Atlanta, GA
Clemson Tigers Should Repeat History, Flood Atlanta with $2 Bills
CLEMSON, S.C. — Gary Stokan, the CEO and President of the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl made it clear final week that it was not his group’s concept to shut off the higher deck of Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta when No. 4 Clemson performs Georgia Tech on Labor Day evening as a part of the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Traditional.
On Saturday, when No. 3 Georgia performs 11th-ranked Oregon, 71,000 individuals are anticipated to promote out the identical venue within the different Chick-fil-A Kickoff Traditional recreation. Clemson followers alone would have executed the identical in its recreation, however the people at Georgia Tech made positive that didn’t occur.
Why?
Based on Stokan, Georgia Tech needed to have the identical expertise and ambiance for the Clemson recreation because it had final 12 months when the Yellow Jackets closed off the higher deck previous to their upset of then-No. 20 North Carolina.
I name hogwash!
Tech closed off the higher deck of final 12 months’s UNC recreation as a result of they weren’t going to come back near promoting 71,000 tickets in that stadium, particularly with the Yellow Jackets program being down. When the Tar Heels performed at Bobby Dodd Stadium in 2019, attendance was 45,044, almost 10,000 lower than its 55,000-seat capability.
Georgia Tech capped final 12 months’s UNC recreation at Mercedes-Benz at 42,500, attributable to a scarcity of curiosity in Geoff Collins’ program. So, from a beauty standpoint, it made sense to shut off the higher deck.
Based on the Atlanta Journal-Structure, this time final 12 months, Tech officers deliberate to maintain the capability for the Clemson recreation to 71,000.
What modified their thoughts?
Clearly, there’s a lack of curiosity from the Georgia Tech facet, however not at Clemson.
Tech’s common dwelling attendance final 12 months was 37,333, its lowest dwelling attendance since 1989. Clemson, then again, has bought 55,000 season tickets for the upcoming 2022 season, 60,000 should you depend the 5,000 season tickets bought by the scholars.
Additionally, contemplate this: Clemson has a big alumni base within the Atlanta space and Clemson followers are recognized for touring effectively, particularly when a recreation is just some hours up the street from the Upstate of South Carolina.
In my view, the rationale Tech is capping the sport at 42,500 is easy. The Yellow Jackets need to preserve Clemson followers out of Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Clemson obtained an allotment of 4,300 tickets from Georgia Tech to promote to its followers, per ACC tips. Tiger followers absolutely snatched up extra by means of the secondary market, like they all the time do once they go to Georgia Tech.
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Not counting 2020, when Bobby Dodd Stadium was capped at 11,000 attributable to COVID restrictions, the Clemson video games of 2016 (53,932) and 2018 (50,595) have been the Yellow Jackets’ largest crowds in every of these revered seasons. In each instances, there was a powerful Clemson presence within the stadium.
This isn’t the primary time Georgia Tech has tried one thing like this. In 1977, after seeing Clemson was turning the nook with its soccer program, then Yellow Jackets’ head coach Pepper Rodgers backed out of his deal to play Clemson in 1978 and discontinued the sequence altogether.
After all, this led to the delivery of Clemson’s $2 invoice custom.
George Bennett, left, former Govt Secretary of IPTAY and long-time Clemson supporter, talks with former Clemson Sports activities Info Director Tim Bourret after a Clemson College soccer press convention on October 22, 2019. Bennett is the person liable for beginning Clemson’s $2 invoice custom, which started with Clemson’s journey to Georgia Tech in 1977.
Ken Ruinard / USA TODAY Sports activities Community
On the time, IPTAY’s Govt Secretary, George Bennett needed to indicate the companies and the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce how a lot of an impression the Clemson fan base and alumni made on the native financial system once they got here to city.
“We weren’t going to any bowl video games at the moment, so this was our large recreation of the 12 months,” Bennett recalled. “We’re going to Atlanta, and we’re going to have a great time.
“We have been taking 15,000 to 17,000 individuals down there for that weekend and our individuals would go down there on Wednesday and the wives would store and all this sort of stuff and keep at these fancy motels and all of that. We actually loved happening there.”
That’s when Bennett got here up with an concept that has become one of many extra distinctive traditions in faculty soccer … Clemson’s $2 invoice custom.
“I acquired the thought and went to (then-Clemson head coach) Charlie Pell and mentioned, ‘Here’s what we have to do whether it is okay with you. We’re going to take two-dollar payments down there and we’re going to present the individuals in Atlanta how a lot cash they’re lacking by doing this.’ We publicized, wrote letters about it, put it within the IPTAY Report and advised them to take two-dollar payments with them,” Bennett mentioned.
The Clemson followers didn’t let Bennett down. Tiger followers lined the town with $2 payments. They paid for his or her lodge rooms with $2 payments. They shopped utilizing $2 payments and so they paid for all their meals with $2 payments. It turned such a narrative, The Atlanta Journal-Structure wrote a number of tales about it, whereas native tv stations reported on it as effectively.
The $2 invoice was first commissioned in 1862, and so they haven’t been issued since 2003. When one makes its approach right into a enterprise, the store, restaurant or lodge proprietor goes to note. It’s going to depart an impression.
“The waitresses within the motels and eating places have been speaking about it. Cab drivers, bellhops, and all of that,” Bennett mentioned whereas laughing. “Pepper Rodgers advised me in Memphis a number of years later that was the perfect promotion that he had ever heard. He mentioned, ‘You actually acquired your level throughout to the individuals in Atlanta and to Georgia Tech and the way a lot cash they have been going to be lacking.’”
It looks like on Labor Day, Clemson followers must fill the town of Atlanta with $2 payments, simply to let the town know the way a lot cash Georgia Tech has value them as soon as once more.
Word: Excerpts from Will Vandervort’s ebook, Hidden Historical past of Clemson Soccer, have been used on this story. Should you want to buy this ebook, you will discover it right here.
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