6th stage of grief. Optimism.

[Allen Koholic]

Relocating Bobby Dodd might just be the single stupidest idea I’ve ever seen on this board.

 

[georgia_tech_swagger]

You lost me at relocate BDS.

The GTAA loses 7 figures a year on unsold boxes (the waiting list is multiple years long) and poorly configured seating (nearly all bleacher, tickets in the Upper North should come with a sherpa and hearing aid device so you can hear the band). That's the primary motivator to having a game a year in the Benz. That's the GTAA's way of saying we don't want to give up on BDS, but we recognize it's leaving millions of dollars a year on the table in its current form. You think The Hill is going to let the GTAA build Autzen directly next to it dwarfing Tech Tower? To do anything substantial with BDS at this point you have to raze the entire Upper West since it doesn't meet ATL code (to my understanding) and you're probably staring at having to redo at least 4 or 5 buildings (BMSSC, Wardlaw, Edge, Emerson, Lyman). And as painful as that is it's still less invasive than clearing out a chunk of Home Park. I wish I knew the underground utilities and transit run in that area. If the stadium can be dug down and Techwood Drive closed or rerouted, that's about as easy as it will get. I just don't know what gas/power/telco is running around there let alone how the MARTA tunnel runs.

 

[georgia_tech_swagger]

Relocating Bobby Dodd might just be the single stupidest idea I’ve ever seen on this board.

Then enjoy playing at least one game a year in the Benz for the rest of time. And the more financial pressure on the GTAA the more tempting it is to keep moving games to the Benz to recoup lost luxury suite money at BDS.

 

[BigDanT]

Very misleading to keep pointing to TO's two fumbles because they don't explain the offensive woes by a long shot.

There are eight teams averaging more fumbles than we are, and none of them is scoring less than we do. Some of them are scoring way way more than we do. Michigan, for example, averages more fumbles than we do so far, but they're scoring 32.5 ppg to our 10 ppg.

I think to get a true look at our offensive woes we are going to have to examine every run play/scramble which we had a tackle for a loss. Every play resulting in a sack. We are also going to have to look at how many pass plays were either not caught due to good defensive coverage or a poorly thrown ball when our offensive line holds up. It would also be good to note how many pass plays happened when the QB had to be mobile due to defensive pressure.

I’m not going to because I refuse to rewatch and don’t have the time nor energy. But it seams to me a porous o line and bad throws made 69% of our pass plays drops (I’m sure we could point out catchable drops).

Half of all plays went for either zero or negative yardage. It truly seems we are running the offense we will want In the future but are not effective at doing it. Injuries man.

 

[BigDanT]

Then enjoy playing at least one game a year in the Benz for the rest of time. And the more financial pressure on the GTAA the more tempting it is to keep moving games to the Benz to recoup lost luxury suite money at BDS.

I think you are overthinking it sir. You mean to tell me prolonged success wouldn’t help fill the stadium or sell box tickets to night games. It just so happens a lot of ceos are tech alumni or fans. Exposure and success would mean good opportunities to take clients to games.

 

[BrentwoodJacket]

My biggest grievance with the grievances is that they're misdirected beyond Patenaude showing highly questionable QB substitution preferences.

Peterson is now gone. Thank God. The person replacing him is an alumnus with a strong fundraising history. Now if he also simply cares about the GTAA enough to get The Hill out of the way and provide a nurturing environment instead of an actively hostile one for the GTAA ... that's the top rung solved.

I see no evidence that the new president has any more interest in the athletic programs than Peterson did. I have looked in vain for any reference to our athletic programs in his remarks since he was announced as the president.

 

[georgia_tech_swagger]

I think you are overthinking it sir. You mean to tell me prolonged success wouldn’t help fill the stadium or sell box tickets to night games. It just so happens a lot of ceos are tech alumni or fans. Exposure and success would mean good opportunities to take clients to games.

