Why can't we fill up the stadium?

First home game in 1991 against UVA we were preseason top 10 and we couldn't fill it up with Shawn Jones, Swilling, etc etc.

That's just who Tech is. That's our fan base. We're small and we're spread out all over the country. Among the small alumni base, at least half of them don't care for football at all because the school is full of nerds. I mean that with the highest reverence for nerds because I'm a nerd who just happens to have grown up in the South and loves college football.

The only time Tech ever fills up the stadium is when the opposition brings a ton of fans -- Georgia, Clemson, FSU, VT, South Carolina, all come to mind.
 
00Burdell said:
Alumni are not the answer. Atlanta is the answer.
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Agreed, that is why bandwagon fans keep UGA's campus / stadium overflowing on game day. They all pack up their trailers and nighborhood kids and their finest collection of canned food and make the trip even though they have no connection to the university other than "I live in georgia so "univerrsetee of Jawja" is my team!"
 
Well if we cant fill it up, then us that are going should take the responsibility of being as loud as 55k. I will drink extra and be annoyingly loud. Everyone else should do the same.
 
Also, we just now cracked the top 25, if we finish this season ranked and start out the season in the top 25 next year then that should help get the buzz around ATL during the whole off season.
 
kirbee said:
First home game in 1991 against UVA we were preseason top 10 and we couldn't fill it up with Shawn Jones, Swilling, etc etc.

That's just who Tech is. That's our fan base. We're small and we're spread out all over the country. Among the small alumni base, at least half of them don't care for football at all because the school is full of nerds. I mean that with the highest reverence for nerds because I'm a nerd who just happens to have grown up in the South and loves college football.

The only time Tech ever fills up the stadium is when the opposition brings a ton of fans -- Georgia, Clemson, FSU, VT, South Carolina, all come to mind.
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We were 1-1 going into that game; I am not saying that it was OK, but I wanted to add that it wasn't all roses at that point. http://www.phys.utk.edu/sorensen/cfr/cfr/Output/1991/CF_1991_Team_Georgia_Tech.html
 
I'll bet 52,000 show up. Now way we have 50,000 + for Jack St and ony 44,000 for homecoming.

Also, we can get people from Atlanta to go to GT games. An impropmt to poll of the people on this website would show about half are sidewalk fans...
 
JWE37 said:
Well if we cant fill it up, then us that are going should take the responsibility of being as loud as 55k. I will drink extra and be annoyingly loud. Everyone else should do the same.
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This matters more to me the filling up the stadium, and it holds true for more then just the football games. The left and right sides should be standing and making noise more often then simply on 3rd Downs when the band plays th F-minus tuning. It's one thing to be a GT grad who is apathetic towards football and another to be a GT grad who shows up on Saturday and is apathetic towards the game.
 
I agree that it was crappy we didn't fill the house the first home game after our NC, but I just wanted to point out how in recent history GT has been an up and down team. Up and down teams don't have loyal fan base if there is another team in the state that is being forced down your throat.

If we can have a solid top 20 (throughout the entire season) team for 5 years, then I can pretty much guarantee that we will start to pack in the stadium for all of our conference games. And I have the confidence in CPJ to make us the team on our opponents schedules that they loathe playing.
 
kirbee said:
First home game in 1991 against UVA we were preseason top 10 and we couldn't fill it up with Shawn Jones, Swilling, quote]


The stadium was smaller then too.

We are improving....at a snail's pace, yes, but definitely, definitely improving.
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Allen Koholic said:
This matters more to me the filling up the stadium, and it holds true for more then just the football games. The left and right sides should be standing and making noise more often then simply on 3rd Downs when the band plays th F-minus tuning. It's one thing to be a GT grad who is apathetic towards football and another to be a GT grad who shows up on Saturday and is apathetic towards the game.
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+1

There's a small joke in the band that we play "Chords" (that's what we know it as, sorry...) so the old people know when to stand up.:p

Essentially, I see it as the difference between us and climpsun, who are known for the volume of their stadium. While the structure and seating capacity are a factor, one BIG thing that I noticed was the people on their feet getting f-ing loud on EVERY down. Granted, they didn't keep it up all game, but when they had momentum on their side, that place was rocking. I would love to see that here. In a perfect world, everyone in the stadium would be up making noise whether it's first down or 4th down.
 
wesleyd21 said:
kirbee said:
First home game in 1991 against UVA we were preseason top 10 and we couldn't fill it up with Shawn Jones, Swilling, quote]


The stadium was smaller then too.

We are improving....at a snail's pace, yes, but definitely, definitely improving.
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If we really want to do a comparison between now and 1990, just about all of our attendance numbers for this year would sell out the old stadium.

