does GT have a home field advantage?

[law_bee]

For some reason I dont know if WE have home field advantage. Ask yourself this over the last 3 years look at our losses and our best games and I question whether we have a home field advantage.

I think our best games are

1. FSU game AT Tallahassee when we lost 31-35 this won lil joe the davey o'brien award
2. Clemson game AT clemson where KW makes the catch
3. win in athens
4. Seatle bowl win

our worst games are

1. clemson loss at HOME
2. maryland loss at HOME
3. Ugag loss at home
4. Va loss at va

these are just games that come to mind. I am not saying that it is just our stadium, but it appears that our team may focus better on the road.

I am just curious what other people's thoughts are on this subject.

 

[law_bee]

it is not just us

fsu lost to ncst at home
clemson lost to NC in front of 80,000

I think the homefield advantage in FB is losing its luster

 

[Aiken Jacket]

I'm not sure that home field advantage is quite the thing of the past, but I would say that Tech doesn't really have one every week.

When I think of home field advantage, I think of teams that play in front of large crowds, play in front of crowds wearing the home colors, and play in front of loud crowds. Tech, at this point, has none of those.

We're not going to change the first one much, and that's okay with me. We need a stadium to be more full than less, even if it holds fewer than our large rivals.

On the second point, there has been MUCH banter back and forth about Tech fans selling tickets to others, and Tech fans not being true blue supporters. This allows opposing fans to get tickets in blocks where Tech folks should be. This needs to stop if we are going to gain home field advantage and have it mean something.

On the third point, this comes and goes too much in my opinion. I was only able to attend two games last year - UNC and NCSU. Both were wins, and both were big, but the games were different (to me) from a noise perspective. The NCSU game was a rather quiet affair. Part of it may have had to do with the fact that we allowed them to stay in the game too long - 5 missed/blocked field goals - but part of it was the crowd didn't appear to be IN the game. The UNC game was totally different - night time, big crowd, electric environment, and the crowd was pretty into it the whole night. We, as Tech fans in total, are not loud enough and active enough over the long haul, and this hurts us.

Just my thoughts - more later.

GO JACKETS!!

 

[bugboy]

We have a home field advantage, much better than it used to be. Our crowds are sellouts more often that not. In the old days, we'd be lucky to get 30K in the place. Last year, we sold out 5 of 6 home games. The one non-sellout was MD and we were within about 1,000 in that one.

Our crowds are similar to other schools. We make alot of noise for big games and big rivals. Against the Dooks and Weaks, we don't.

If there is one thing we need to improve on, it's not being overrun with UGA fans at that game every other year. It seems that they bring 15,000 and that's too many for our small stadium.

BTW, after the re-modeling and expansion, I think our home field advantage will be even better. Both end zones will have a structure to block sound from leaving. Also, the stands will be closer to the field on average. It should provide a good boost to our home crowd atmosphere.

No, we're not a UT or UF with home field, but we do pretty good. Last year, we had good crowds for many of our home games. Too bad GOL didn't capitalize on that and win some of those games.

Finally, I point to our rival up the road in Athens. They haven't beaten a really good team at home in about 20 years. And they have all those large crowds. As Law stated above, lots of schools wrestle with this problem.

 

[oldfoggy]

Back in the BD days, yes, a home field advantage existed but with the decline in our fortunes after the BD era the advantage slipped a bit with more opponents fans in the stands it was somewhat nutralized (sp) but when we start winning again and winning big then the Tech fans will be back and we will have that advantage again.

 

[pjjacket]

I think we have somewhat of a home field advantage but this depends on the opposition. F$U brings a lot of loud and irritating fans. This also applies to UGAg. There are so many fans of other colleges who reside in Metro Atlanta that these schools can call on this base for games. Tech graduates are so scattered all over the USA and world that we can't take full advantage of our alumuni base.

I also think winning will generate a loyalty among fans who have no particular fondness for any one school in this area. I have noticed more GT gear on people in the Metro, especially kids. IMO, this is where fan loyalty starts. The GTAA also needs to fully market GT athletics to all segments of Metro Atlanta to attract a fan base.

Enough already, but these are my thoughts. I was most angry after the UGAg game last year because I felt GT fans were too passive.