When life hands you lemons, make lemonade, Georgia Tech edition:
Georgia Tech has announced a news conference for Tuesday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, with officials from the AMB Group (the parent company of the stadium and the Falcons) and the Peach Bowl to be present. It’s expected that it will be an announcement for the Yellow Jackets to play a handful of future home games at the dome.
Why so, you may ask.
Holding marquee games in the $1.6 billion sports temple would likely help Tech’s bottom line and perhaps draw attention to coach Geoff Collins’ team…
Perhaps, my ass. This is all about the moolah.
As a result of its coaching transition, Tech’s athletic department finds itself in a financial pinch and perhaps more interested than usual in moving home games out of Bobby Dodd Stadium for the right price…
Either through a guarantee or receiving gate receipts, Tech would stand to draw revenues at Mercedes-Benz Stadium (capacity: 71,000) greater than what it would receive playing at Bobby Dodd Stadium (55,000). For the 2017 season opener against Tennessee in Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Tech received $2.85 million from the Peach Bowl.
There’s no short-term gain without pain, though.
Moving to a larger stadium, however, invites the potential for more fans of Clemson or Notre Dame (or another opponent) to be cheering for the opposition at a Tech home game. Tech home games typically sell out only with the assistance of visiting fans.
Sad!
Hey, speaking of “another opponent”, Georgia fans know their way around getting to Tech home games. Just sayin’.
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UPDATE: And away we go.
https://twitter.com/Brett_McMurphy/status/1100421591517798406
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UPDATE #2: More deets.
So, they’re giving up home field advantage for three of their biggest games in the next five seasons. At a minimum. If I were Geoff Collins, I’d be a little miffed about that.
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UPDATE #3: COFH won’t be moving.
Get The Picture 
Even though we own MRS@HVD Field, this is a neutral site game I could get behind.
Would Jeoff be dumb enough to allow the athletic administration to move Old Fashioned Hate to MBS where every extra ticket would likely be purchased by a Georgia fan?
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Better to do it in the short run, when your team is really going to suck through the transition from the TO, than later.
Besides, knowing Tech, they’ll try to snark it by thanking Georgia fans for helping the program get back on its feet financially.
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We could snark it right back by saying thanks for playing us in a scrimmage where we’ll be winning an SEC championship next weekend. We needed a dress rehearsal for SECCg preparation.
Your point is a good one. If they were to do it, it would probably make sense during the transition to 21st century football.
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Well, I’d just point out that we’ve been trying to help them financially for many years by buying up their season ticket packages every other year, the poor bastards just can’t figure out how to manage the money!
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Wait – so they essentially held a press conference to tout the fact that, for select future home games against marquee opponents, it will be a neutral at-best environment if not an outright disadvantage for them? Got it.
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Somebody in the math department probably did a calculus problem to show the athletic department that 71,000 is greater than 55,000. 😉
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Seating capacity doesn’t matter. 35,000 in attendance is still 35,000 no matter where they play. However, I understand the rent at the MBS isn’t cheap, so they could loose money if they’re not careful.
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My thoughts exactly, Olde Dawg. A bigger stadium doesn’t mean more fans, it means more empty seats.
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If they play us or Clemson in MBS, it won’t be 35,000. There will be 71,000 with probably 70% filled with red & black or orange & white.
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Clemson will definitely turn that game into a Tiger home game. ND might just leave a bunch of empty seats.
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How enthusiastic would ND fans be about a second trip to Georgia in two years?
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yEs BeCaUsE eVeRyOnE aT tEcH hAs To TaKe CaLcUlUs YoU kNoW
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Tech is so pathetic I almost fell sorry for them at times… I said almost.. There the felling has already passed..
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May I suggest “spell-check”?
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All snarking aside Tech is doing the right thing trying to play games at Arthur’s World. At bottom, Tech’s problem is financial. The Tech athletic department has been mismanaged for years. This opens the door to more money. But, as pointed out by your post, this also opens the door to the embarrassing prospect that Tech fans will be outnumbered by opponents’ fans at their own “home” games. So much for home field advantage.
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Can’t lose what you never had.
