Dawg fans, if you can’t have a better home schedule, at least you’ll be able to bring your iPad to Sanford Stadium to play with when you get bored.
… Georgia’s McGarity says he thinks the next big trend will be in technology, as schools tailor their new facilities around the iPad generation’s needs and incorporate increased fan connectivity into their game-day experiences.
“That’s the challenge all schools face in whatever they design for the future — keeping up with the kids and what’s important to baby boomers like me,” McGarity said. “You have to make sure you’re ahead of the curve as much as you can possibly be.”
And that means, like an amusement park, the power programs will continue to build more and more new attractions every year.
Anything to take your mind off the home team’s 40-point lead in the third quarter against Directional State A&M, I guess.
How many season tickets do you think this’ll sell?
Get The Picture 
This is kind of like if I was booking a flight from Atlanta to Las Vegas, and the airline told me, “Sorry, we don’t fly to Vegas, the closest we can get you is L.A. . . . but we do offer free wi-fi on all flights!” That actually doesn’t do me any good at all, but . . . thanks, I guess.
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A good place for the kids to play with their iPads would be their dorm rooms. I get so angry watching the idiots at Braves game sitting right behind the plate in the most expensive seats just playing on their phones and not even watching the action. Well… they ARE watching the action, they’re watching the action on the TVs in the wall, so they can wave at themselves and then text their buddies at home to see “did you see me?!”
Incidentally, McGarity doesn’t care about the fan experience. He wants to create “second screen experiences.” It’s the newest trend in broadcasting, where broadcasters and advertisers want to integrate your phone or iPad that you’re playing with into the TV show you’re watching (because these days, it’s common to have your “second screen” fired up while watching pretty much any program) so they can put ads on both screens. McGarity has clearly figured out that you can do this at live events, too. I predict Sanford Stadium being WiFi enabled very soon, with an ad that pops up before every web page you open.
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Spot on re: second screens. Do you work in the advertising world? I work at one of the Atlanta stations and it’s something we talk about all the time. Thought for the sake of keeping up with what’s going on at other games regionally/nationally, I would welcome WiFi in Sanford Stadium.
As for your 1st point, also correct. I was fortunate enough to sit in those seats behind home plate last weekend and made a conscious effort not to be one of those guys caught on tv spending more time looking at my phone than the game.
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I’m sure there will be in house wi-fi at Sanford as soom as Mike Adams (or his successor) figures out a way to charge everyone for it (as long as UGA can make a buck on it). Wonder what the cost for enough bandwidth for that many people would be, and how much they’d charge on a per connection basis?
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I used to work in TV news and now I am in public relations. I try to keep abreast of what’s going on in the industry.
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What about us gen-xer’s? I’d like a hot waitress to take my order from my seat and bring a complementary cup to piss in so I don’t miss any of the game. Oh, and free cover into Topper’s with my ticket stub!!
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I still have Toppers dollars somewhere from the 2002 Clempson game. I was on leave and had some buddys from NJ and NY with me. It was hot as 3 hells that day. We made 2 Yankee’s diehard UGA fans that day.
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Always room in the Dawg nation, I always say. No better place to seal that deal than Toppers… and no better place to drop about 30 $1 bills. 🙂
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+1
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The wi fi is so that you can check more relavent meaningful games. No wait, those games are usually are at 3. Nevermind.
Maybe its so that you can still watch the game when those annoying students are standing in front of you, wait, nevermind, they won’t be there for the 12:30 kickoff.
Hey Senator, will you be posting updates during the game now? 😉
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Guess what, McGarity, I can already check scores and whatnot from my iPad AT HOME while I’m watching on TV! I feel like the entertainment *value* of spending on my season tickets is going down, year by year. It’s getting to the point where I might rather scalp tickets to the 2 “good” games per year, where even paying a premium price I’ll spend far less (and probably end up with better seats) than buying the whole season.
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Amusement parks have often found it necessary to step up the “thrill factor” to increase volume of patrons, not so in Athens. McGarity has taken the thrill out of all but 1-2 games, and insured the Dawgs have lots of noon starts. But wait,….he doesn’t have to worry about attendance/revenue issues, the sheep are more than willing to pay more, for less.
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I like technology but I can’t stand what the game experience has turned into in this country. I actually find myself being jealous of the passion of European soccer fans.
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I always thought that if you wanted to simply watch the game then seeing it on the TV is the way to go. You get a better view and replay’s plus it’s more convenient. But if you want to go crazy, chant and scream with a thousand rabid fans, and leave your voice on the field so to say, then you go to the stadium. If we’re going to replace that with a bunch of people playing on their phones and tablets, then what’s the point of even having a stadium?
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As long as we’re going to continue pushing for early afternoon starts (i.e. as long as we’re going to make the stadium atmosphere as boring as possible), this makes sense.
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I’m fine getting better cell coverage but could care less about wi-fi.
I’m now wondering if the hold up with the Richt contract was so UGA could fight to put in those low buyout clauses due to lack of ticket sales. I’m still getting “Tickets Available” emails. This after a 10 win season and a trip to Atlanta. I think it’s clear where the confidence of the fan base is right now.
