Attendance?

[savbandjacket]

Tech fans:

I want a team that competes with uga and Clemson.

I want to win the ACC.

I want us to play in the Orange Bowl.

I want 5 star recruits to come play for Tech.

I want us to get Saban and really good coordinators for a lot of money.

I want Tech to play prime time every Saturday on ABC or CBS.

I’m also looking for free tickets and free parking and maybe some free food and drinks because I don’t wanna spend any money.

That’s a big part too. There’s no excitement in most of our conference schedule.

 

[swampsting]

From my view in LW yesterday, it didn't look like 36K there.
UN and student section were sparsely attended. So was most of UE, and a lot of LE too.
South end zone didn't have many carbon-based beings either.
That 36K may include season ticket holders who didn't show up, like major league baseball does with its attendance counting.
At 36K, HGF/BDS is, what, about 2/3 full? Without able to see much of the rest of LW or UW, I don't know that was a 2/3 full house yesterday.

 

[savbandjacket]

From my view in LW yesterday, it didn't look like 36K there.
UN and student section were sparsely attended. So was most of UE, and a lot of LE too.
South end zone didn't have many carbon-based beings either.
That 36K may include season ticket holders who didn't show up, like major league baseball does with its attendance counting.
At 36K, HGF/BDS is, what, about 2/3 full? Without able to see much of the rest of LW or UW, I don't know that was a 2/3 full house yesterday.

The student section in the LN arrived late, got pretty full, and then emptied early like most of the stadium once the team started sucking an egg. The south stands should be torn down if Tech can’t figure anything else to do with them. The students rather pack in by the band and be nuts to butts than sit in the south stands.

 

[GT flunkout]

I'm also not dumb enough to believe there were 36,000 there. No matter how many were actually there, it wasn't good and it is indicative of a dying organization.

No, not no matter. You were wrong and it was dumb. Any point you could have made was stupid after posting something like that. If you were at the game you would know the number was wrong, and if you weren't at the game you have no reason to be saying a damn thing on message boards about attendance, even if your point is valid.

You don't go to the games you're part of the problem. But no, you'll be a ööööty fan who rides off the back of the 30,000 diehards that are too stubborn to quit, and if this ship does turn around, you'll jump back on and ride it like the bandwagoner you and others are, who are proud to tell the rest of us that you don't go to games because they just aren't fun anymore.

"the worst part is how empty the stadium looked on TV" says the message board warrior watching from his couch

 

[BigDanT]

That’s a big part too. There’s no excitement in most of our conference schedule.

It doesn’t matter when you can’t win. Ask Clemson if they packed out Boston college last night.

 

[gtchief]

No, not no matter. You were wrong and it was dumb. Any point you could have made was stupid after posting something like that. If you were at the game you would know the number was wrong, and if you weren't at the game you have no reason to be saying a damn thing on message boards about attendance, even if your point is valid.

You don't go to the games you're part of the problem. But no, you'll be a ööööty fan who rides off the back of the 30,000 diehards that are too stubborn to quit, and if this ship does turn around, you'll jump back on and ride it like the bandwagoner you and others are, who are proud to tell the rest of us that you don't go to games because they just aren't fun anymore.

"the worst part is how empty the stadium looked on TV" says the message board warrior watching from his couch

We're dealing with a moron, a dwag, or an alt account. All three should be bannable imo

 

[covingtonjacket]

I’m driving to Durham Saturday morning to watch the game. Y’all do whatever you want though.

Thinking of going too. My friend bailed but I almost feel an obligation to go since all the fair weather fairies are dropping out.

 

[1982Jacket]

There should be a chop house type operation in the south. Season ticket holders only

Is this some stupid Braves reference? Probably a sh!t ton of us don't live in or near Atlanta and have never even seen that stadium. In the future, please explain your obscure references here. Thank you.

Now back on the original subject, there were some good shots from above the stadium on TV. No way it was only 11K. Equally no way the actual attendance was more than 36K. Looked like probably somewhere between 25K and 30K. Regardless, I don't think anyone can reasonably characterize it as good.

 

[1982Jacket]

For what it’s worth, during the Dodd era, there were nearly as many Tech fans throughout the state as were UGA fans. That ebbed over the years due to a number of reasons. Now, there are very few Tech fans in other Georgia towns. Some may say it doesn’t matter, but it does. I don’t know how to get any of that back, but the “404” stuff seems pretty silly.

You get it back by winning. Lots of casual and sidewalk fans are front-runners.

 

[CarsonNewmanJacket]

The ACC website lists the attendance at yesterday's game as 11,000, and that seems about right judging from the empty stadium.

The clash with Duke should pit two terrible teams against each other with no one watching.

I've been to scrimmages that brought in almost that many. Even the students were out doing other things.

When the program is in dire straights financially I do not see how this can go on much longer. This coaching staff has clearly driven the program off the cliff. The sooner we clean house the sooner we can get on with trying to start over.

I would say 11k by about halfway through the 3rd. I would give us 30-35 at the start of the game

 

[TechRush]

I remember going to Braves games in the 80's with like 1800 in attendance. Pay $5 adult, $1 child general admission. Sit in the outfield for an inning or two, then make our way to the third base, lower level prime seats.

