TO: Fans, Friends, and Supporters of Georgia Tech Athletics
FROM: Dan Radakovich, Georgia Tech Director of Athletics
I just wanted to take a moment to pass along a couple of thoughts as we enjoy the summer and begin to turn our attention to the upcoming school year at Georgia Tech. This is the time of year when our staff, coaches and administrators get to enjoy just a bit of down time before the hustle and bustle that begins around here the first week of August.
We are very much looking forward to turning the page to the 2010-11 campaign as we defend our ACC Football Championship. As we look toward football season, I want to share a couple of thoughts on our season ticket renewal process.
Currently, we are about 900 season tickets shy of where we were a year ago on this date. Although we have right at the 24,000 mark, we have a ways to go to hit our goal of 26,500 season tickets. One of the things I have written about before in this space is the cyclical nature of our season ticket numbers. In the odd years, when we have Georgia, Clemson and Virginia Tech on our home schedule, we see a spike in sales. Our statistics would show that a number of folks calculate their purchases in order to best position themselves for additional tickets to our rivalry game.
You may recall that last year, for the first time, we offered all available tickets to the UGA game to our own season ticket holders. There was a formula by which our Georgia Tech patrons could purchase extra tickets to that game. The experiment was an overwhelming success, as all remaining UGA tickets outside of our contractual commitment were sold to GT season ticket holders.
Now we are taking this process one step further. Because of that demand, it will now be necessary to be a season ticket holder for two consecutive years (this year and next) in order to get priority on the purchase of additional Georgia tickets in the single game sale next year. Perhaps some of you who were either holding off renewing your tickets, or others who are thinking about jumping into the fold, will find this to be a good incentive to get on board now!
You may have seen lately that our Ticket Sales Team – The Aspire Group – is enjoying tremendous success. We applaud their efforts on finding new season ticket holders for Georgia Tech. To date, Aspire has sold more than 1,500 new season tickets for the 2010 campaign. Since we forged an agreement with our good friend Bernie Mullin one year ago, the Aspire team has generated $1.2 million in new gross ticket revenue. This effort is receiving much national acclaim and the response from those fans that have been touched by this stellar team of sales professionals right here on our campus has been tremendously positive.
One of the current initiatives by Aspire is offering Group Sales with favorable pricing to companies, organizations, clubs, churches, sports leagues, etc. If you or someone you know might be interested in group tickets please let the folks in our ticket office know or call Bill Fagan with Aspire at 404-385-4426.
Before I let you go back to enjoying more fun in the sun, I need to add a word about men’s basketball season tickets and that renewal process which is just now beginning. You are probably aware that we are hoping to move forward to the Board of Regents a proposal that will significantly change the Alexander Memorial Coliseum. If this effort receives approval this fall, we will be playing our last season in the building as we know it. There would be a one-year hiatus during construction in which we would play off campus and then a return to a beautiful new facility for the 2012-13 season.
It is important to note that those fans who are season ticket holders for this upcoming season and next season (when we will play an abbreviated home schedule) would have priority on selecting seats in the new building in the summer of 2012. I encourage each of you to continue your support of our basketball program through the purchase of season tickets for the 2010-11 season. In addition to the need to support our program after a 23-win season and an NCAA tournament victory, there are far-reaching benefits to either renewing or purchasing basketball seats this season.
Thanks for all you do for the Jackets and have a great time during the final weeks of summer. Don’t forget our three big August dates to remember. Football practice begins on August 5th, The Great Yellow Jacket Encounter Fan Day is August 7th (3-5 p.m.) and our Second Annual Can’t Wait Till Kickoff Luncheon takes place on August 27th at the Cobb Galleria.
