With all the money we see thrown around by SEC athletic directors of late, it’s easy to forget how the other half lives sometimes. Times aren’t so flush on the Flats these days. Evidently you can’t cut the fan enthusiasm with a knife.
– Basketball ticket sales are about $275,000 below projections at Georgia Tech, where athletic director Dan Radakovich says he is heading an exhaustive analysis of ways to cut spending.
Radakovich says his and other athletic departments must make some of the same painful decisions as businesses and other parts of the university, with endowments and state aid dropping.
“It’s going to be different,” Radakovich said. “We must be able to understand when you look around the region and you see the number of layoffs and cutbacks that corporations are having, what would make one think that we would be immune? We’re not.”
And remember, according to most Techies, these are the glory times for the football program. 45-42, 45-42, 45-42, yada, yada, yada. Still, it’s gotta be tough for Radakovich chasing that entertainment dollar when he has to compete with the likes of DragonCon for the attention of his fan base. How much of a shortfall will there be when the next losing streak starts?
Get The Picture 
Great line, Senator!
It’s gotta be tough for Radakovich chasing that entertainment dollar when he has to compete with the likes of DragonCon for the attention of his fan base.
Woof!
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Agree with htg,
Funny stuff, Senator.
Honestly what do you expect from a fan base that rarely sells out home football games? And that’s with what only about 60,000 seats to fill all the while being in one of the largest cities in country.
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dean,
Don’t forget the tickets + concessions combo they’ve been trying either.
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Maybe instead of tickets+concessions they should try tickets+lightsaber replicas…or tickets+ TI 85 Calculators….
It might cut into the DragonCon sales, but it may also get as many as 40,000 people in the stadium for a nationally televised Thursday night game.
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When you beat us at something this season, get back to me. No matter how small a budget Rad has to work with, you damn well know he will pay Johnson. And that is all that matters.
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When you beat us at something this season, get back to me.
Don’t worry, bro. The baseball postseason will be here soon enough. That’s when your guys really shine.
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I love how gnat fans all of a sudden think they mean something after 1 win following 7 beatings. It’s adorable.
Even the sun shines on a geek’s ass once a decade bill.
Oh, and just a little econmics lesson for you bill – that big salary you want to pay Johnson has to come from somewhere, unless of course you too believe in the mythological Obama money tree. And you better hope & pray it starts coming from the revenue generated from his performance on the field. Otherwise you will soon say goodbye to your new savior. Getting those “ass in seats” is a HUGE part of his job requirement, I assure you.
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Johnson isn’t going anywhere. His system is too “old fashioned” for him to be attractive to the big schools and he won’t attract the pro type talent. You guys can have as many guys drafted into the NFL as you want. For me, all I care about is what happens on Saturdays. And yes, UGA has owned Tech in the past. And UGA should own Tech. It has every advantage. But this guy is the perfect fit for Tech. He changed the course of this rivalry in his first year. He beat the pre-season #1 in Athens with the pre-season #81. You better pray he leaves.
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bill: Do the hot dogs and cokes taste better when they come in the ticket package?
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It is sad when a proud football school has to hang its hat on spring sports. Good for you. I bet you will kick our ass in women’s gymnastics this year too! You guys own the mat!
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My friend, you’re the one who boasted “when you beat us at something”. I was just riffing off your chest beating.
I like Johnson a lot and thought from the beginning he was the best choice for Tech. But you are kidding yourself if you think Tech’s going to win more than three games a decade against Georgia on a consistent basis.
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The dog and coke sure tasted good at Sanford this year.
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“He changed the course of this rivalry…”
Easy killer – you got one win. ONE. And we thought the same thing after beating Floriduh last year. Never underestimate revenge my friend.
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“He changed the course of this rivalry…”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH.
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And what a stellar comeback with the dog and coke line.
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Complete this sentence: Georgia Tech has a winning record against Georgia
a) all-time
b) in Atlanta
c) in Athens
d) since 1950
e) from 1945 to 1968
f) under Bobby Ross
g) none of the above
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From the article it seems that Tech’s problems mostly lie with Georgia Tech basketball failing to meet expectations financially. The only angle I can possibly see UGA fans crowing about would be Damon Evans never projecting anyone to show up to see your basketball team in the first place.
