New Bobby Dodd Stadium survey from AA

cbee

Flats Noob
Joined
Oct 29, 2004
Messages
839
What I want at a college football game:
I want somewhere to sit where I can see the game. I want a simple scoreboard, and I want to hear the BAND. I want a PA announcer occasionally. A place to piss, and a place to get a hot dog and a coke (or beer). Oh, and a winning team. That's all I ask.

What I don't want:
Absurd prices. A ridiculously loud PA system, with ridiculously loud piped-in music. And I do not want to watch other games while at the Tech game.
Yes to all of this!!!!
 

jacket67

Dodd-Like
Joined
Aug 25, 2008
Messages
15,393
Most of the premium upgrades look great, but I am skeptical about how many regular folks are going to spend over $6000 per year on a pair of season tickets. I don’t doubt that there are some big donors out there, but not enough to sell large numbers. Maybe if Tech starts winning the big games, they can motivate some big spenders to indulge in the experience, but it’s not going to happen just because the seats are comfy and the burgers are gourmet.
 

GTCrew

Patrick Henry
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Jul 25, 2002
Messages
49,873
Most of the premium upgrades look great, but I am skeptical about how many regular folks are going to spend over $6000 per year on a pair of season tickets. I don’t doubt that there are some big donors out there, but not enough to sell large numbers. Maybe if Tech starts winning the big games, they can motivate some big spenders to indulge in the experience, but it’s not going to happen just because the seats are comfy and the burgers are gourmet.
I bet a good percentage of the big spenders are business owners or CEOs that write the expense off. They are not as price sensitive as a normal dude.
 

00Burdell

Mod Thyself
Staff member
Joined
Nov 25, 2004
Messages
24,705
Do we really need a survey to figure out what we want? I mean, this isn't a new product that we need a focus group for.

For öööö's sake - we have the oldest venue in P5 and you still don't know what fans need and want? How can you be this out of touch?
 

vapspwi

Dodd-Like
Joined
Oct 18, 2002
Messages
8,065
Basically all the öööö in that survey sounded terrible. Between the sky-high prices ($900 for my current seat on the 25 on the east side, up to a couple of thousand for that seat with chairbacks) and the emphasis on turning the stadium into a ööööing social club, they would have done something I thought impossible - convince me to just stay home and watch it on TV.

I told them as much in the survey - I’ve never been more blunt, negative, and pessimistic in a survey response before. These plans would remake football at BDS into something that I have no interest in participating in.

JRjr
 

Skydog

Eat a Peach
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Dec 6, 2018
Messages
6,661
Basically all the öööö in that survey sounded terrible. Between the sky-high prices ($900 for my current seat on the 25 on the east side, up to a couple of thousand for that seat with chairbacks) and the emphasis on turning the stadium into a ööööing social club, they would have done something I thought impossible - convince me to just stay home and watch it on TV.

I told them as much in the survey - I’ve never been more blunt, negative, and pessimistic in a survey response before. These plans would remake football at BDS into something that I have no interest in participating in.

JRjr
i agree with you. i told them to not reinvent the wheel. my seat location would not see a increase but that's because it's far corner of upper deck. some of that stuff seemed real over the top. i come to watch the game. that's it.
 

savbandjacket

Dr. SBJ
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Jul 17, 2006
Messages
29,100
They are trying to figure out a way to attract the high end corporate and unaffiliated rich person money. The place to do that is in the boxes but they’re probably afraid of running off some long time Tech donors who contribute not insignificant sums, but are not in the realm of money they want. So therefore they are looking to squeeze the average Tech fans out of their spots. Yes it pisses more people off, but it doesn’t cost as much in reliable but smaller contributions.
 

vapspwi

Dodd-Like
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Oct 18, 2002
Messages
8,065
Seems like a packed house of low-to-medium donors isn’t good enough - they want to try to maximize revenue from any source possible, and if the actual fans get pushed out, I’m not sure they really care as long as the money is coming in.

JRjr
 

savbandjacket

Dr. SBJ
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Jul 17, 2006
Messages
29,100
Seems like a packed house of low-to-medium donors isn’t good enough - they want to try to maximize revenue from any source possible, and if the actual fans get pushed out, I’m not sure they really care as long as the money is coming in.

JRjr
They want to keep the low end high level donors which is why they are looking at doing stuff with prime seating areas. They aren’t going to mess with those old established boxes because those are reliable, long time donors who contribute enough that they are care about. Yet, the boxes are where this attention should be focused for the big money they want to draw. I know what they want because I saw it when I went to the ND-uga game a few years back. There was stupid money up in that sky box. Lou Sobh in on one side of us and Tricia Yearwood on the other. The small box I was in was a doctor’s box that he and 3 buddies each pay $60k a year to make the contribution level necessary for the box. Then they have to buy the season tickets that the box holds. I couldn’t see öööö from it we were so high up.
 

GTROY

Damn Good Rat
Joined
Sep 2, 2005
Messages
1,284
You guys are why we can't have nice things. You constantly complain that the GTAA doesn't listen to you, then they send you a survey with ideas and you crap over it and don't fill it out.

