have their tickets first come - first serve.

Not sure why everyone is so against the new block system unless they are ignorant to block policies.
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People are not ignorant to block policies, they just recognize that trying to please everyone pleases no one.

The fact remains that there is little incentive besides desiring to be ever so slightly closer to the action to show up on time if you are in a block.

The voucher system was a good way to ensure that those who wanted to go to the game got into the game, but they should make it so that everyone has to claim his or her own voucher. If fraternities or other groups want to sit together go to the game together as a group and stake out your section as a group. I have no problem with that

The voucher system was slightly cumbersome, but I think you could either tie vouchers to buzzcards or make the voucher exchange more accessible to accommodate everyone.
 
However my post doesn't answer the question of student engagement...I would just hold some better and more pep rallies and have chant writing contests or something.
 
sell beer in the stadium.

the buzzcard rewards thing for block seating doesn't work well. I dont think it changed anyone's behavior. You dont see the results from not going to games until the next season, so not showing up doesn't matter.
If block seating changes, it needs to happen game by game. So take last year, the blocks that showed up poorly to Maryland would get crappy blocks to Clemson. I guess this wouldn't help so much for back to back cupcakes, but it would be better than the current system. People will be pissed as hell when they get a crappy block for a big game.
 
muscleman2470 said:
Hey guys, I'm having a brainstorm meeting tomorrow with the GTAA on how to increase student engagement for Tech athletics, so I figured this might be a good place to receive some constructive and realistic ideas (i.e. not "get rid of the student athletic fee") that could help in this area. I would prefer ideas from current or recent students since those are the groups I believe the GTAA is targeting for these efforts. Thank you.
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Revoke empty block seating immediately 5 minutes before kickoff, and open it up free to any student with an ID at the gate.
 
RamblinWreck09 said:
This.

The student section at kickoff is embarrassing. If the frats put up a fight about losing their block, tell them they can keep it if every seat is filled 5 min prior to kickoff. If they have empty seats, their block gets moved to corners of the upper north.

All student seats (with the exception of the band section) should be open to those who get to the stadium early.
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FYI- At Auburn, they have block seating for fraternities (requires wristband or something to enter) and the remaining student seats are 1st come 1st served when the gates open. The catch is that the fraternity block seats become fair game for everyone once it's within 30 minutes of kickoff. I love that system.
 
Admit less international students.

That will never happen, but I remember one member who posted something about a program that the Rice football team does with Rice's international student body to try to get them interested in american football.
 
ninegt said:
FYI- At Auburn, they have block seating for fraternities (requires wristband or something to enter) and the remaining student seats are 1st come 1st served when the gates open. The catch is that the fraternity block seats become fair game for everyone once it's within 30 minutes of kickoff. I love that system.
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This is a fantastic system.
 
cyptomcat said:
reach out to housing so games are worked better into the programming they do
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This and eliminating block seating.

supersenior said:
Get more security people to check in males (in the south endzone at least). The female line is almost always empty, but guys have to wait a good while.
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And this x1000. I remember missing the epic flyover and the first 5 minutes of the WF game as an undergrad in '09 because of this, despite showing up 35 mins before kickoff. The line took a solid 50 minutes. Retarted.

Actually this guy's whole post was pretty freaking spot on. DO all of those.
 
You frankly just need to make it cool to go to the football games. At GT it's cool to blow them off and be late. I think it has some to do with the animosity between fraternities and GDI's which is stupid IMO. It could be argued that Football games are seen as a frat thing, I think that culture needs to change. Hell, maybe even have a rookie fan section dedicated to introducing the game to new fans.
 
GT18YJjr. said:
Admit less international students.
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Only 6% of the undergraduate student body is international. Are all of the other 94% showing up?

That will never happen, but I remember one member who posted something about a program that the Rice football team does with Rice's international student body to try to get them interested in american football.
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That's where the problem lies, partially. There are four things you need to focus on to encourage student body attendance at games:

1. Clear Understanding of Value - At least to a degree, athletics do affect academics, reputation, and prestige; however, the vast majority of students do not make this connection and see athletics as a social event. The GTAA needs a program to explain to students how the success of the football team impacts them giving clear and tangible results (higher application rates, leading to lower admission rates, which leads to higher rankings, for example)

2. Role Modelling from Senior Leaders - The GTAA needs a program to get senior leaders involved and actively supporting academics on campus. This includes student leaders like the student body president and academic leaders (like the President of GT). But more so, it involves things like getting some faculty inspired and involved, as well as influential group leaders (ANAK and IFC, in particular). Get Bud to send emails to students on Friday reminding them about the game and trying to create enthusiasm. Make every Friday "Wear Old Gold Day" for both students and alumni so that people see others role modelling the desired behavior, etc.

3. Build an ability to connect with the game - This gets into the Rice comments above (e.g. Football 1101), but it goes beyond the rules of football and gets into explaining to students the history of the sport at Tech. What percentage of the student body knows that Heisman coached at GT? How many know that Bobby Dodd is more than a street? Do people know that we used to be a national powerhouse? Or that we won a national championship in 1990's?

4. Create a reinforcement mechanism - This is the hardest thing to do, but students need to know that supporting the team leads to direct and tangible results. I'm not sure how to do that easily. Discuss the number of applications and how that relates to football team support? That only happens once per year. Look at the ratio of students accepted / students recruited and show how that increases over time? I'm not sure. But there needs to be a tangible feedback mechanism that shows them that as they support GT athletics, the result promised in point 1. is coming true.

Do all 4 of those, tell DRad to be nicer to the existing students, and things will greatly improve. You can't do one or two - you have to tackle all four simultaneously or the culture transformation will fail.

And if DRad ever sent an apology my way, he would have received advice like this for free over the last 5 years.
 
tell the students we're holding Mathlete tryouts at BDS.

"The limit does not exist!!!!"
 
Were any of y'all at the last game? The only full section was the band. The swarm and south endzone were as barren as the other blocks.

One of the major negatives of the current system is the cost for guests. Under the voucher system it was quite easy to bring a guest in. As is it costs money, can be a hassle, and must be thought of in advance. This leads people with guests in town to be tardy and or not to attend the game.


Also...winning would help.
 
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