 

[1982Jacket]

I remember going to Braves games in the 80's with like 1800 in attendance. Pay $5 adult, $1 child general admission. Sit in the outfield for an inning or two, then make our way to the third base, lower level prime seats.

I and some Tech buddies used to do the same in the same era! Maybe we ran into each other. Phil Neikro. Bob Horner. Dale Murphy. A couple of thousand in Fulton County Stadium was just sad.

 

[JJacket]

I remember going to Braves games in the 80's with like 1800 in attendance. Pay $5 adult, $1 child general admission. Sit in the outfield for an inning or two, then make our way to the third base, lower level prime seats.

The company my dad worked for in the 70's had seats directly behind the dugout. You would go to watch Garvey for the Dodgers, Schmidt for the Phillies, the Big Red Machine loaded with talent, but not really the Braves. Had to have been 700 in attendance a few games I attended (Roland Office, Ralph Garr, Jeff Burroughs...and yes, Phil Neikro). I got a foul ball once off of Burroughs bat. Some little kid running down the aisle looked disappointed he didn't get it so I gave him the ball. Not like it was a Pete Rose foul ball or anything

 

[BainbridgeJacket]

The saddest part of yesterday's game was how empty the stadium looked on TV. I remember when there were waiting lists for Tech season tickets. That ended when Coach Dodd retired. If has slowly gone down ever since. Now, it's just very depressing.

A lot of things contribute to the decline.

- The games take way too long, because of all the commercials.

- There are so many games on TV. When I was growing up, there was one game on TV every week, for the whole country. Tech would be on once or twice a year during the regular season.

- The whole game experience is built around what's good for TV, not what's convenient for fans. When I was young, all Tech games started at 1:00 or so, I can't remember the exact time. But, I do remember going to games with my father in law. We would eat lunch at his house in Newnan, drive to the game, park at the Coca Cola building, and walk in during the national anthem.

- The whole program was built around what the fans wanted, not what the players and recruits wanted.

- We played teams from within driving distance of Atlanta, so there were lots of visiting fans at most games.

- We were a good and well coached team every week. We won a lot, and we were usually in the games we lost. We were a big time program.

- Grant Field was the place to be. There was a lot of excitement in the air. There weren't so many other things to do.

Times have changed. I've seen parts of a lot of games on TV this year. Very low attendance stands out almost everywhere. It's not just Tech. Football is attracting less people to the games in most places, especially bigger cities. The sport is not healthy. I wonder how TV ratings are doing.

There are not many big time programs any more, in terms of doing good on the field and in the stands. I used to think winning would solve the attendance problem. I'm not even sure about that any more. I think college football is in trouble.

As for our team, it's like riding an elevator. I believe the coaches and players are doing the best they can. All I hope for this year is that they improve, play good every other week and win six games. Those are my goals, not my expectations. We looked good two weeks in a row. Then, we looked bad yesterday. That's probably the best we can do. Our 2-3 record is about what we are. This game with Duke is very big for this season. The game will be played like a bunch of people in the witness protection program getting some exercise, because there won't be anybody there. But, if we win, we'll be 3-3 and in contention for a mediocre season, which would be unexciting but a step up. If we lose, it'll be bad. I figure we've got a 50-50 chance.

You hit the nail on the head with the game experience catering to the TV audience. The at home viewing experience is way better than going to the games in person, I've found. Yeah, being at least consistently mediocre would improve my likelihood to attend, so would playing teams with more regional appeal, but at the end of the day it would still suck because every program in the country is chasing TV money and taking their fans for granted. Maybe the Financials work better that way, maybe it's the same sort of analysis why so many providers are dropping networks when they up the price at renewal time (not enough customers call in and say ACCN is why they're dropping their Comcast subscription, regardless if enough customers are pissed off about it). I guess what I'm saying is, you would think at some point that AD's would stop trying to attract more customers by creating premium seating and instead focus on things that would make the GameDay experience on campus better:
- lobby the conference to set TV schedule prior to the season so people can plan their schedules around game times.
- work something out to do away with TV timeouts that interrupt game flow. Look, it's either worth it to televise the sport as the game is meant to be played or it isn't. Ffs this is my biggest complaint.
- castrate whoever runs the sound system and does PA.
- green spaces near parking, allow people to reserve a tailgate area with their parking pass and have an outlet at that spot for them to plug TV into. I'm not looking for much, but upsell that at a $100 more per season than a standard parking pass and you would get a lot of takers.

I guess we've just decided to wait for the house of cards to collapse, though, because none of the current structure feels sustainable to me. I'm getting 2007 precrash vibes when I saw 3 neighborhoods with "starting in the 900s" homes go up on Wesley Chapel Rd and, sorry, but there just weren't that many people that make enough money to afford those homes and want to live in that area. NIL might be the CDO of the CFB bubble.

 

[BainbridgeJacket]

Tech fans:

I want a team that competes with uga and Clemson.

I want to win the ACC.

I want us to play in the Orange Bowl.

