Why Are We Broke?

Y'all and your desires for cookie cutter stadiums are funny.

As much as the club seats suck for aesthetics, they make a lot more money there than they would anywhere else.

North stands are fine. Just built 20 rows too high. Tarp those rows off with ad revenue. Done.
 
andrew said:
It's hard for me to imagine that the savings and increased ticket demand could make up for the likely enormous cost of demolishing the stadium and rebuilding it. It's not like dozens of corporations will be dropping millions a season for luxury boxes.

Not to mention the ill will you would generate from donors and fans, most of whom are really proud of having the oldest stadium in FBS.
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No it definitely wouldn't offset the cost of new facilities. I wasn't suggesting that. Only that there would very likely be significant savings in operations over some projected service life and that it should be considered as a cost/benefit analysis of new facilities vs current operations for the stadium and attached facilities.

Additionally, there is likely to be a great deal more overall usable square footage in a complete rebuild of stadium with integrated offices than currently exist in the Wardlaw, the Student Success/Career Center and the Edge Building as attachments to the existing stadium. It would be interesting to know what those potential operational advantages could be as supplemental consideration to the advantages of building a new stadium without limitations of existing structures.

As for the historic element of it, the site of the stadium would still be the oldest. The historical aspect of having the "oldest stadium" is buried under the West stands and no one sees that when attending a game. There's nothing sacred about any of that. Take some good photos and hang them on the wall. Pull out a section and put it behind some glass. No one goes down under the west stands unless they work there.

It's all a moot point anyway, so I won't belabor it any further. My original point was the North stands should never have been expanded to the moon and the club seats should have never been built in the middle of the lower east stands. An expense the GTAA is still paying for and an action and design that was poorly thought out. That should be a no-brainer at this point, pun intended.

Just my 2¢
 
I agree with a lot of the stadium comments. The asymmetry of BDS makes things visually unappealing. And the north end zone is ridiculous (although there is a proud engineer somewhere who designed the cantilevers).

I took an old boss to a game once and he stated he really liked our stadium. I thought he was joking. He responded that seats are close to the field, you have a great view of the city, it's accessible and it's not obnoxiously big. I gained a new appreciation.

The stadium is the embodiment of a ramblin' wreck that has been cobbled together. Students built the original west stands and a bear lived under the east stands. It's not very attractive but neither are most engineers.
 
GaTech'06 said:
I agree with a lot of the stadium comments. The asymmetry of BDS makes things visually unappealing. And the north end zone is ridiculous (although there is a proud engineer somewhere who designed the cantilevers).

I took an old boss to a game once and he stated he really liked our stadium. I thought he was joking. He responded that seats are close to the field, you have a great view of the city, it's accessible and it's not obnoxiously big. I gained a new appreciation.

The stadium is the embodiment of a ramblin' wreck that has been cobbled together. Students built the original west stands and a bear lived under the east stands. It's not very attractive but neither are most engineers.
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James H. "Bill" Finch (1913 in Atlanta – July 28, 2003) was an American Architect and founder of architectural firm FABRAP
Finch graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1936 with a BS Architecture. He designed the current West Stands and taught for the architectural program at Georgia Tech.

Finch was also a retired US Marine Lt. Colonel. He saw combat on Iwo-Jima and was, at one part in the epic battle, Executive Officer of the battalion in the 28th Regiment which raised the flag on Mount Suribachi. He also saw service in the Korean War.

Major projects he had a hand in include Atlanta Stadium(1965), % points Marta(1979), Coke Headquarters(1980) .
 
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savbandjacket said:
There’s a very easy way to fix the club seats. You take them out and turn the lounge into concessions to alleviate the problem with lack of concessions on that side of the stadium. It may require knocking some brick out on the outside of the stadium and re-doing some hallways over there, but it solves two massive problems. Put students over there where they should be so they can harass the opposing team’s bench.

move club seating to the waste of space south stands and make it like a chop house type setup.
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1. So spend a öööö ton of money to take out the most profitable seats and replace them with students who pay close to nothing.
2. ???
3. Profit

Brilliant.
 
Spend money on players that fans will want to buy tickets to go see them play.
 
