Christmas in August

They're far between, the days that make life something special. You knew the feeling all to well as a child. The month long anticipation, flipping through the Sears catalog gazing at all the toy possibilities that could be coming your way in just a few long, painstaking, agonizing weeks. Finally the night before you couldn't sleep...waiting, hoping, wishing as you'd doze off. Your body finally taking over for your mind. Before the sun would rise you'd tear down the stairs overcome with the complete assault on your senses that only Christmas Morning could bring. The aroma of smoke from a fire mixed with fresh pine needles and coffee brewing. Your pupils forced to constrict from the saturating gleam as the morning light reflects off the stacks of boxes wrapped in brightly colored paper. The feel against your skin of spots of cool air as it wisps through a drafty house. Flannel pajamas and shag carpet. The sound of paper ripping.

Then again, maybe you just got a bag of coal.

Few and far between, those days. As you grow, those days may change, but they always contain a certain sense of wonder. The first day of school, the last day of school, your first date, the first game of the season, and of course the day your tickets finally arrive in the mail. All the potential, all the hope. Our tickets finally arrived and I just had to hug them.

There is still time to invest in success. Season tickets are still available and things this year are looking up. You may have read in a recent AJC article that ticket sales were not going so well and that Tech was lagging behind, falling short of last years total. Not true.

Per Dan Radakovich from the Aug 21st edition of The Good Word,

"Despite recent headlines to the contrary in our local newspaper, our season ticket sales have been encouraging. We have now surpassed the number of season tickets sold last year and the number continues to grow as we approach the opener. This is very positive in our current tough economy and in a year in which we have neither Georgia nor Clemson on our home schedule."

Getting Tech season tickets now is like grabbing a really sweet IPO, one that turns into Intel, Apple or Google. Winning sales and in the years to come I think Tech will have the same success that Navy has received. The BirdDog, a Navy Blog, says season ticket sales for football broke a record this year for the 4th year straight. And as they point out, Navy has some of the built in obstacles that sound very familiar. Small school, big market, lots of competition for the entertainment dollar, small alumni base that is geographically scattered, etc.

"Consider the following:

– The Naval Academy is a small, undergraduate-only school of about 4000 students that only puts out about 900-1000 graduates every year.

– While the average state school dumps thousands of graduates into its region each year, Naval Academy graduates are immediately sent away from Annapolis and cast to all corners of the country, and even the world.

– Within a 45-minute drive of Annapolis, you have:

* Two NFL Franchises
* Two Major League Baseball franchises
* A large, BCS-conference state school
* an NBA franchise
* an NHL franchise

…all of which have seasons that at least partially overlap with Navy football season.

Considering all that, it’s amazing that Navy has topped 23,000 season ticket sales, breaking its record for the fourth straight year. Winning is good!"

Also I have to say that I think the Jacket's Nest experiment has paid off. The Nest is a section of the upper north stands that were being sold at a discounted price of $150. That's a deal, and the entire section is sold out. Now lets just hope that those Nesters re-up next year and not turn that area over to UGA or Clemson fans.

In the end, winning sales tickets. Everyone knows it and winning is coming to Bobby Dodd Stadium, get there early.

Now I'm going to go snuggle with my tickets. We're gonna spoon.



LINK to Purchase Season Tickets