GT - Clemson sells out

gtg970g said:
That was Tennessee and was the first weekend the stadium was open. We play Clemson every two years in Atlanta so this game isn't really that notable. Plus on a Monday night it's a bitch for traveling fans. We should have played Ole Miss to open the season at MBS. Might have been able to open the upper decks.
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Also that was a Paul Johnson team, not a Chuckles the clown team
 
ricejacket said:
Also that was a Paul Johnson team, not a Chuckles the clown team
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It’s shocking to go back and look at games from the 90s or 00s or early 10s and see the decline in attendance and increased proportion of visiting fans. The product on the field is a factor, but I think a general decline in CFB attendance, the demographics of our fanbase (older fans not being replenished as they age out), and probably the relentless marketing by the media and our own fans that we’re a second rate team in a second rate league have also had an impact.

JRjr
 
vapspwi said:
It’s shocking to go back and look at games from the 90s or 00s or early 10s and see the decline in attendance and increased proportion of visiting fans. The product on the field is a factor, but I think a general decline in CFB attendance, the demographics of our fanbase (older fans not being replenished as they age out), and probably the relentless marketing by the media and our own fans that we’re a second rate team in a second rate league have also had an impact.

JRjr
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Don't overthink it. It's 100% the product on the field! Every other reason in your post corrects itself when the product on the field is what it should be.

The UGA game of 2017 through the current is indicative of one trend - the rise of UGA as a perennial national championship contender, and our decline on the football field.

For the period you are talking about, roughly from 1995 on, Tech only lost to UGA by more than two touchdowns TWICE. In 22 years. And the vast majority of games were by touchdown or less, so many too frustrating to think about.

31, 24, 45, 45 are the margins of victories over the last 5 years. 5 years of not only being dominated but also UGA being in the National conversation and perennial playoff contender.

It's a toxic environment for a football program, especially when so many of our alumnus are already more than prone to öööö all over our program even in the BEST of times because our fan base isn't as large as the SEC programs around us.
 
The current attendance is definitely being cratered by on the field performance, but even that has been accelerated by Covid. But I believe there’s a larger downward trend that’s somewhat independent of performance on the field, too.

JRjr
 
cyptomcat said:
I think we are getting paid by chikfila to play the game, and they are paying MB.
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That is something else I was confused about. I thought this was one of our home games that we moved to MB stadium. I thought those games were different from the Chick Fila (?) kickoff game. I was very confused when I heard we were moving the game to MB stadium and using the configuration that holds less people than Grant Field for a game against Clemson. I never liked moving any home games away from Grant Field for any reason, anyway.
 
It takes a special coach to make Tech football good- Ross, O'Leary, Gailey(maybe not special but kept us relevant), and Paul Johnson. Tech was good then and people came to the stadium. Trust me, I went to the games and the stadium was packed out nearly every game during these times.

I hope Collins turns this thing around and proves us all wrong, I really do..I just don't see it.
 
thegtstunner08 said:
It takes a special coach to make Tech football good- Ross, O'Leary, Gailey(maybe not special but kept us relevant), and Paul Johnson. Tech was good then and people came to the stadium. Trust me, I went to the games and the stadium was packed out nearly every game during these times.

I hope Collins turns this thing around and proves us all wrong, I really do..I just don't see it.
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I went to most of the Gailey games and a lot of the Johnson games. Attendance was much better than today and the crowds were rocking, but BDS was rarely if ever truly packed.

I remember being at that incredible Wake Forest OT win, when we were ranked #10 and on a six game win streak that included knocking off #4 VT, and seeing plenty of empty seats in the upper north.
 
andrew said:
I went to most of the Gailey games and a lot of the Johnson games. Attendance was much better than today and the crowds were rocking, but BDS was rarely if ever truly packed.

I remember being at that incredible Wake Forest OT win, when we were ranked #10 and on a six game win streak that included knocking off #4 VT, and seeing plenty of empty seats in the upper north.
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I'll take over 51k for a game against Wake Forest.
 
andrew said:
I went to most of the Gailey games and a lot of the Johnson games. Attendance was much better than today and the crowds were rocking, but BDS was rarely if ever truly packed.

I remember being at that incredible Wake Forest OT win, when we were ranked #10 and on a six game win streak that included knocking off #4 VT, and seeing plenty of empty seats in the upper north.
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Agreed. Packed out is exaggerating for sure but you know what I meant. BDS was full of fans.
 