05GTCorndog said:
This thread jumped the shark quickly. It went from a discussion on our $300 million debt to "Our stadium is asymmetrical and therefore should be rebuilt."
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05GTCorndog said:
This thread jumped the shark quickly. It went from a discussion on our $300 million debt to "Our stadium is asymmetrical and therefore should be rebuilt."
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It started with recognizing the expense of the north stands expansion and east stands club seat renovations and the longterm financial effects that contributed to the debt problem. Which led to questioning the aesthetic impact and home field atmosphere impacts and questioning the cost/benefit of the decision to expand/renovate to begin with.

Did the stadium work give a return on investment? Were these bad financial decisions? Don't know. It appears the debt for building it is still on the books and part of the debt being serviced. Was the stadium work a bad aesthetic decision? By most accounts yes. The upper north deck is usually a mostly empty monstrosity. Was the stadium work bad for home field advantage? Sure looks that way to me.

The east stands used to be filled with Tech lunatics. It was loud, rowdy and made it difficult for the opposing teams. That ended with the stadium renovations, club seating and seat reassignments. It's weak sauce compared to the way it was.

The original question was, "Why are we broke?" And the answer is "bad decisions" which include what was done with the stadium. This piecemeal approach to the stadium and attached buildings is not good. It's partly what lead to the monstrosity of the upper north deck and the ruinous, divisive lower east club seating. Next up for renovation is the Edge building for another $80M+.

Ideally, the stadium and attached buildings should be considered holistically to avoid things like what happened with the North upper deck and club seats. That would require a complete redesign, tear down of stadium, Wardlaw, Student Success Center, and Edge building and a complete rebuild from infrastructure up. You could then have a complete stadium facility with all the office space, exercise / weight training space and any other kind of space you could possibly need.

This would take a lot of money, a lot of time, and a lot of work. Maybe there's just not enough footprint to build it. Maybe it's not even possible with modern building requirements. I'm not expecting it to happen so let's hope the Edge building renovation goes well and doesn't end up looking like the North upper deck and lower east stand chair backs.

Maybe we can still put a telescope up on the upper north stands.
 
Maybe we should take the tactic used by LSU when it’s AA was poor and they needed to improve the stadium.

Former Gov. Huey P. Long played a role in constructing the stadium. Long, who was not a University alumnus but a great advocate of University football, requested money from the state to build the stadium. When they refused, Long discovered that a large sum of state money had been set aside for new dormitories.


He put it to use in constructing the stadium dorms — which happened to be in the shape of a stadium — completing the east side in 1932 and the west in 1935.
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www.lsureveille.com

Death Valley Dorms

The place on campus best known for holding football fans once housed a group of University men who made a habit of keeping turtles in their community showers and throwing
www.lsureveille.com www.lsureveille.com
 
The Lower East stands are not the problem. Hell, that is probably the only thing we've done well. I sat there a few years, it wasn't my scene, but they sell out every year and generate a lot of revenue for the AA. The idea that we need to relocate those so that we can have some students occupying the best seating location in the stadium is foolish.

Think like a business person.
 
JJacket said:
I hate to break it to you, but it isn't just the upper north of our stadium that is an aesthetic nightmare. Our entire stadium, including Wardlaw and the Edge, need razed and rebuilt.
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Tech needs to fund a winning program before looking to give facilities a face lift.
 
05GTCorndog said:
The Lower East stands are not the problem. Hell, that is probably the only thing we've done well. I sat there a few years, it wasn't my scene, but they sell out every year and generate a lot of revenue for the AA. The idea that we need to relocate those so that we can have some students occupying the best seating location in the stadium is foolish.

Think like a business person.
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Well maybe not students then. But they need to get rid of the lounge behind the stands where everyone hangs out during games leaving a gigantic empty eyesore on tv.
 
05GTCorndog said:
The Lower East stands are not the problem. Hell, that is probably the only thing we've done well. I sat there a few years, it wasn't my scene, but they sell out every year and generate a lot of revenue for the AA. The idea that we need to relocate those so that we can have some students occupying the best seating location in the stadium is foolish.

Think like a business person.
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If they are selling out the club seats and making more than they paid to put them in with a good ROI then it's a good business decision. I can accept that even though I think they detract from the crowd atmosphere and home field advantage and have made Bobby Dodd a less fun place to be.

The upper North stands is another matter. I doubt they have made back what it costs to put it in and are an eyesore for the stadium. I would be interested in finding out what the cost/benefit has turned out to be.
 
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