The number of tickets sold for Georgia Tech football game came under scrutiny in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article printed two weeks ago, which states that Tech has sold almost 300 fewer season tickets than last year.
However, according to Assistant Athletic Director Scott McLaren, season tickets sale are not decreasing.
“We’ve actually sold 100 more season tickets than last year,” McLaren said. With more recent information regarding ticket sales, McLaren reiterated that ticket sales are not lagging behind previous years’ numbers.
The renewal rate for returning season ticket holders is about 89 percent, although data for new season tickets purchases was not completed or available. Season tickets are still available for purchase at the time publication.
Already for this season, club seats, located between the 25-yard lines in the lower east stands, and the new Tech Terrace section, off the Wardlaw Building on the south end zone, have been sold out.
The Athletic Association has also created a new section of discount season tickets called The Jackets Nest, located in the upper north end zone and has sold around 2200 ticket packages.
Regular individual ticket sales are also “going well,” McLaren said, but did mention that single ticket sales for individual games will be hurt for smaller games such as Jacksonville State.
Despite the supposed strong and solid ticket sales, the Athletic Association is experimenting with sales and marketing tactics to draw in more customers interested in season ticket holders.
Although, Tech alumni make up the majority of season tickets holders and renewal sales, finding new markets for ticket sales is an important goal of the Athletic Association.
Typical sales approaches have included pushing tickets at big events and public gatherings. The Athletic Association is also branching out to local businesses in the Atlanta area to use Tech football tickets as an entertainment option for clients.
Also, with the slowing economy, many businesses have decreased yearly bonuses and other such rewards for employees.
This gives the businesses a different opportunity to use Tech football tickets as employee bonuses.
The Athletic Association is also reaching out to the condominiums in the area to make tickets available to residents, especially the young professional demographic in Atlanta that consists of university graduates who may have gone another school besides Tech.
Since a large number of new Tech graduates typically move away from the Atlanta area, the Athletic Association looking toward the young adults of Atlanta to “adopt Tech as their team.”
By developing more cost-friendly season ticket packages, like the Jacket’s Nest, “our younger alums are able to purchase season tickets [that are] affordable to them,” McLaren said.
The current status of Tech’s football ticket sales is still foggy, but perhaps previous account of lagging ticket sales used outdated figures.
According to the Athletic Association, tickets sales are as healthy, if not healthier than previous years.