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Will they cover the upper deck like they do for some of the soccer games so it doesn’t look deserted??? Will there be more attendees than the high school championships??? Will they serve the whiskey clear, or will it be a dry house??? Inquiring minds want to know…
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ND and Clemson as the opponents say otherwise.
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The nerds don’t even show up in enough numbers to sell out BDS. They are inviting seas of orange and red to embarrass them in front of the recruits they hope to impress by bringing them in to the Benz. This is tantamount to admitting that they need Georgia, Clemson, ND, or whoever it is they’ll play there to bail them out financially. I think (hope) it backfires on them. But it will be impressed upon recruits that “MB stadium is our home field…you’ll play several games there each year..blah, blah”
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“Play in an NFL stadium? At Georgia Tech you can do that”.
Good move for GT. Baby steps.
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Wait so Tech wanted to play UGA @ the Benz all this time and we still rolled over for Auburn. We could have just let Tech throw us in the Briar patch and called it a day.
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No way they agree to play UGA there
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’21 and ’23 TBD
And yet, hope remains.
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“invites the “potential” for more fans of Clemson or Notre Dame (or another opponent)”, right…potential.
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Nice move, playing Tech home games in a stadium that is literally painted red and black.
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They play in a red-and-black stadium whenever UGA comes to their place. They’re probably used to it by now.
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This is an effort to draw non Techies and nerds to the games for the ambience. Will the ticket price be higher than at The Joke? I would think so.
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That’s a lot of free hot dogs and Coke’s to fill 71,000 seats.
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UGA vs the trade school from ave B in the dome to finish out every season would be fun. We could play there the week before the SECCG and that would be beneficial. i like it. Kirby…start politicking
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They increase revenues while not spending to upgrade their own stadium to a premium game-day experience. All the while providing an enhanced recruiting visit experience. Heck, they should mothball grant field and play all games in the new dome.
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I have a journalism degree from UGA and I have always excelled in language arts, but I really lack the ability as a wordsmith to express how much I would rather play Georgia Tech in Mercedes Benz Stadium than in Bobby Dodd Stadium. And I say that as a person who hates playing games inside. Any alternative is more attractive to me than the Joke By Coke.
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Honestly, if we have to play GT, beating them in their own stadium is the way to go, at least every other year.
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I enjoy playing at The Joke. I find me a ticket on the first row of east upper deck and I feel like I’m playing and in the sideline huddles. Plus The Varsity is convenient and I can barely recall our last loss there. 20 years ago???
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20 YEARS
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Basically all this means is that 30% more people will be able to watch the Jackets get their asses kicked in person. I’m fine with that.
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2021 and 2023 TBD.
UGAschedule + at tech in odd years = profit
DO IT TECH
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Just so I have this right…
Tech cannot fill a stadium of 55,000. And they want to go to a stadium of 71,000 and change.
They are badly out numbered in their own stadium when they play quality teams from quality universitites. The optics are horrible…
So what do they think will happen in this enviroment?
Solution – close off the top and offer 45,000 seats, like it is an Atlanta United home game and hope they hold their own.
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Well, that’s just garbage. Who do they play in odd years that would draw a crowd?
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Perusing… in ’21 they have BC, UNC, Pitt, and VaTech with one open OOC slot TBD. Guess they’re going big on the OOC game? …in ’23 they trade L’ville for BC and the rest are the same. They’ve schedule us and Ole Miss OOC already with two TBD.
I don’t think their math works if they don’t play us there. Good luck, Jackets! (not really, obv.)
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Maybeeee the trade school will follow the Tulane model. Tear down Grant’s tomb, play your home games in an NFL stadium and average 20,000 “fans.” Then decide in 25 years that a mistake was made. Build a new stadium to seat 35,000 on campus. Renew interest in the football team with an on-campus stadium, then wonder what calculus taking genius made the decision to move to a NFL stadium in the first place!!!
TECH STILL SUX!!
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Tulane is the only team GT can beat indoors. From a football perspective, this isn’t going to end well for them.
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Per ESPN, GT elected not to move the Georgia game to MBS because Todd Stansbury said “That is a historical game that I believe should be played at home-and-home sites.”
Translation: We don’t want 50,000 Georgia fans turning our home game into an away game.
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