I want 5 star recruits to come play for Tech.

I want us to get Saban and really good coordinators for a lot of money.

I want Tech to play prime time every Saturday on ABC or CBS.

I’m also looking for free tickets and free parking and maybe some free food and drinks because I don’t wanna spend any money.

I think anyone who has tried to give away Tech tickets before knows that free isn't the problem.

 

[18in32]

- lobby the conference to set TV schedule prior to the season so people can plan their schedules around game times.
- work something out to do away with TV timeouts that interrupt game flow. Look, it's either worth it to televise the sport as the game is meant to be played or it isn't. Ffs this is my biggest complaint.

These both feel to me like 'gets' that the conferences could extract from the networks and it would be a huge benefit to live attendance. As to the first issue, this is my personal biggest pet peeve. It is virtually impossible to introduce friends to Tech football because game times aren't set until a few days before the game. What kind of busy adult with kids and businesses and so forth can just hold open an entire day to go with friends to a Tech game at some unknown time?

There are dozens of fans who care enough to post on this board but not to go to the games (even though there are thousands of empty seats available for pennies). This is obviously a major red flag... do the people that run this sport see it?

 

[midatlantech]

When The ACC figures out that fans at the stadium matters, they will put Tech games at night early in the season.
And instead of having four noon games on ACCN, ESPN app, JP…, they will play two noon games and schedule plenty more when fans want to go.

 

[GT98]

- lobby the conference to set TV schedule prior to the season so people can plan their schedules around game times.
- work something out to do away with TV timeouts that interrupt game flow. Look, it's either worth it to televise the sport as the game is meant to be played or it isn't. Ffs this is my biggest complaint.

Won't happen. The TV networks want the flexibility to set game times based upon how "attractive" they think the matchup is. TV contracts would be a lot less lucrative for the conferences if networks were forced to set game times months in advance without being able to lock in so called attractive matchups.

These both feel to me like 'gets' that the conferences could extract from the networks and it would be a huge benefit to live attendance

No way. The "live" audience is very much secondary to the TV broadcast. The fans will continue to be inconvenienced. The networks don't really care if the game is sold out/well attended or not.

When The ACC figures out that fans at the stadium matters, they will put Tech games at night early in the season.
And instead of having four noon games on ACCN, ESPN app, JP…, they will play two noon games and schedule plenty more when fans want to go

The TV dollars matter much more than the fans. That horse left the barn a couple of decades ago. I'm reminded of a Bobby Bowden quip when he was told that TV had moved the game time to 2. His response was AM or PM.

I guess we've just decided to wait for the house of cards to collapse, though, because none of the current structure feels sustainable to me. I'm getting 2007 precrash vibes when I saw 3 neighborhoods with "starting in the 900s" homes go up on Wesley Chapel Rd and, sorry, but there just weren't that many people that make enough money to afford those homes and want to live in that area. NIL might be the CDO of the CFB bubble

This I agree with. College football is ridiculously top heavy with about 80-90 schools that have no chance to ever make the current or even an expanded playoff system. Now, with the NIL, the people that held onto the amateurism of the sport probably finally realize that that facade is gone--when an Alabama QB that hasn't played a down had nearly a million in "NIL" deals. The NIL is just cementing the top heavy nature of the sport or at least bringing it out into the open (depending upon your view).

 

[18in32]

No way. The "live" audience is very much secondary to the TV broadcast. The fans will continue to be inconvenienced. The networks don't really care if the game is sold out/well attended or not.

You’re not negotiating very hard! Agreed that networks don’t care about live attendance but it is a major source of revenue for schools. The GTAA is millions of dollars poorer than it could be. The question is whether we could set some games with fixed times, some games with flexible ones, more advance notice of game times, etc. I’m not sure AA’s understand how big a deal game time is for attendance.

 

[BainbridgeJacket]

Won't happen. The TV networks want the flexibility to set game times based upon how "attractive" they think the matchup is. TV contracts would be a lot less lucrative for the conferences if networks were forced to set game times months in advance without being able to lock in so called attractive matchups.



No way. The "live" audience is very much secondary to the TV broadcast. The fans will continue to be inconvenienced. The networks don't really care if the game is sold out/well attended or not.



The TV dollars matter much more than the fans. That horse left the barn a couple of decades ago. I'm reminded of a Bobby Bowden quip when he was told that TV had moved the game time to 2. His response was AM or PM.



This I agree with. College football is ridiculously top heavy with about 80-90 schools that have no chance to ever make the current or even an expanded playoff system. Now, with the NIL, the people that held onto the amateurism of the sport probably finally realize that that facade is gone--when an Alabama QB that hasn't played a down had nearly a million in "NIL" deals. The NIL is just cementing the top heavy nature of the sport or at least bringing it out into the open (depending upon your view).

Can you show me the math for TV dollars > live attendance? I agree that's the current way it's viewed, but what I'm positing is that AAs do not well understand the impacts they're having on live attendance by catering to TV viewership and are not accounting properly for the impacts on the programs. I could very well be wrong, as I have made no effort to put numbers to it myself, but would be curious what the current numbers and assumptions around this topic are.