Change of Venue for ALcorn/a&t Game.


Nonchalant

Nonchalant

Hail, Hail To Thee...
Chicago Classic off A&T's schedule

4-24-04

By Jeff Carlton, Staff Writer
News & Record




GREENSBORO -- N.C. A&T's football team will not play in the Chicago Classic this season, as it had tentatively agreed to do, because of a scheduling conflict at Soldier Field.

A&T athletics director Charlie Davis hopes to keep a Sept. 11 date with Alcorn State, however. Instead of meeting in Chicago, the schools are discussing Atlanta and Chattanooga, Tenn., as possible sites.

"We had determined if anything happened we'd meet halfway," Davis said Friday.

What happened is the NFL released schedules last week that put the Bears at home against the Detroit Lions the day after the Chicago Classic. The contract A&T and Alcorn State were close to finalizing stipulated that the game could not be played less than five days before a Bears game at Soldier Field.

An attorney for the classic, which was expected to net A&T $75,000 to $85,000 after expenses, called Davis on Wednesday to inform him of the scheduling quandary.

"That ended all discussions," Davis said. "We tried to come up with a different date, but that didn't work for me or Alcorn."

The Aggies are down to 10 games. But Davis is confident he'll be able to lock in Alcorn State for Sept. 11 at Morehouse College in Atlanta, which is about 300 miles south of Greensboro and 400 miles east of Alcorn's Lorman, Miss., campus.

Chattanooga, about the same distances from the two historically black universities, would be the next option.

A&T coach George Small is doing some last-minute schedule-studying to see what other schools still have Sept. 11 open, just in case Alcorn doesn't work out. He says it's important for his program to get an 11th game because it could have a bearing on at-large berths to the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs.

"I just don't want to be in that situation," Small said, "where you don't win the conference, you're 9-1 and you can't get into the playoffs."

A&T has only four games at Aggie Stadium in 2004. The Aggies' fifth home date, Nov. 20 against South Carolina State, will be played at Charlotte's Memorial Stadium.

...Carry On..
 



Maybe this game is meant to be a one-shot deal, and they didnt negotiate for a home and home series stretching into '05. I wouldnt mind seeing it. Especially if the game is competitive. The Battle of the Bands will be competitive, if Alcorn is as strong as they have been in years past.
 
Playing the game in the ATL may be the best option. Using one of the smaller stadiums in Atlanta might be a good deal. I'd rather play in a full 20,000 seat arena than put 25K in the Georgia Dome.
 
cat daddy said:
Playing the game in the ATL may be the best option. Using one of the smaller stadiums in Atlanta might be a good deal. I'd rather play in a full 20,000 seat arena than put 25K in the Georgia Dome.
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If they move the game to Atlanta, it should not be at the Georgia Dome, no smack but A&T does not travel well to Atlanta. I don't know why since it is not that far.

Maybe you all can see about using Morris Browns stadium, it is smaller and you all would be helping out MoB.
 
JSU*Toi said:
If they move the game to Atlanta, it should not be at the Georgia Dome, no smack but A&T does not travel well to Atlanta. I don't know why since it is not that far.

Maybe you all can see about using Morris Browns stadium, it is smaller and you all would be helping out MoB.
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Just curious...what is that based on? If you are talking about the A&T-JSU game in ATL, the crowd looked pretty evenly distributed on both sides of the stadium, except it was just a bit quieter on the JSU side, probably due to the way the game played out. Unless of course you are claiming that a bunch of JSU fans were sitting on the A&T side, making both sides look equal. Is that what you are claiming?

That game drew about 35K, and the last time we played in the Ga Dome against SC State, we drew about the same. How do you arrive at your point?
 
I feeling that it should be at either the Ga Dome or Herndon Stadium.
Morehouse has one side and would only hold the bands, lol.

as far as I know A&T usually brings a pretty good crowd for the Peach Classic.
 
Too bad neither of these schools is JSU, or they would move the Britney Spears concert or what ever they have scheduled in that time slot.
 
Wherever the game is being played, I will be there. Maybe I can even convince the SOD to play the music I brought down there a few years ago :)
 
A&T Brandmasta said:
Just curious...what is that based on? If you are talking about the A&T-JSU game in ATL, the crowd looked pretty evenly distributed on both sides of the stadium, except it was just a bit quieter on the JSU side, probably due to the way the game played out. Unless of course you are claiming that a bunch of JSU fans were sitting on the A&T side, making both sides look equal. Is that what you are claiming?

That game drew about 35K, and the last time we played in the Ga Dome against SC State, we drew about the same. How do you arrive at your point?
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Being that I worked with both each State Classic and know 1st hand. That each of those games both your school and alumni sent tickets back weeks before the game.

At the JSU game between the school and the alumni JSU out sold A&T 5 to 1 on tickets at the SC game between the school and the alumni SC out sold A&T 3 to 1 on tickets.

I am not saying this to hate I am stating the fact being being apart of both games. I am all for a successful game, and to me moving the game to a smaller venue would be best. Like cat daddy said " I'd rather play in a full 20,000 seat arena than put 25K in the Georgia Dome"
 
JSU*Toi said:
Being that I worked with both each State Classic and know 1st hand. That each of those games both your school and alumni sent tickets back weeks before the game.

At the JSU game between the school and the alumni JSU out sold A&T 5 to 1 on tickets at the SC game between the school and the alumni SC out sold A&T 3 to 1 on tickets.