Yes, we are making progress. Beat Georgia this year and we'll have LOTS of sellouts.
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GTSaxophone said:
+1

There's a small joke in the band that we play "Chords" (that's what we know it as, sorry...) so the old people know when to stand up.:p

Essentially, I see it as the difference between us and climpsun, who are known for the volume of their stadium. While the structure and seating capacity are a factor, one BIG thing that I noticed was the people on their feet getting f-ing loud on EVERY down. Granted, they didn't keep it up all game, but when they had momentum on their side, that place was rocking. I would love to see that here. In a perfect world, everyone in the stadium would be up making noise whether it's first down or 4th down.
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The big reason why we don't have a rep of having a loud stadium is that the upper decks spill noise. But in terms of on-the-field volume, we're really, really loud. According to the Notre Dame players, BDS is every bit as loud down on the field as Penn State is.
 
GTSaxophone said:
+1

There's a small joke in the band that we play "Chords" (that's what we know it as, sorry...) so the old people know when to stand up.:p

Essentially, I see it as the difference between us and climpsun, who are known for the volume of their stadium. While the structure and seating capacity are a factor, one BIG thing that I noticed was the people on their feet getting f-ing loud on EVERY down. Granted, they didn't keep it up all game, but when they had momentum on their side, that place was rocking. I would love to see that here. In a perfect world, everyone in the stadium would be up making noise whether it's first down or 4th down.
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Not only do the fans wait to get up and make noise on 3rd down - they wait until the opponent is set and ready to run the play. The noise needs to disrupt the huddle as well as anything that happens at the LOS.
 
Being loud is one thing and I really think we don't do a bad job of that. Better this year than in quite a while the fan base in fairly energized.

I am sure some will disagree with me especially if you are older but our real problem is game times. I know alot of this now is dictated by TV. But that being said there is just too much to do in Atlanta on a nice fall afternoon. If you are younger with kids, there are very very few families who aren't tied to activities with them. That kills a lot of our alumni from coming. Why buy tickets when you can never go? The second group or side walk fans can come up with a ton of activities as well during the day.

I think we should follow LSU's lead and have the majority of our games at night. If we win like I think we will for PJ we would become the Saturday night activity of choice for many. Everytime we have a night game we do well. Just look at Jax State. We have sold out Miami right?

12:00 and 3:30 games will never sell out Bobby Dodd in Atlanta regardless how good we are except for UGA. And for all you die hard SEC guys bringing SEC teams might sell out our stadium with their fans and that is maybe at best. We need to bring our own base in to sell out.
 
I'm sure there are lots of reasons that we don't consistently fill up BDS@HGF, but I doubt that complaining about it on a message board is going to be the solution.
 
GTKyle said:
Atlanta isn't the answer. Nobody wants to go to a Tech game that isn't already a Tech fan. NOBODY. The only reason they'd go is if they had free tickets. People just have better stuff to do in Atlanta on a Saturday afternoon.
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Not true at all! A guy just transferred in from California sat by me for GW game. He and his buddy bought tickets and asked me lots of questions about Tech. In the 4th quarter he told me that missing our top 2 QB's could explain why we looked so bad on offense. I told him that was a major part of it, and invited him back, but he was non commital.
There are lots of people like him in Atlanta that are college football fans and away from their favorite team that we can attract. Give PJ a couple more years and we will be a hot ticket in Hotlanta.
 
First home game in 1991 against UVA we were preseason top 10 and we couldn't fill it up with Shawn Jones, Swilling, etc etc.
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I was there and IIRC, it was a miserable game and miserable, drizzly rain. Wasn't it a Thursday night game as well? It's dang hard to fill the stadium on Thursdays.
 
AllAmericanBuzz said:
I'm sure there are lots of reasons that (insert every subject discussed on this message board), but I doubt that complaining about it on a message board is going to be the solution.
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I am not sure of the point of this comment that comes up on most subjects, coach selection, play-calling, recruiting, uniform color, officiating, bowl selection, ratio at GT, etc.

The board would be pretty boring without some discussion though.
 
There are always 1001 excuses. We have a product to sell - seats. Our inventory is 56,000 of them. Our market is 5,000,000 strong. We have to sell our product. Period.

Rad is doing the right thing:
1. He initiated the Tech Fund to raise the value of our best seats.
2. He hired PJ to raise the value of our product to match that increase.
3. He offers loss leaders to get fannies in seats - Jacket's Nest and Free Ticket Tuesdays.
4. He is trying to enhance the value through intangibles such as a better game-day experience.
5. I believe he is trying to renegotiate the radio contract, and massage relationships with the media.

He is on the right track. Winning more will help this process along.
 
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