So you contend that we got all of the ticket sale revenue at the UNC game, but we apparently didn't get all of the ticket revenue for the Clemson game. Do you have a link to that?
This from 2019, and mentions specifically that 2022 will be different. It also says that we were paid for this commitment. Here's the quote:
"Revenue – Based on conservative ticket sales estimates, as well as a financial guarantee to participate in the 2022 Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game, Georgia Tech expects a significant revenue lift over the five years that it will hold an annual game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which is valuable revenue that it can reinvest in services and facilities for student-athletes and close the budget gap between Tech and some of its peers."
I don't have a link, I'm going off of discussions we've been having about this stuff here off and on for the last few months and the info that the GTAA has put out over the last couple of years. As best as I can tell from the outside of GTAA operations, we are essentially the "promoter" for the "home" games at MBS. Like, we rented out the stadium for our game, or something like that (hence, the MBS PSL holders weren't a factor). We controlled basically all the tickets, and statements from GTAA said as much - east side fans got seats on one side, west side fans got seats on the other side, they tried to put you in a roughly comparable location to your home seat, the middle of the stands wasn't taken out by MBS PSL holders, etc. The idea was that we'd play big games like ND 2020 in MBS, sell a bunch more tickets than we would at home, and make a bunch of money. That probably hasn't worked out quite as planned so far.
The Peach Bowl/CFA people were apparently the "promoter" for the Clemson game. The PSL people and the CFA people got their cut, and Clemson and GT got their allocations, just like other kickoff/bowl game arrangements. I dunno what that did to our ticket revenue, but maybe the payout for playing in the game offset the difference. (It's hard to imagine what's in it for CFA to have a bad GT team playing in the kickoff game this year, and again next year, but maybe it's just a bad deal for everybody at this point.)
And you continue to complain about the seating arrangements. I'll tell you what seating sucked. The Tennessee game. Here's what the Q&A says about seating:
"I didn’t like my seat for the 2017 Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game versus Tennessee at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Will the setup be the same for these games at Mercedes-Benz Stadium?
A. No. The 2020 (vs. Notre Dame), 2021 (TBA), 2023 (TBA) and 2024 (Notre Dame) games will be Georgia Tech home games, meaning that Tech will have nearly the entire stadium’s inventory to make available to its fans.
For the 2022 Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game (vs. Clemson), Georgia Tech will have access to a wider variety of seating options than it did for the 2017 Chick-fil-A Game against Tennessee, while Clemson will receive a visitor’s ticket allotment (for the 2017 Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game, Georgia Tech and Tennessee received equal ticket allotments, which made the seating options that GT could offer its fans more limited).
Therefore, for all five games at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Georgia Tech season-ticket members will have priority access to preferred seating options, including premium seating inventory (club seats and suites)."
While not spelled out exactly, it does seem to indicate that the 2022 game will be different, but better than the Tennessee game. And that was true for my tickets since I was in 300s for Tennessee and 200s for Clemson. The Tech sections were all together from the end zone where the band sat around to the corner near the entrance. Seemed like a pretty decent setup.
The Tennessee game is basically irrelevant, because it wasn't part of this current deal. I wonder what the date on the information above is, because I'd be very surprised if Clemson's ticket allocation was substantially less than ours based on the relative numbers and distribution of fans. I'd be willing to bet that it was more than the usual 4000 tickets or whatever we allocate to visitors at BDS.
Anecdotally, my Tennessee seat was better than my Clemson seat. Both were in the corner of the end zone, but for Tennessee I was maybe 25 rows up, and for Clemson I was 6 rows up - it was really hard to see what was going on on the far side of the 50 from where I was sitting. From what I've read here and on the Hive, some club ticket holders got it even worse, because their "priority access" for the Clemson game resulted in them not being in club seats at all.
The overall takeaway here seems to be that you can't put too much stock in the information that the GTAA is putting out about this deal, because (most charitably) the situation is fluid and the information gets out of date. For instance, everything on their site now indicates that 2023 will be another CFA Kickoff game against Louisville. (And, BTW, that's kind of a dog of a game for CFA - who, outside of the two schools, wants to watch that?)
As for what the band could and couldn't play, clearly the stadium had a plan for its own music, and definitely seemed to limit what either band could play. But it doesn't really matter because that stadium has really terrible acoustics for some reason. I was in 217 basically looking down at the band but I couldn't really hear anything they were playing over the general ambient noise. Maybe because it is enclosed? Not sure. I would imagine those that were further away were able to hear them better since they could face the band. I certainly was able to hear the Clemson band when they played.
I was sitting next to the band, so I could hear them just fine and really couldn't hear Clemson's band at all. Yes, the acoustics at MBS are terrible, probably the worst of any stadium/arena I've ever been in. As somebody that was at the ND game, and at the U[sic]GA game, and at the Clemson game, I was kind of looking forward to singing "Ramblin' Wreck" when we finally scored a TD, but it was not meant to be...
Regardless, I've had about enough of rehashing these same discussion points we've been talking about for months. The bottom line is that, from a fan perspective, I'd prefer that we play our home games in BDS. If it makes us some more money, I can tolerate playing "home" games in MBS. And trading home games for neutral site games in MBS seems like a bad deal for fans even if it does make us more money, just like trading natural grass for ugly artificial turf seems like a bad trade even if it does make us more money.
JRjr
ramblinwreck.com