I am not saying this to hate I am stating the fact being being apart of both games. I am all for a successful game, and to me moving the game to a smaller venue would be best. Like cat daddy said " I'd rather play in a full 20,000 seat arena than put 25K in the Georgia Dome"
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I dont live in Greensboro, and didnt buy my ticket from the school or alumni. Where does the ticket I purchased at the Dome figure in?
 
A&T Brandmasta said:
I dont live in Greensboro, and didnt buy my ticket from the school or alumni. Where does the ticket I purchased at the Dome figure in?
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The same place eveyone elses's fit in. I can attest for the first game but I no longer lived in ATL for the second one. A&T was clueless about running a classic and they were coming to the meetings with unsold tickets while JSU was asking more. At that time A&T had very little classic experience aside from the CCC (where they have to do nothing) and the Aggie-Eagle with a D2 school. We made proposals to them months in advance to make it a big event and they told us no. Then in the end, they came running to us.
 
Tigerpride said:
The same place eveyone elses's fit in.
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No need to chime in if you dont know the answer. Obviously, ticket sales are tracked by which group sells them (schools, alumni, etc). My question is this: are tickets sold at the Ga Dome box office categorized as either A&T tickets or JSU tickets? Do alumni sales figures tell the whole story of fan support, or were there a significant number of tickets sold on game day at the box office to alumni like myself?
 



A&T Brandmasta said:
I dont live in Greensboro, and didnt buy my ticket from the school or alumni. Where does the ticket I purchased at the Dome figure in?
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The ticket you purchased at the door went into the general fund. They were not counted for any school. However I don't see A&T making up the slack at the door. Before the game A&T was a little over 5k tickets behind JSU.

And I understand about not living close enough to buy a ticket from the school or alumni however that just hurt your school. The way it worked both schools and alumni got money back from all advancedsales, so in the end A&T lost money.


And again for the record I am not hating.
 
"which was expected to net A&T $75,000 to $85,000 after expenses, called Davis on Wednesday to inform him of the scheduling quandary."

That's no money at all.I wonder much revenue the promoters were going to keep. Other than the exposure, I'm really not a big fan of HBCU Classics, especially when an individual promoters profiting from the classic.
 
JSU*Toi said:
The ticket you purchased at the door went into the general fund. They were not counted for any school. However I don't see A&T making up the slack at the door. Before the game A&T was a little over 5k tickets behind JSU.

And I understand about not living close enough to buy a ticket from the school or alumni however that just hurt your school. The way it worked both schools and alumni got money back from all advancedsales, so in the end A&T lost money.


And again for the record I am not hating.
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No offense or hate taken. I am actually learning something here. I will definitely try to go through the alumni association in the future.

So (doing a little quick math), if JSU sold a little over 5000 more tickets, and outsold A&T at a rate of 5-to-1, the JSU sold about 6500 tickets, and A&T sold about 1300 tickets, give or take a few. That leaves the overwhelming majority of tickets (around 28,000) in the general fund.

I think this suggests that the JSU alumni association is much more efficient than the A&T alums when it comes to ticket sales, no doubt. But can you say that "A&T doesnt travel well" based on just alumni ticket sales, when those sales are such a small percentage of total sales? I dont think you can, especially given the equal distribution of fans on both sides of the dome.
 
A&T Brandmasta said:
No offense or hate taken. I am actually learning something here. I will definitely try to go through the alumni association in the future.

So (doing a little quick math), if JSU sold a little over 5000 more tickets, and outsold A&T at a rate of 5-to-1, the JSU sold about 6500 tickets, and A&T sold about 1300 tickets, give or take a few. That leaves the overwhelming majority of tickets (around 28,000) in the general fund.

I think this suggests that the JSU alumni association is much more efficient than the A&T alums when it comes to ticket sales, no doubt. But can you say that "A&T doesnt travel well" based on just alumni ticket sales, when those sales are such a small percentage of total sales? I dont think you can, especially given the equal distribution of fans on both sides of the dome.
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Before the game was the key phase. Once the tickets were counted for and checks were cut (about a month after the game ) There was a total of 24,000 presold tickets. A&T acounted for close to total of 3500 presold tickets. JSU accounted for about 17,000 the remaider were give away tickets.
 
Jayson said:
I feeling that it should be at either the Ga Dome or Herndon Stadium.
Morehouse has one side and would only hold the bands, lol.

as far as I know A&T usually brings a pretty good crowd for the Peach Classic.
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You are correct. Morris Brown has a real nice stadium (That Gram v.s MBC game was real nice) and if the Georgia Dome is not an option that would be the place to play.
 
A&T Brandmasta said:
So how does the 5k number jive with what you just posted?
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That was the number of tickets moneys turned in BEFORE the game... meaning JSU had about 9k tickets outstanding the friday before the game and A&T had about 600 tickets outstanding before the game. The last quote was based on the final count. Anyway you slice it A&T fans didn't bring it that game.
 
J-State Tiger said:
Too bad neither of these schools is JSU, or they would move the Britney Spears concert or what ever they have scheduled in that time slot.
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Now JST, you don't believe that isht you're saying yourself! Especially after last year!!
 
Alcorn Warrior said:
Now JST, you don't believe that isht you're saying yourself! Especially after last year!!
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What does last year have to do with anything. A draw is a draw. TNState was having losing season for about 7 years straight and they were still drawing crowds in Memphis, Atlanta, and Chicago.
 
JROCK said:
You are correct. Morris Brown has a real nice stadium (That Gram v.s MBC game was real nice) and if the Georgia Dome is not an option that would be the place to play.
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Make sure A&T gets the little side....LOL
 
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