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I don’t know if it’s lack of confidence so much as many fans opting not to buy season tickets (complete with required donation) and just scalping tickets to the 2-3 good home games per year. I think it’s a message to the AD that people don’t want to pay full price for 3 cupcake home games each year.
Right on with better cell coverage, that would cover me the same as WiFi. I just want to be able to get game updates on my phone since the in-stadium scoreboard is so woefully slow to update.
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Wifi is infinitely cheaper with the capabilities already on campus and able to be used more than just 6 Saturdays a year.
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Turning into Tech.
I think we’re turning into Tech.
I really think so.
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”Turning into Tech.
I think we’re turning into Tech.
I really think so.”
I’ve got your pictures…
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Southern California’s schedule last year, using Sagarin for the equivalencies:
3 Georgia Southerns
2 Arkansas States
4 Vanderbilts
1 Notre Dame
1 Oregon
1 Stanford
7 home, 5 away
But they were all “BCS” brand names, like Minnesota or Utah, so somehow they count more. Everyone wants a USC scheduling philosophy because it’s more “honorable.” I honestly Do. Not. Get. It. I’d rather watch Georgia pummel Georgia Southern twice at home rather than whip Minnesota once at home and once on the road. Those teams functionally represent the same sort of talent level.
The distance between teams on a scale like Sagarins isn’t linear. The gap between 1 and 20 is not the same as the gap 20-40, which isn’t the same as the gap 40-80, which isn’t the same as 80-120.
Not including the post-season…
USC played 3 teams ranked in the top 35 last year. Georgia played 5.
USC played 4 teams ranked 35-60 last year. Georgia played 3.
USC played 2 teams ranked 60-80. Georgia played 0.
USC played 3 teams ranked below 80 last year. Georgia played 4.
And Georgia did not have Alabama, Arkansas, or LSU on their schedule last year. USC did have the P12’s best and avoided Washington State and Oregon State, among the P12’s worst. So, last year was as strong as a USC schedule gets with conference play, while Georgia’s wasn’t.
And Georgia still had 8 top 60 games compared to USC’s 7.
But people want USC’s schedule, because playing a team ranked 97 is “exciting” while playing a team ranked 133 is “embarrassing” and “boring.”
I don’t get it.
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Public service notice: iPads and bourbon do not mix well.
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If you carmelize them before pouring bourbon over they ain’t too bad.
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Who the hell is wanting USC’s “scheduling philosophy”? Not sure what you “dont’ get”. People don’t want to pay for tickets for cupcakes and easy schedules only to see us get pounded in big games. Yeah it’s great if you win titles but we’ve shown we aren’t there. Schedule some better opponents and take your chances. Also, citing Minnesota is convenient. Why not just cite Ole Miss. I think UM would beat Southern 9 out of 10 times even as bad as they are.
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Amen.
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It’s not a matter of convenience. It’s a matter of shaking the labels and seeing if they hold up. And they don’t.
“We don’t want cupcakes.” Fine. If scheduling Minnesota makes you happy because it’s a flagship school and Georgia Southern makes you retch because it’s got an arrow in its name, then that’s your choice – but they were basically equivalent last year in their ranking. If you want to travel to Minnesota to see Georgia play, then go. I don’t see how that makes Georgia a stronger program.
I am not arguing for more cupcakes. I am arguing that the “cupcake” argument makes a lot of bad assumptions. And yes, plenty of people on here argue that Georgia should be more like USC in their scheduling.
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Congrats. You’ve used 1 team’s schedule in 1 particular year to somehow justify our scheduling. You should become a scientist and tell everyone that the sun is fading b/c it’s overcast today.
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I never claimed the sample was scientific proof of anything. I don’t why you would make that assumption or apply that standard to any blog post ever written by any author. If you have a “scientific” proof that you would like to provide in defense of your preferred scheduling philosophy, have at it.
I’m pointing out that last year’s USC schedule – which has been held up by many as the way to do it – does not work the way people like to think it does. And last year would be the most immediate and relevant sample, wouldn’t you think? I also pointed out that USC played the two strongest teams in their conference and Georgia didn’t, which should make last year a stronger case for the “let’s do it like USC” crowd – and yet Georgia still had the stronger schedule.
I am not defending status quo. I am pointing out that the arguments about scheduling tend to look past the reality that Georgia traditionally plays a stronger schedule than teams like USC – which almost always gets universal pats on the back from the media for their “brave” scheduling (including our own SB).
USC’s schedule outside of ND, Stanford and Oregon featured 9 teams somewhere in range from Vandy to Kentucky. That’s what we want? Scrap 4 home dates with New Mexico State and Coastal Carolina in favor of 2 with Wake Forest and Syracuse? This is what we’re all tearing up our season tickets over?