I'm saying even now -- at a program ebb -- there aren't enough luxury boxes in BDS to meet demand. They can't give away tickets to GT fans in the upper north but they also can't meet demand for highly lucrative luxury boxes. Being more successful on the football field doesn't remedy the shortage of luxury boxes, it makes it worse.

 

[User 10337]

So Joe posts this in the game thoughts thread and I wanted to comment.
I know we all love GT football and I can empathize with investing a lot into it. But how is anyone not at the accepting stage right now? How could you not have come into the season knowing the likely downside is what you are seeing? Did the doctor only give you one year to live? What excuse do you have for so much negativity? This is a major rebuild. We feared it while harboring cautious optimism but our optimism was misplaced.

So we have some idiots saying öööö like "Why did we throw the ball so much? We coulda had a chance if we yada yada."

This reminds me a lot of the idiots who last year (and earlier this season) thought the Braves should have traded the farm to satisfy their bizzare desire to win now. Thats not how you rebuild long term.

W and L dont matter. At all. Not an iota this year. They matter as much as they did in 88. We literally have to be focused on recruits first and player development a close second and wins about 6th.

The worst though, is the ööööwads who use GT to try to assuage their own ööööty existence by projectile vomiting out complaints about the players having fun or keeping morale up or having an upbeat attitude. Get a life. To win in 2021 and beyond we HAVE to have recruits and player development. No recruit wants to come somewhere full of depressed ööööwads constantly backbiting. They want to go somewhere fun and upbeat and family.

For better or worse, these coaches are sure as öööö GT family through the end of this year and probably well beyond. Stop looking at the irrelevant öööö that means we squeak out 4-8 vs 1-11. You really ööööing care about Temple? UNC this week? Ridiculous.

The only thing that you should be looking at right now unless you are a player development expert is recruiting rankings. If you cant be happy with those I beg you for the good of the program get off the bandwagon and we will be the first ones to pick you up when these bigtime recruits start racking up the wins.

For real. Come to the home games and focus on your friends and the tailgate and chill on the score for once. Consider taking the family camping or whatever next away game (i did that this weekend and they were hunting bears up there). Or just take a break and we will absolutely welcome you back on the bandwagon when these recruits get it rolling.

Well put

 

[User 10337]

Okay.

Not seeing “player development” either - perhaps because players can’t get into any kind of rhythm.

Look. I sincerely hope you are right. I want this coach and this program to be successful. Right now, though, those pieces aren’t falling into place for me.

You don’t see how the defensive players have clearly become better since last year? Their skills are definitely better.

 

[JacketFan77]

You don’t see how the defensive players have clearly become better since last year? Their skills are definitely better.

If you’d read through my posts, you may put together that I’m referring primarily to the offense and note, in a few places, that the defense is much improved. However, defensive improvement, IMO, is due to an improved strategy. The players who are shining on defense are the ones I think most of expected to stand out.

 

[BuzzLaw]

@GTCrew laying out a lot of truth in this thread. I think the coaches should’ve gotten his expertise on how to develop players, recruit and beat The Citadel in the same year.

But seriously, GtCrew is right on the money.

I do wish GT had the money to do a complete renovation of the stadium.

 

[GTCrew]

This is the first I have heard of 7 figures of luxury box waiting times. I would have already made the GT corner of the Edge be all glass and sold as boxes during the game. I assume the wait listers would prefer premium boxes not corner boxes however, because a freestanding tower of boxes could be built at the SE corner very easily. SW corner wouldnt be that hard either.

I expect the only way to do this short of a major rebuild would be to jack up the upper east ~10 feet and put a row of boxes over the club suite. This would be pretty easy except bullshit federal overreach makes anything reasonable impossible.

Anyway, The Benz is literally walkable from campus and we absolutely have to take advantage of it if we want to make the money it takes to compete, so I am glad to see it.

Need a poll. Thought experiment. If doing so would guarantee us as a top 5 program (it wouldnt, but follow along. it is a thought experiment) would you agree to play all major games in MB?

I respect those who say no, but for me nothing is off the table to get to the top of cfb.

