Other than the game...

[vapspwi]

The cheerleaders aren't allowed on the field and we had to get a waiver from the ACC to ride the Wreck out.

Yeah, but it was screwed up last year and we’ve just exacerbated the problem this year by having the Wreck come out without the football team. COVID has nothing to do with having the team come out (directly) behind the Wreck.

JRjr

 

[JJacket]

Yeah, but it was screwed up last year and we’ve just exacerbated the problem this year by having the Wreck come out without the football team. COVID has nothing to do with having the team come out (directly) behind the Wreck.

JRjr

I really don't mind it. Didn't think the fire and smoke was too bad. Will probably look cool against Louisville as will the LED's

 

[savbandjacket]

The cheerleaders aren't allowed on the field and we had to get a waiver from the ACC to ride the Wreck out.

The cheerleaders were part of what made it bad last year. There were too many of them between the Wreck and the team. And it sounds like the Wreck is still doing a solo drive out and the team comes out much later, so all they have done is remove the cheerleaders.

The Wreck leads the team out of the tunnel so that the team is right behind and around the Wreck as if it’s one of them.

 

[BigDanT]

We are in Atlanta andaccordingly lots of businesses and individuals buy season tickets to resell, give to customers, etc. They are not necessarily Tech Fans and folks should stop worrying about who gets those tickets.

Why should they quit worrying? Maybe we are tired of the stadium looking great in a white our and ööööty when uga comes to town

 

[MercerJacket]

Does anyone else like when it's 3rd or 4th down and the PA announcer screams it's Money Down? I like most of the things CGC is doing, but I would rather keep this on the sidelines with the signs and have the PA announcer leave this out.

 

[Wreck Em]

Yeah you’ll have to wait until the full band is there before we know I guess. But yes, there’s something unpleasant about quickly eliminating traditions.

I actually was curious about when exactly it was added, because I know it wasn't always there. I've been watching old tech games and listening to the band, and while I dont have an EXACT year, the Dixie flourish wasn't added until the mid-late 80s.

 

[ForsythJacket]

Watching from home I heard the Dixie flourish in the fight song following one of the scores. I was curious too and listened for it specifically.

 

[JJacket]

Watching from home I heard the Dixie flourish in the fight song following one of the scores. I was curious too and listened for it specifically.

It may have just been the spread out band. Early on, there was a pretty big miscue, it seemed, on a song as band members seemed to be off time or started at the wrong time. Having the band spread out probably doesn't help with such issues

 

[aeromech]

Seems like there's an issue with our priority system if businesses and scalpers can end up with more AT points (and therefore with better access and better seats) than alumni who have been donors and season ticket holders for decades.

The cynical thought is that GTAA gets the same money either way, so they don't care. The idealist thought is that there are long term benefits to be reaped from keeping the actual fans happy.

JRjr

We are "ATL" now, we should expect a more diverse crowd than just 'GT' fans. I don't know if it is bad thing or the way of the future; but Georgia Tech doesn't cater as hard to alumni as some other schools. It is not just football, you see it distinctly in admissions where being a legacy applicant doesn't buy you much. It may be a better model for GTAA to cater to corporate sponsors rather than alumni like it is for admissions to cater to the 'holistic approach' rather than alumni applicants.

 

[vapspwi]

We are "ATL" now, we should expect a more diverse crowd than just 'GT' fans. I don't know if it is bad thing or the way of the future; but Georgia Tech doesn't cater as hard to alumni as some other schools. It is not just football, you see it distinctly in admissions where being a legacy applicant doesn't buy you much. It may be a better model for GTAA to cater to corporate sponsors rather than alumni like it is for admissions to cater to the 'holistic approach' rather than alumni applicants.

There’s a big difference between “random locals want to come watch us play” and “20% of the people in my section were UCF fans in better seats than me.”

JRjr

 

[JJacket]

We are "ATL" now, we should expect a more diverse crowd than just 'GT' fans. I don't know if it is bad thing or the way of the future; but Georgia Tech doesn't cater as hard to alumni as some other schools. It is not just football, you see it distinctly in admissions where being a legacy applicant doesn't buy you much. It may be a better model for GTAA to cater to corporate sponsors rather than alumni like it is for admissions to cater to the 'holistic approach' rather than alumni applicants.

We can't cater to our alums because they mostly do not care. I have met GT grads many times over my lifetime that simply do not care or are oblivious to the sportsball teams. I guess someone taking molecular biology or such just has a different interests in life. Iiwii. We need to capture the hearts of the sidewalk fans in Atlanta and make BDS a gameday destination where fans show up, feel welcomed, are excited to pull for GT

 

[aeromech]

There’s a big difference between “random locals want to come watch us play” and “20% of the people in my section were UCF fans in better seats than me.”

JRjr

I would bet some of the UCF fans are locals.

 

[aeromech]

We can't cater to our alums because they mostly do not care. I have met GT grads many times over my lifetime that simply do not care or are oblivious to the sportsball teams. I guess someone taking molecular biology or such just has a different interests in life. Iiwii. We need to capture the hearts of the sidewalk fans in Atlanta and make BDS a gameday destination where fans show up, feel welcomed, are excited to pull for GT

I don't disagree; but is part of our 'holistic' approach to recruit kids with no sports interests? You get the alumni you admit. As for sidewalk fans, does it really matter who they cheer for? That seems almost impossible to control, I guess you are thinking more of a NFL fanbase approach; but ATL already has a pro football team.

 

[JJacket]

I don't disagree; but is part of our 'holistic' approach to recruit kids with no sports interests? You get the alumni you admit. As for sidewalk fans, does it really matter who they cheer for? That seems almost impossible to control, I guess you are thinking more of a NFL fanbase approach; but ATL already has a pro football team.

