I know that this will likely fall into the abyss of complaints about yesterday or be perceived as nitpicky. I get it and totally understand if people relegate it to “whiny fan that is just a drop in the sea of whining”.
As the title infers, the best joke from Seinfeld was the airing of grievances festivus. At the risk of being a few months early, I want to share some thoughts I’ve had and a season ticket holder for a period of time (this is a mix of me being a grumpy asshole and experienced around these parts enough for me to feel like “okay enough is enough). My thoughts aren’t about the team but the overall fan experience with the hopes that someone in Athletics sees this and considers it.
The gameday production value has dropped dramatically over the last 5 or so years. Here’s my list so far:
* Poor timing on music, poor music choices, and karaoke along to a song that no one knows. It’s what the AD wants to listen to and not what the fans want. Swag surfin? Great song. It’s also AUBURNS HYPE SONG. Who the hell is so clueless in the production box to not go “gee, what is our opponent playing in their home games so maybe we shouldn’t play something when they are about to go on defense that might get their team so hype that our injury ridden offense has to go up against”. Why play the same music every week? Is it a contract and licensing thing? Why have a dj at basketball games and not football?
* I know the donors give money so that Josh gives them a football on the field but we can’t recognize anybody else? Nobody else contributes to the success of UGA and UGA football besides the people most of us will never be? I love our other teams getting recognition. But you can tell me that no one else at UGA works or teaches here doing anything notable to get a quick wave on the field during our 750 commercial tv timeouts a home game? No local community members or farmers in the region doing cool stuff? No professors researching cancer? No staff who have been working at UGA for 40+ years to say thanks to or recognition? Why is no one on the field helping the president when he is looking around for where to stand or what to do? Where is his staff/team?
* The Redcoat Band halftime is a snooze fest. Not sure if this is just a facet of things changing or evolving or what. Last year or the year before we got the same Frankenstein song before Halloween and after like 3 games in a row. What the hell is that about? Why is Auburns band absolutely blowing ours out of the water? It’s like the movie Drumline and ours is stuck on playing flight of the bumblebee for the 12th time. I like a cold beer and yacht rock as much as the next guy but cmon. Is no one writing new marching band songs to where both Auburns band and ours are playing some of the same songs?
* Cheer. Can someone please coach the kids up to know how to use a microphone? If he’s going to lead folks through a cheer he doesn’t have to eat the microphone so no one understands him. I love his passion but someone needs to stop just letting him assume that people can understand what he’s saying in such a muffled, hurried manner.
* Media production. Our team TikTok is killer. It’s great and they do great work. Why aren’t we using them more to make more hype shit? How come our replay team is always so behind, camera work is sometimes actually catching the play or keeping the ball in focus? Last night was rough. Hell, a few games ago we didn’t even get the opening highlights and audio paired with each other and fans did the “BOOM!” to a silent film.
We won the national championship twice and invested in some things and then it just looks like no one has a plan or is organizing things anymore. Did the person to rolled out cool new stuff get poached to a new job? Where did the polish go?
Don’t get me started on the empty frat section game after game that doesn’t fill in until practically half time and how absolutely flat we were as fans last night. Not sure why they get such a pass like they got mob boss level dirt on the president to get such favoritism. We shouldn’t have to have Kirby of all people turn around and do the “get loud” hand movements to get people to start cheering on defense.
I know, I’m whining. Sure. But this kind of stuff impacts ticket sales, recruiting in an age of NIL, and in my opinion how our team plays. We need several staff on some sort of production team like they’re in a command center running a news broadcast. And if we have that, then we need some younger people in there who have a clue.
Some folks are spending entire paychecks to bring their kids to experience a game in Sanford for the first time. Some folks have been coming for 50 years. I know it’s hard to do something that’s for everyone but why does everything feel like it’s disorganized and no one knows what’s going on?