 

[aeromech]

This is the first I have heard of 7 figures of luxury box waiting times. I would have already made the GT corner of the Edge be all glass and sold as boxes during the game. I assume the wait listers would prefer premium boxes not corner boxes however, because a freestanding tower of boxes could be built at the SE corner very easily. SW corner wouldnt be that hard either.

I expect the only way to do this short of a major rebuild would be to jack up the upper east ~10 feet and put a row of boxes over the club suite. This would be pretty easy except bullshit federal overreach makes anything reasonable impossible.

Anyway, The Benz is literally walkable from campus and we absolutely have to take advantage of it if we want to make the money it takes to compete, so I am glad to see it.

Need a poll. Thought experiment. If doing so would guarantee us as a top 5 program (it wouldnt, but follow along. it is a thought experiment) would you agree to play all major games in MB?

I respect those who say no, but for me nothing is off the table to get to the top of cfb.

For example, put all ACC games in the Benz; but put non-ACC games (USF, Citadel, UGA) and Home Coming in Grant Field.

 

[GTCrew]

Would you move the UGA game for ten million dollars?

We have no chance this year. Iiwii. The dwags will likely be undefeated. benz seats like 80k. Could we average 200 a seat for a 16 million gross? I absolutely think we could. Maybe better, and I have no idea what the concessions cut might be serving beer to the mouthbreathers.

We are talking about the kind of money to pay off all the basketball coaches to get that albatross off our back and hire a new expensive coach and still have money left over for helicopters.

I just do not think we should be taking anything off the table. We take the UGA game off the table, a game we are sure to lose this year anyway, and suffer through miserable basketball öööö with our tight budget.

 

[JoeCakeEater]

You lost me at dwags likely undefeated.

 

[GTCrew]

You lost me at dwags likely undefeated.

Iiwii. Go Gators and war eagle, but i dont see it.

They would for sure pay big money before the Auburn game if they beat UF.

 

[aeromech]

Would you move the UGA game for ten million dollars?

We have no chance this year. Iiwii. The dwags will likely be undefeated. benz seats like 80k. Could we average 200 a seat for a 16 million gross? I absolutely think we could. Maybe better, and I have no idea what the concessions cut might be serving beer to the mouthbreathers.

We are talking about the kind of money to pay off all the basketball coaches to get that albatross off our back and hire a new expensive coach and still have money left over for helicopters.

I just do not think we should be taking anything off the table. We take the UGA game off the table, a game we are sure to lose this year anyway, and suffer through miserable basketball öööö with our tight budget.

If you aren't going to put any games of significance in there, then there is no reason to spend money on maintaining the facility.
Tailgating and game day traditions would be likely casualty.

 

[GTCrew]

If you aren't going to put any games of significance in there, then there is no reason to spend money on maintaining the facility.
Tailgating and game day traditions would be likely casualty.

At Bobby Dodd? I believe you would lose money moving the lesser games like BC or Syracuse or Pitt to the dome. Its just math. Move the big games to the Dome and make serious bank on them. Invest that money in the program and we will soon be playing in the BCS regularly.

 

[BrentwoodJacket]

I'm saying even now -- at a program ebb -- there aren't enough luxury boxes in BDS to meet demand. They can't give away tickets to GT fans in the upper north but they also can't meet demand for highly lucrative luxury boxes. Being more successful on the football field doesn't remedy the shortage of luxury boxes, it makes it worse.

With top level engineering and architecture programs, I find it hard to believe we cannot solve this problem. If we cannot touch the west stands, add luxury boxes to the east stands. Given current attendance existing seats could be sacrificed to build luxury boxes. We could extend the east stands back over Techwood making the road more of a tunnel under the back side of Grant Field. We should convert to chair back seats at the same time with slightly increased ticket prices. We can use the luxury box revenue and some of the ACC network revenue to pay for the construction.

