ATLANTA — Georgia Tech says fans can expect a better experience at Bobby Dodd Stadium when the team opens its season next week.
Channel 2’s Lori Wilson got a sneak peek at some of the 100 improvements Georgia Tech made ahead of the first game.
As Georgia Tech won more games last season and more fans packed into Bobby Dodd Stadium, Tech athletics saw a new challenge.
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“One of the things we started realizing is that we need to do a better job to serve our fans, to serve Bobby Dodd Stadium, our campus as well as our team,” Brent Jones, deputy AD, Georgia Tech athletics, said.
Jones and his department worked with the Scheller School of Business and a senior design team from the Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering.
“Where better to look than the number one industrial and systems engineering program in the country?” Dima Nazzal, faculty with the Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech, said.
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Nazzal said the first thing the senior design team studied was data.
“We did traffic flow to parking, getting into the stadium, or ingress, to concessions,” Sophia Hawkins, industrial engineer and grad student, said.
Hawkins was part of the senior design team that spent about a year working on ways to improve the fan experience.
Those changes include more ticket scanners at entrance gates, new signs to help people know where to go, parking, emails, and more grab-and-go stations at concessions.
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“So that is part of the 100 improvements, just adding more grab-and-go stations,” Hawkins said.
Jones said the goal is to get fans into their seats faster.
“It’s not just one thing, it’s everything. It’s not just 10 things, it’s 100,” Jones said.
Jones said fans will also see fireworks on the field, smoke, pyro, and the Fanning Center coming online now.
“There will also be a drone show and a T-shirt cannon that shoots out 25 shirts in five seconds,” Jones said.
“We want them just completely focused on the experience of the game,” Nazzal said.
The first game is Thursday against Colorado at 8 p.m.
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