GT flunkout said:
I'll take over 51k for a game against Wake Forest.
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I mean at this point I'll take 51k for any game at all. But it was a little disheartening to be a top 10 team and not be able to sell out our stadium.
 
andrew said:
I mean at this point I'll take 51k for any game at all. But it was a little disheartening to be a top 10 team and not be able to sell out our stadium.
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51-52k was always our ceiling without visiting fans. When playing a school that brings absolutely no one it was pretty awesome. Definitely the highest attendance we've had for a Wake Forest game EVER, so hardly disheartening at all to me, lower upper North where I was sitting was completely packed and crowded.
 
GT flunkout said:
51-52k was always our ceiling without visiting fans. When playing a school that brings absolutely no one it was pretty awesome. Definitely the highest attendance we've had for a Wake Forest game EVER, so hardly disheartening at all to me, lower upper North where I was sitting was completely packed and crowded.
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That was the first time we had ever been good with 55k capacity, right? The expansion didn't open a couple years into Gailey's tenure -- before that BDS only held like 45k.

We definitely hovered around 50k max without opposing fans after the expansion, but I figured if we ever really rose above the Gailey mediocrity that would change. Seeing that the attendance stayed similar even when we were 8-1 and ranked #10 in the nation was a rude awakening for me. Well, like you said, it was awesome -- we were #10 in the nation, the place was rocking, and we were heading towards a conference title. I was on top of the world.

But it nagged in the back of my mind, if we can't sell out at 55k when we're this good, what does it mean for the future? Will a program that can't draw 55k when it's #10 have the resources to sustain a winning program? We rode CPJ and the TO for a while, but now that question is more pertinent than ever.

Negativity and dumping on our program, I know. But it's true.
 
andrew said:
That was the first time we had ever been good with 55k capacity, right? The expansion didn't open a couple years into Gailey's tenure -- before that BDS only held like 45k.

We definitely hovered around 50k max without opposing fans after the expansion, but I figured if we ever really rose above the Gailey mediocrity that would change. Seeing that the attendance stayed similar even when we were 8-1 and ranked #10 in the nation was a rude awakening for me. Well, like you said, it was awesome -- we were #10 in the nation, the place was rocking, and we were heading towards a conference title. I was on top of the world.

But it nagged in the back of my mind, if we can't sell out at 55k when we're this good, what does it mean for the future? Will a program that can't draw 55k when it's #10 have the resources to sustain a winning program? We rode CPJ and the TO for a while, but now that question is more pertinent than ever.

Negativity and dumping on our program, I know. But it's true.
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You're stuck on that 55k number because we're sitting in the middle of the anomaly that is SEC country.

Lots of successful P5 programs with stadiums that seat less than 55k. Successful as in top 15 that perennially compete for playoff spots and have 80k stadiums? No but it's all relative.
 
GT flunkout said:
You're stuck on that 55k number because we're sitting in the middle of the anomaly that is SEC country.

Lots of successful P5 programs with stadiums that seat less than 55k. Successful as in top 15 that perennially compete for playoff spots and have 80k stadiums? No but it's all relative.
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I'm more stuck on the lack of a sellout. Seems like we spent a lot of money to increase capacity to a figure that we can't fill even in an ideal situation. But in general you are right.
 
The Jacket said:
Everything is going to start getting better tomorrow.
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I assume these decisions were made before we understood what a suckfest our program would become. This smells like another embarrassing disaster that we’ll have to excuse away….hey, it often takes 4 years to transition offenses!

OTOH, we have Monday night to ourselves and should have a lot of TV eyes on the game. Would be great if we could somehow pull out a W. We need to hold our noses and remain supportive of our team.
 
A couple of thoughts. Comparisons to 2017 are irrelevant. 2017 we were coming off a season beating uga and winning the gator bowl. 3-0 against SEC teams, the fan base was excited. And also like others have said, GTvsUT was an exciting rivalry renewed. This year isn't close to that.

Also as far as Bobby Dodd stadium, quite honestly it is an embarrassment to an engineering school to have such a disjointed facility. The stadium is hideous, the North end zone looks like it was not given any thought to blending in with the stadium. I understand the old U-shaped end zone was too far from the field but the old stadium was a good looking stadium and with fewer upper deck seats. Those newer upper north seats aren't great either, no one is building stadiums anymore with lots of end-zone seating. Honestly I would rather just move all the games to MBS until Tech gets serious about a true stadium upgrade.

And before anyone calls me old, I was a baby when they tore down the old south stands. Never saw them in person but I hate seeing pictures now of what was and thinking who the idiot was who decided to throw it away...


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