So we need to try to make the experience of BDS better to fans,, or at least on par with, going to a Falcons game. We serve beer now. Made stadium upgrades. LED lights. New entrance with the fire things. Personable coach aiming hard at recruiting Atlanta and Georgia. Branding Atlanta as our town.

 

[savbandjacket]

We are "ATL" now, we should expect a more diverse crowd than just 'GT' fans. I don't know if it is bad thing or the way of the future; but Georgia Tech doesn't cater as hard to alumni as some other schools. It is not just football, you see it distinctly in admissions where being a legacy applicant doesn't buy you much. It may be a better model for GTAA to cater to corporate sponsors rather than alumni like it is for admissions to cater to the 'holistic approach' rather than alumni applicants.

None of the schools are really catering to alumni as far as sports go. Sanford Stadium is filled each weekend by a bunch of high school dropouts. I’ve told this story before, but I had clients once upon a time from Deep South Georgia who were poor as dirt. 8 people in a double wide poor. They had season tickets for uga football for 10 years going and this was in the midst of the Richt heyday when prices were ridiculous. These poor rubes would fill their 85 suburban with gas and oil (because it burned equal amounts of each) and would go to every uga game. They would eat ramen all year and live in a double wide just to have uga tickets.

We don’t have that kind of demand and probably never will. Hell, I can assure you we don’t want it. These people were very rough.

 

[Walton]

We are "ATL" now, we should expect a more diverse crowd than just 'GT' fans. I don't know if it is bad thing or the way of the future; but Georgia Tech doesn't cater as hard to alumni as some other schools. It is not just football, you see it distinctly in admissions where being a legacy applicant doesn't buy you much. It may be a better model for GTAA to cater to corporate sponsors rather than alumni like it is for admissions to cater to the 'holistic approach' rather than alumni applicants.

GT can't fill up its stadium with alums or even strong current GT fans. We have to broaden are appeal to current non-GT fans that live in Atlanta. It is a huge market. Atlanta United has shown there are a ton of non-traditional sports fans in the area. Once we do that, THEN we can complain about the other team buying up too many tickets. At this point, there is a glut of tickets on the secondary market at usually cheap prices.

Also, visiting fans are an issue in many football games especially in the NFL. I think many fans see it as special event. The opportunities can be limited so many fans take it as a chance for a vacation or even bucket list thing. You combine that with the fact that Atlanta has a ton of transplants that end up here from all over the country and that graduated from colleges all over the country. That all means there was a lot of pent up demand from the UCF fanbase to attend a game at BDS.

Lastly, of course a winning and top 25 team will help this dynamic. The people that currently sell their tickets are more likely to use them if they like the product.

 

[midatlantech]

I do wonder how well sports fans donate to Tech versus the academic only student/graduate. I suspect sports fans are more connected in general.

 

[vapspwi]

GT can't fill up its stadium with alums or even strong current GT fans. We have to broaden are appeal to current non-GT fans that live in Atlanta. It is a huge market. Atlanta United has shown there are a ton of non-traditional sports fans in the area. Once we do that, THEN we can complain about the other team buying up too many tickets. At this point, there is a glut of tickets on the secondary market at usually cheap prices.

Also, visiting fans are an issue in many football games especially in the NFL. I think many fans see it as special event. The opportunities can be limited so many fans take it as a chance for a vacation or even bucket list thing. You combine that with the fact that Atlanta has a ton of transplants that end up here from all over the country and that graduated from colleges all over the country. That all means there was a lot of pent up demand from the UCF fanbase to attend a game at BDS.

Lastly, of course a winning and top 25 team will help this dynamic. The people that currently sell their tickets are more likely to use them if they like the product.

Having opposing fans in the stadium is always an unavoidable annoyance, especially for a team like us that struggles to fill the stadium. (Hell, up until this year, I've traveled to all but a small handful of our road games for the last 20+ years. I'm a visiting fan for half the season.)

That's not the situation this year, and it's not the situation I'm complaining about. Our capacity is reduced to 11K, and we sold nearly all of those tickets (minus some in the far corners and upper north) to people with AT priority - donors and long-time season ticket holders. The thing that's pissing me off is seeing dozens of UCF fans in my immediate vicinity sitting in better seats than I was able to get after 20+ years of season tickets and donations.

The majority of these UCF fans had to have bought their tickets on the secondary market from season ticket holders, and that's the behavior that I wish we could change (by carrot or by stick).

This isn't an issue of "we can't sell out our stadium" or "we need to court sidewalk fans" this year, and I'm frankly surprised that some folks here can't see the difference.

JRjr

 

[samsgt02]

My biggest complaint about this past game was the first two rows, 4 and 5 since 1-3 were “blocked,” was the ucf fans that were packed in right along side of me. Enforce the damn seating separation, especially for visiting fans, because they don’t give a damn about Tech football.

 

[vapspwi]

My biggest complaint about this past game was the first two rows, 4 and 5 since 1-3 were “blocked,” was the ucf fans that were packed in right along side of me. Enforce the damn seating separation, especially for visiting fans, because they don’t give a damn about Tech football.

Yeah, and the compliance with mask wearing in the stands definitely seemed lower among the UCF fans, too. A factor of not receiving all the messaging that the people who originally bought the tickets from Tech received, and also, as you say, with them having no reason to care about Tech football and its fans. The repeated messaging during the game didn't seem to have any effect ("Jackets protect Jackets," to the extent that it resonates at all, isn't going to mean much to visiting fans) and there was no enforcement in my section. Wearing a mask and staying in my seat would be less annoying if everybody else had to do the same.

JRjr