 

[AmpuTECHture]

Lastly, I'd love to see a facilities master plan. I don't mean the "here's the band aids we're putting on in the next five years" like we've had since Radakovich arrived. I mean a genuine 50 year plan, because with Atlanta real estate YOU BETTER look that far ahead to plan on facilities like BDS. I wish we had the balls to have a Capstone project where architecture students submit their designs for badass stadiums where the facade matches the Tech brickwork you see on campus but where the inside is acoustically designed to retain all noise and where the emphasis on seating volume is placed on the sidelines and box seats and everything is NFL style chairback. I'd love to know if closing Techwood or running it beneath the stadium is viable. That's your simplest long term fix. If not, you probably have to move BDS into what is now Home Park, but that has the bonus of uniting all the athletics facilities in one spot. Both options effectively mean redoing the just redone Edge Center. So accepting that this is off the table at least a decade or two ... but I'd still like to see a facilities plan that looked that far ahead and addressed all the facilities in a sensible manner. And if Coca Cola or BofA or Rocky Mountain Pizza for all I care is willing to cough up 8 figures a year for naming rights ... you do it. If it means BDS is no longer the oldest stadium ... you do it. It certainly isn't or won't be the winningest for long, and I'd rather embrace the innovation DNA than cling to Heisman lore from the 1910's. I can damn sure tell you a recruit looks at the current BDS way more than some Heisman nostalgia when deciding where to go....

The GTAA loses 7 figures a year on unsold boxes (the waiting list is multiple years long) and poorly configured seating (nearly all bleacher, tickets in the Upper North should come with a sherpa and hearing aid device so you can hear the band). That's the primary motivator to having a game a year in the Benz. That's the GTAA's way of saying we don't want to give up on BDS, but we recognize it's leaving millions of dollars a year on the table in its current form. You think The Hill is going to let the GTAA build Autzen directly next to it dwarfing Tech Tower? To do anything substantial with BDS at this point you have to raze the entire Upper West since it doesn't meet ATL code (to my understanding) and you're probably staring at having to redo at least 4 or 5 buildings (BMSSC, Wardlaw, Edge, Emerson, Lyman). And as painful as that is it's still less invasive than clearing out a chunk of Home Park. I wish I knew the underground utilities and transit run in that area. If the stadium can be dug down and Techwood Drive closed or rerouted, that's about as easy as it will get. I just don't know what gas/power/telco is running around there let alone how the MARTA tunnel runs.

Bro, the MARTA tunnel is under Peachtree street, not even close to home park/BDS.

BDS West doesn't meet ADA. The ramps into the restrooms are about the steepest public ramps I've encountered in this country.

Moving BDS would be a travesty and in the future, that move would be looked upon in a similar light to leaving the SEC. We are so lucky to have a field/stadium in the center of campus, with so much history, and such great views of the city. It is a very unique stadium experience. I do agree that many things would need to be updated and it would be great to see a 50 year plan.

These are the things that need to happen:
Peter's parking deck returns to Peter's park. Boom, we have an amazing tailgating spot directly next to the stadium, and I'd have to say it has the potential to be similar to the Grove. Yo make this happen Fields and whatever other dorms should be demolished and replaced with several levels of underground parking plus new dorms and apartments. Add some luxury öööö in there for student athletes.

Next step is demolishing the Wardlaw building and rebuilding the stadium. Ideally the Edge is demolished as well, but that won't mesh with the current plans. Once Wardlaw is gone, we expand the south endzone seating (becomes a new student section) and return to the old school design along north avenue. It had a sick facade that met the street similar to the Rose bowl. I'll try to find a picture later. While the lower deck would retain the classic vibe of our stadium (both current and past), the upper deck/mezzanine would have a very modern feel, illustrating Georgia Techs design and engineering prowess. It would also house all those boxes we need. Unfortunately this plan would require us to play all of our home games in MBS for 2 years, and we need our own t Boone Pickens.

One of these days I'll draw up my ideas on this. I def have some unorthodox ideas when it comes to a future stadium to really set it apart, so it might be surprising when I actually show i