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Tee hee! At least he was able to can Felton without taking a nine million dollar hit.
You’d think with all that brain power on the Flats, Tech could handle its money better than that.
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Senator,
“Brain Power”. Was that pun intended?
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Good catch, Bernie.
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I will not and cannot defend past or present Tech administrations. They have made too many mistakes to name. My point is that by dumb luck or brilliance Tech has stumbled on one of the best coaches in the country. And we did it at a time when the Tech/UGA football rivalry was almost non-existent due to UGA’s dominance. So in a way, he did change the course of the rivalry. I am not delusional enough to think Johnson will own Richt but I do think he will take 5 of every 10 meetings head to head. And if I was a Dog fan, that would be unacceptable. Look at how much heat Richt got this year. If he gets punked by Urban and Johson again this fall, it will get ugly.
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My point is that by dumb luck or brilliance Tech has stumbled on one of the best coaches in the country.
A little of both – Johnson was DR’s choice from the beginning, which was the smart part, but the choice wasn’t greeted enthusiastically by the people he needed to convince. The lucky part was that the two other candidates that did generate excitement with those folks weren’t interested in the job. So DR got his way, fortunately for you guys.
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Any “heat” CMR received is a figment of a helluva engineer’s mind. Almost as rich of a creation as tech winning 5 out of 10 in the future under CPJ.
You had your year, you got your rings. Now we go back to normalcy. The Saturday after Turkey Day will see a slew of Dawg fans inside Bobby Dodd’s stadium cheering on yet another victory, dawggy style on the flats.
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re: “Now we go back to normalcy”
Chan Gailey’s not walking through that door. No one’s trying to predict the future, but to say the past decade defined normal on the flats is to the say the same about the WLOCP in Jacksonville.
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Oh, puhleeze. Since the start of the Dooley era, Tech has won twelve of the last forty four games in the series. That’s a 27% winning clip. As much as you’d like to, you can’t blame all of the futility on Gailey.
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I am not here to argue the past. UGA has indeed owned Tech in the football series, especially since Dooley came on board. And it should own Tech. Tech is the small fish in this state. It has a smaller enrollment and smaller alumni base and smaller fan base (the old joke about our attendance and stadium is so played). But the recent development of CPJ’s hire scares you guys to death. You can handle getting beaten by your look-alikes. Heck, is there really a whole lot of difference between UGA, AU, UA, UT, UF and USC? You are all cut from the same DNA … LSU being the exception. But you cannot take it if the little nerd school hands you your ass (even for just one year). You Dogs know your football. So you have to realize that things are different now. And they will be for awhile. So you can bury your heads in the sand and hope and pray that all will go back to normal or you can face the reality.
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Bernie,
I thought the rings were gay. But it still doesn’t change the fact that you Dogs have to wait all the way until the Saturday after Thanksgiving to hopefully get your revenge “dawgy style!” No matter how many jokes you can tell at Tech’s expense, it will not change the score. I hope there will be 100,000 Dog fans in BDS in 2009. It will make it almost as much fun as it was at Sanford in 2008.
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“had our ass handed to us” “scares us to death”
Bill…buddy…get a grip. I sure hope you aren’t referring to a three point victory.
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ol’ johnosn sure had his boys ready for l.s.u. didnt he? Johnson is a good coach, good for schools like Ga Southern, Hawaii, Navy, and weak ass ACC schools – but look at what happens when he plays 2 SEC schools in a row
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Bernie,
the third quarter was an ass whippin. Just like your first half vs Alabama and the second half vs UF. Your offense was good but your D got it’s ass whipped like a WAC team. We completed 1 pass and still put up a 45 spot. But at the end of the day who cares … we still won.
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Joe,
We sucked big vs LSU. We still beat you.
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Bill, you can speculate all you wish, but the fact remains that the team that is “owned” is gt. Your win last year was your 1st against us without playing illegal players in 18 years. Even our record agains UF is better than that, wait a while before you crow, you still have a ways to go to “earn” the respect you seemingly crave.
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