May 31, 2007
TO: Fans, Friends, and Supporters of Georgia Tech Athletics
FROM: Dan Radakovich, Georgia Tech Director of Athletics
As today’s Good Word is being distributed I have the distinct pleasure of joining many of my colleagues at the annual meeting of the Georgia Tech Foundation in Sea Island, Ga. I will have an opportunity to share news and information regarding our Yellow Jacket athletic program with many of our good friends and associates. I truly appreciate the help of the Foundation and its board in helping intercollegiate athletics move forward.
Let me say congratulations again to head coach Bryan Shelton, assistant coach Mariel Verban and the Yellow Jacket women’s tennis team for capturing Georgia Tech’s first NCAA National Title last weekend in Athens. What a great experience for all of those in attendance to see our team win its first national championship on the University of Georgia’s courts.
FOOTBALL TICKETS / FLEX PACKS
I have probably reported on our season ticket and TECH Fund progress quite enough to this point, but suffice to say we are very encouraged with the response of our fans. Season ticket holders are currently in process of renewing either on line or by mail with a June 22 deadline to complete the process. We have every indication that our final season ticket count will exceed our projections. It now appears likely that we may well go beyond our total for the 2006 season, which by all accounts was a banner year. My thanks to all of you who support Georgia Tech football.
I continue to receive communication on our “flex pack” ticket opportunity. More specifically the plan as it relates to our high demand games like Georgia and Clemson. There is concern that this program provides a low-cost way for our opponents’ fans to use our system to purchase tickets for those games.
The “flex pack” is an opportunity for a fan to purchase a ticket to any three games of his or her choice at the face value of those particular three tickets.
Let me clarify the policy on flex packs:
1). The opportunity to purchase Flex Packs will first be offered to season ticket holders in our TECH Fund seating areas only. This will begin in early June. We encourage these fans to consider including games like Georgia, Clemson and Virginia Tech in their selection.
2). If a TECH Fund season ticket holder happens to be allocated Flex Pack seats within a TECH Fund area, there will be no additional TECH Fund payment required. That will not be the case for those fans which have not paid a TECH Fund contribution as I will explain later in this summary.
3). After the TECH Fund season ticket holders have had their window of opportunity, we will then offer Flex Packs to our season ticket holders outside of TECH Fund areas. This window will open sometime in mid-June. Again, if high profile game tickets remain, we encourage these patrons to include those in their selection.
4). Should these fans acquire Flex Pack seats within a TECH Fund area there will be a $10 per game TECH Fund charge added to the cost of each ticket, except for the Georgia game which will carry a $25 additional TECH Fund charge.
5). History tells us that by the time we reach this stage in Flex Pack sales it is highly unlikely that any tickets to games like Georgia or Clemson will ever be available for sale to the general public. This ensures that tickets to our highest demand games are sold to our own season ticket holders!
6). After all of our best customers (season ticket holders) have had an exclusive opportunity to purchase these high-demand Flex Packs, we will offer the plan to the general public. This will happen sometime after July 1. In this way, we hope that we can increase attendance at some of the lower-demand games and get potential new customers to try Georgia Tech football. These purchasers would also pay a TECH Fund charge of $10 per ticket in the unlikely event that their Flex Pack ticket was to fall in a TECH Fund area.
I hope this eases some of the angst over our ticket sales plan. Remember, the entire timetable is designed to get the most prized tickets we have into the hands of our most prized customers.
SPRING SPORTS UPDATE
After a tough start at the NCAA Golf Championships, Bruce Heppler’s team has made a comeback on day two, and stand in the top 10 headed into Friday’s play at the Golden Horseshoe Golf Course in Williamsburg, Va. I encourage any of our fans and alumni in the eastern Virginia area to head out to the Golden Horseshoe to cheer on our Yellow Jackets. Wouldn’t it be great to have two NCAA National Champions in the same season?
Speaking of the NCAA Championships, nine members of our track and field team, five women and four men, are headed to Sacramento to participate in the NCAA Championships June 6-9. Best of luck to NCAA National Indoor Champion Shantia Moss, Fatmata Fofanah, Jacqua Williams, Ashlee Kidd, Kimery Hearn, Jerome Miller, James Lemons, Alphonso Jordan and Steve Marcelle next weekend.
The Yellow Jacket softball team wrapped up its record-breaking season with a school-record 54 wins while advancing to its sixth-consecutive NCAA Tournament. Sharon Perkins’ team finished 1-2 in the NCAA Gainesville Regional after shattering ACC records in batting average, runs, home runs, RBI, total bases and slugging percentage, and had two players (Caitlin Lever, Aileen Morales) earn All-America honors for the first time in history. Congratulations to Caitlin, who signed a professional contract with the Chicago Bandits this week.
Despite winning more than 30 games for the 24th-consecutive season, our baseball team missed out on an NCAA Tournament bid for just the second time under head coach Danny Hall. Congratulations goes to preseason All-Americans Matt Wieters and Danny Payne, who were both named to the All-Atlantic Coast Conference first team for the second time in their respective careers. The team now awaits the 2007 Major League Baseball Draft, which begins June 7 at 2 p.m. in Orlando, Fla. Be sure to tune in to ESPN2 from 2-6 p.m. next Thursday to see which Yellow Jackets are selected in the top rounds.
As always, we welcome your feedback ( goodword@athletics.gatech.edu ). Please know that even if I’m not able to send a personal response to everyone, I do read each email, and I appreciate the support and passion of every Georgia Tech fan.
