Ga.Tech Cashing in on the ND Game

Terry O'Keefe · May 10, 2006

Irish open the season on the road at Ga.Tech and the Yellowjackets are jacked up about it, so much so that they even jacked up the ticket prices!!

Jackets cash in on visit by Irish

By Terence Moore | Tuesday, May 9, 2006, 07:37 PM

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Folks do all sorts of crazy things when that blue and gold monster of a college football program is coming to town. Surely you know that whether Notre Dame has fangs or not during a given stretch, just the thought of a leprechaun doing a jig near goalposts is enough to produce an epidemic of cheering or cringing.

Such is especially true when Notre Dame plays in the vicinity of the Red River or south of the Mason-Dixon line. All you need to know is that the Fighting Irish once were showered at Georgia Tech with a lovely mixture of whiskey bottles and smelly fish.

And guess what? Notre Dame is slated for its first return to the Flats in 26 years this fall to open the season. Courtesy of actions at the ticket office by Tech honchos, the game already is larger than large.

For now, consider this: Not coincidentally, those in charge of such things at the University of Texas stirred up their already wired faithful even more for The Notre Dame Game in 1996. They made that the afternoon in which they dedicated what was Memorial Stadium to former Longhorns coach Darrell Royal.

We’re talking Darrell Royal, as in Texas’ Knute Rockne.

Elsewhere, three of the past four times Notre Dame visited Tennessee it was either a record crowd at Neyland Stadium or No. 2 on the list. Notre Dame’s only trip to Clemson, in 1977, produced the largest gathering ever in Death Valley at the time when Gamecocks weren’t involved. That same year, Notre Dame played Ole Miss in Jackson, drawing the largest crowd to witness a sporting event in Mississippi when the Crimson Tide wasn’t involved.

Earlier this decade, The Notre Dame Game set attendance highs for the legendary stadiums at Nebraska and Texas A&M. Not only that, Florida State has faced more than a few dynamic foes at home through the decades. Still, nothing stuffed the Seminoles’ place more at the time than The Notre Dame Game four years ago.

So if you’re among those Tech honchos, searching for only your sixth sellout since the ridiculous expansion of Bobby Dodd Stadium to 55,000 seats in 2002, I guess this makes sense: You continue a craze that has become rampant in sports called variable pricing, and you make The Notre Dame Game cost $12 more than any other home game on the Yellow Jackets’ schedule. That’s $50 compared to $38 for Miami, Virginia, Maryland and Duke and $28 for Samford and Troy. In fact, the only way you can see The Notre Dame Game is to purchase a Tech season ticket or hope that individual seats remain later this summer. If so, you would have to pay that $50 for The Notre Dame Game and buy tickets to two other games.

You’d think The Notre Dame Game was The Georgia Game or something. No, bigger. Thus a problem for a Tech program trying to end its seven-victory-a-season blahs under coach Chan Gailey.

Let’s just say The Georgia Game always brings out the wildest of feelings for Tech people at the end of the season. Now, with much help from Notre Dame just being Notre Dame, and with the national mania already surrounding Charlie Weis in his second season as the Irish’s miracle worker, and with these jacked-up tickets at Tech to create even more hype for The Notre Dame Game, the Jackets could lose even if they win. Translated: Tech players could become an emotional mess for the rest of the season no matter what.

“Well, I don’t think the prices of the games, for instance, ever filter down to the student-athletes or the coaches,” said Dan Radakovich, Tech’s recently named athletics director. “They’re going to go out there and play as hard against Notre Dame as they would against anybody else on the schedule. So I think that, really, what it boils down to is that some of the administrative and event-specific things will go on associated with the game. Notre Dame, if we charged $1 for everybody to get in, our student-athletes still would go out with the same enthusiasm and commitment to win as if we charged $50.”

That’s true. When tickets everywhere were closer to $1 than $50, Ole Miss had enough of that “enthusiasm and commitment” to shock Notre Dame that day in Jackson to give the Irish their only loss along the way to a national championship.

It’s just that Notre Dame whipped the previously undefeated Longhorns that day in front of their Rockne, and Texas lost six of its last 11 games.
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Irish Come to Atlanta

Sid · May 10, 2006

Quick trivia question for those who did not receive the ND ticket applications:

What is the most expensive game at home or away on this year's schedule?

Give up?

Michigan State......$70 per ticket!

Terry O'Keefe · May 10, 2006

70$ for the MSU game?? That's surprising, hopefully the Irish will put a beatin' on those guys I'm tired of them....really tired of losing to them!

Terry

Terry O'Keefe · May 10, 2006

On an unrelated note, TommyZ will net 25K for his June Madison Square Garden Fight....not a bad one night summer job! I hope 1) he wins 2) he doesn't get hurt.

gipper · May 10, 2006

$50 for ND....$38 for Miami, Stamford and Troy.....yeah, that's about right.

DodgerDog · May 11, 2006

This looks like Mission Impossible. Can Gonzo avoid Gipper's cheesy trap?

Terry O'Keefe · May 11, 2006

LOL!! Best Post by DodgerDog or his alter egos in a longtime!!

Gator Bill · May 11, 2006

That's a good cartoon.

$38 for Miami and Troy?

Think Gonzo will spring for several?

Gator Bill

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