You all HAVE to know that you've been completely spoiled being able to buy a season ticket for a P5 team (IN THE LOWER LEVEL) for $199/seat for the last decade. These people have to make money to put a quality product on the field. I get that people aren't made of money, but nowhere in the survey did it say that reasonably priced tickets are going away. Ticket prices will likely rise a bit, but they are not going to chairback the upper levels. As for throwing dollar figures around, they are trying to hone in on "willingness to pay." It's business strategy 101.

Honestly this thread reads like something off of a dwag board. If we want to win, we can't cut prices, or even leave them the same. Clemson is dominating the ACC not because they hired a genius as HC; it's because they hired an incredible fund-raiser as HC. We have to bring in more money to be competitive.
 
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gtg970g

Dodd-Like
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Oct 10, 2013
Messages
2,741
You guys are why we can't have nice things. You constantly complain that the GTAA doesn't listen to you, then they send you a survey with ideas and you crap over it and don't fill it out.

You all HAVE to know that you've been completely spoiled being able to buy a season ticket for a P5 team (IN THE LOWER LEVEL) for $199/seat for the last decade. These people have to make money to put a quality product on the field. I get that people aren't made of money, but nowhere in the survey did it say that reasonably priced tickets are going away. Ticket prices will likely rise a bit, but they are not going to chairback the upper levels. As for throwing dollar figures around, they are trying to hone in on "willingness to pay." It's business strategy 101.

Honestly this thread reads like something off of a dwag board. If we want to win, we can't cut prices, or even leave them the same. Clemson is dominating the ACC not because they hired a genius as HC; it's because they hired an incredible fund-raiser as HC. We have to bring in more money to be competitive.
I don't think everyone here is complaining about what you describe. No seats in the lower level are under $430 a season. You could get a stinger pass in 2019 for $200 in the lower level but I would be fine with eliminating that option. Many fans in the lower west pay a premium for their seats and if all or most of these seats are converted to "luxury seats" many will simply refuse to pay. If I'm priced out of lower west I will move from a $680 seat to a $200 seat. If this is the decision they make I hope they can find enough folks willing to pay for those luxury seats to make up for the lost revenue for those unwilling to pay a premium. Like I said above I think it would be best to convert endzones and other sections which are not currently producing revenue into luxury seating.
 

vapspwi

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Oct 18, 2002
Messages
8,065
I agree with the above - if they want to convert some mediocre areas (end zones, for instance) into luxury areas for people who aren’t watching the game anyway, while I don’t love it, I’d go along with it.

if they want convert my seats in 127 to chairbacks, I might go along with it if they don’t jack up the per-game price to $200 or more, especially when the section is half empty/filled with visitors currently.

Milking even more money out of the loyal fans (the 20K who bother to show up for every game) or displacing or pricing them out entirely in favor of hypothetical rich people who want to come to BDS to socialize seems like a terrible strategy.

We’re closer to UNC and UVA than we are to Clemson and Alabama, and if we aren’t priced accordingly we’re gonna fall on our faces.

JRjr
 

Skydog

Eat a Peach
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Messages
6,661
I agree with the above - if they want to convert some mediocre areas (end zones, for instance) into luxury areas for people who aren’t watching the game anyway, while I don’t love it, I’d go along with it.

if they want convert my seats in 127 to chairbacks, I might go along with it if they don’t jack up the per-game price to $200 or more, especially when the section is half empty/filled with visitors currently.

Milking even more money out of the loyal fans (the 20K who bother to show up for every game) or displacing or pricing them out entirely in favor of hypothetical rich people who want to come to BDS to socialize seems like a terrible strategy.

We’re closer to UNC and UVA than we are to Clemson and Alabama, and if we aren’t priced accordingly we’re gonna fall on our faces.

JRjr
yep maybe concentrate on bringing in more fans with normal $$ and selling all the endless seats already available. imagine if the upper north was sold out to entirely season tix holders. or imagine if we had more white and gold than red at COFH. that would be good starting point.
 

Bbz_13

Varsity Lurker
Joined
Nov 27, 2020
Messages
9
You guys are why we can't have nice things. You constantly complain that the GTAA doesn't listen to you, then they send you a survey with ideas and you crap over it and don't fill it out.

You all HAVE to know that you've been completely spoiled being able to buy a season ticket for a P5 team (IN THE LOWER LEVEL) for $199/seat for the last decade. These people have to make money to put a quality product on the field. I get that people aren't made of money, but nowhere in the survey did it say that reasonably priced tickets are going away. Ticket prices will likely rise a bit, but they are not going to chairback the upper levels. As for throwing dollar figures around, they are trying to hone in on "willingness to pay." It's business strategy 101.

Honestly this thread reads like something off of a dwag board. If we want to win, we can't cut prices, or even leave them the same. Clemson is dominating the ACC not because they hired a genius as HC; it's because they hired an incredible fund-raiser as HC. We have to bring in more money to be competitive.
Could not agree more. My wife has Michigan season tickets and she pays $95 per game per seat in row 66 (plus, obviously, a required annual donation). I don’t even want to know how much seats in their equivalent of our lower level cost.

The way CFB is now we will not have the team we all want unless we have fans willing to spend/donate more than they do now. The table stakes for a reliable 8-4 or 9-3 team have risen a lot over the last 20 years.
 
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