Discussing BDS@HGF attendance for 2010

The AJC ran a piece about Tech increasing attendance by about 4,500 people per game from 2008 to 2009. The article cited this cool list of stadium attendances for 2009. In the piece, they mentioned that D-Rad's goal was to continue to increase ticket sales for 2010. First off, let's look at the average home attendance since expansion (50,132) and compare it to last season (51,584). Last season bested our average by about a 1,000 butts in the seats but it was the second worst Clemson-uga year since expansion (only better than 2007). The inaugural year of the expansion (2003) is still the high water mark of attendance success (52,862) as the '03 home schedule boasted two ranked SEC squads, a nationally ranked NC State squad, and conference rival Clemson.

Now, for us to increase ticket sales per D-Rad's plan we'll need a helluva good effort from our football team, our opponents, and our fans. We have to generate a great deal of interest outside of traditional, natural rivalries. So here are the best BDS attendances ever for our opponents next season:

1. I-AA SC State (2006 Samford game after Notre Dame) - 47,149
2. NC State (Thursday Calvin drop in end zone 2005) - 51,432
3. UVA (Throwback Thursday 2006) - 51,081
4. MTSU (I-A non-BCS record was Army 2007 homecoming) - 50,242
5. Miami (Homecoming comeback 2006) - 55,320
6. Duke (Homecoming 2004) - 46,856

The average attendance from these six maximum points (50,347) is 1,238 people/game short of increasing the average attendance from 2009 but it will increase the average attendance all time. Buzz kill. I'm writing this as I do the calculations and I thought it would've been closer. Also, looking back at the maximums, we see a lot of gimmicks (Thursday nights and homecomings) to generate extra ticket sales. I wouldn't be surprised to see a pretty big drop off in ticket sales just because there are only two teams that would sell out BDS (NC State and Miami) and I already counted Miami as a sellout in the maximum points. NC State fans are not excited enough about their upcoming season to flood Atlanta. If the game were later in the season and State came in undefeated, then I'd see it as a possibility (even then P. Rivers couldn't sell out BDS). Also, we've only got 1 homecoming game (UVA) and no Thursday nighters.

What do you think?