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ASEF is right. Also, UGA is in the unique situation (shared only with OK and TX and maybe a couple of others) of having to play Florida in JAX every year rather than home and away thereby losing 1 home date every 2 years. That effectively prevents playing an OOC game with a team that wants a home and away contract because if UGA did that the school would end up with only 5 home games some years losing revenue from the home game slot as well as fans not getting to see their team play unless they want to fly to Minneapolis. Some might say that means nothing. Eat the lost revenue so we can play a team from the Big 10 that looks like Tarzan but plays like Jane. But, isn’t it better to just pay GA Southern and Western Kentucky to come to Athens? Same effect but you get 2 home games not 1 and a trip to the North, plus lost $$.
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Sorry but that is incorrect. If we played another “home and home” out of conference in addition to Tech, we would have 6 home games in the year we traveled to the other team’s place and 7 home games when they came to Athens. We would never end up with 5 home games.
For example, in 2010 we traveled to Colorado and we had 6 home games. And in 2006, we had 7 home games when Colorado came to Athens.
Actually, that’s exactly what’s going to happen again in 2013 and 2014 when we play a home and home with Clemson.
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Apples to apples k. I was talking about going to a nine game conference schedule AND playing a home and away OOC game–which was the subject everyone was focused on. That would cause a loss of 1 home game every 2 seasons and a net of 5 home games in some years.
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“Everybody” wants it man, “everybody”!
“Everybody” wants us to play Minnesota. “Nobody” wants us to play anyone decent.
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I don’t want it to be a permanent trend but I don’t begrudge Richt having a easier year every now and again. We’ve given ourselves a higher mountain to climb several times and it hasn’t panned out. We got no credit for noble effort. Let’s see if we can’t grab a ring using everyone else’s scheduling strategy. Then we can go back to having the toughest schedule in the country. Plus you just make the team look bad by putting ourselves down.
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Easier schedule + Toughest first time substance abuse policy in which key players are forced to sit out key games = Maybe not such an easy schedule after all.
There’s a lot of summer left for player deviant behavior.
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I see better fan participation with the “Where’s UGA” game!
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One of the reasons I don’t go to games is because I don’t want to be assaulted by the giant TV. Just way too much for me to pay those prices not to experience the game, but an even more obnoxious version of my home box. That is “gameday experience?”
If I ever hit the lotto I would buy the tiniest minor league ball team in America and advertise NO JUMBOTRON. And promptly go out of business, I’m sure.
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it isnt the big tv so much as the endless assault of between play commercials, ribbon board ads, and the screech of the PA announcer during every blessed second the game is not being played. I hope the ad revenue is sufficient to cover the losses in ticket sales to people who actually go to the game to see the games, not be treated as a “captive profit center for electronic advertising.”
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1 million % on that, 81Dog (I’m an 82 Dawg myself, BTW). It’s an elephant in the room: whether at a stadium or on the screen, football is becoming increasingly BORING because of all the damn dead time. When I watch at home, I DVR the game, and don’t start watching until sometime in the 2d Q, so I can fast forward through all the commercials, time outs, play reviews, etc. Usually catch up to “real time” sometime in the 4th Q and don’t miss a thing. Loyalty and the game day experience will always get me to Sanford from time to time, but the ability to DVR and the great high def visuals are yet another reason to avoid going to the actual game because you can’t fast forward thru the dead time in Sanford.
In the good ol’ days, not only did most of the games click right along, you had Larry on the radio, and he didn’t feel the need to fill up air time with inanity (I shall respectfully avoid any commentary on Loran Smith’s interjections). It was all about the game in front of you, whether literally or in your mind’s eye. You left your seat between plays at your peril. Great incentive to just remain standing and shouting. Now, you can go get a coupla cokes and chow, hit the head, make a mobile phone call, buy a shirt and not miss a thing… waitaminnit, now I get it!!!!
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I hate The Red Hat, too. His absence was the one saving grace of cupcake noon starts, but now EVERY game no matter how mis-matched is on TV.
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But but but 81, Damon Evans promised those banners would improve our “fan experience!” We must not be looking at those ads correctly if we don’t enjoy them.
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yeah, nothing has improved my “fan experience” more than the flashing blue and orange, seizure inducing ribbon board ads for AT&T. When I came out of the seizure the first time, I thought I was in Gainesville…..Florida. Thanks a ton, Damon, which really means “Thanks a ton, Czar Mike.” I wish he’d keep busy looting the UGA Foundation for Versailles-style office renovations, vacation homes, errrrr, “foreign study centers,” and parties for his kids, and just leave the in-stadium experience alone.
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In 1991, the height of technology at crappy Atlanta Fulton county stadium was the piped in tomahawk beat. The place was electric every night.
Go to a braves game now and it’s a morgue, despite raging intro songs, a jazzed up tomahawk beat, massive jumbotron, etc. adding all that extra stimulation causes people to become docile and quit cheering. If anyone thinks that annoying chapel bell sounds they pipe In at the end of games or Miley Curus makes it a better experience, they are stupid.
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+1.
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I think the Braves are doing a good enough job of making the fans docile all by themselves. But yeah, once they moved from Fulton County Stadium into Turner Mall there was a definite change in atmosphere and a lot of that had to do with all of the extra crap they added to “enhance” the experience.
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