http://gsupantherblog.blogspot.com/2011/...dated.html

Tradition Begins With You

As we embark into year two of this GSU experiment known as college football, its hard not see how much has changed and how much stays the same. Many of us old timers we're shocked at the 3200 who showed up for last years Spring Scrimmage and even more so by the nearly 31,000 that filled the Dome for the Inaugural Game. But reality set in throughout the remainder of the season. We never hit 20,000 again in attendance for a home game and with the exception of the estimated 6000 who attended the Alabama away game, we never saw more than a few dozen fans at away games. Throughout the season I found myself trying to dispel so much misinformation. Some thought that season tickets were more expensive than they were. Many were shocked 3/4 of the way through the season when I would tell them that tickets start at $72 for the whole season. In a city used to big ticket events many associated GSU and the Dome and extrapolated that we must be charging Falcons prices. A lot of alumni stayed away because they were"too busy" or "we weren't playing anyone". A lot of us diehards found it very difficult or even impossible to convince people we had gone to school with at GSU to come to games. Friends and family were even more difficult to convince. I myself witnessed students coming to the tailgate at the Dome and leaving to go home prior to the game.

Atlantans can by and large be a jaded set. Most people became Braves fans after they started winning. The same can be said now for the Atlanta Falcons. In the case of GSU, in most people's minds we have not beaten anyone and we do not play anyone of note. Georgia State has the added challenge of playing alongside two nearby Football Bowl Subdivision (Formerly I-A-The top level of college football) schools while GSU plays in the Football Championship Subdivision. (Formerly I-AA-The next level down from FBS in college football). Many of our students and recent grads grew up going to Georgia Tech and Georgia games with friends and family. It has been difficult to get them to show allegiance to Georgia State on a Saturday where Georgia may be playing Auburn or Florida. In many people's estimation our FCS schedule is no match.

So how does GSU build this program and a fan following in the face of what seem like insurmountable odds? Well part of the answer is that they cannot do it alone. Tradition begins with you and me. No matter how many speeches President Mark Becker, Athletic Director Cheryl Levick , Football Coach Bill Curry and new Men's Basketball Coach Ron Hunter make about wanting change things, they cannot do it without you and me. It is the investment of fans, boosters, alumni and students that will determine where GSU Athletics ends up. Now I know that as jaded Atlantans, many of us will tend to not want to join the bandwaggon until GSU is playing in FBS and scheduling Georgia Tech or North Carolina in the Dome. The catch is that there is a progression for us to reach that point and we will never get there without fans investing their time and loyalty now. It will not happen overnight but one of the gratifying things you can take out of this experience is knowing you were there at the beginning.

We all lead varying degrees of busy lives and for most folks the investment of time needed to attend a full season slate of football or basketball games is not feasible. But we can make the effort to attend 1 or 2 games. Many of us think nothing of changing our schedules to accommodate a Falcons game but we will not attend even one GSU football game in the same building. We will take in dinner and a movie intown but not attend a basketball game or the Spring Scrimmage in the same area. Tradition Starts With You. Nobody is going to do this for us. It's going to take commitment from a majority of the 100,000 local Atlanta GSU alumni to build our program. It may mean a $50 donation or attending just one game. There are great things happening downtown to be sure. If you attended GSU when Edgewood Street was the northern limit of campus you might be shocked to have seen us expand all the way up Piedmont Avenue to Peachtree Center. It is definitely not the same little commuter school from 20 years ago. In fact we will have 4000 housed on campus this Fall. This Fall saw a whopping 31,000 admissions applications. It has become a school we can be even more proud of and worthy of our support.


And traditions are being built. Keeping with the new Thursday Night Football tradition we began with the Inaugural Game, we played the 2011 Spring Scrimmage on a Thursday Night in April and our first game of 2011 will be played on this Friday Night September 2nd vs. Clark-Atlanta University. Panthers Prowl at Night in The Dome! You can also see tradition building in the student body. A stroll through campus is to walk through a sea of blue t-shirts and sweatshirts championing Georgia State. A far cry from when a GSU t-shirt meant you played on the team. Change is coming but we can still do more. This Fall we need to make sure that if youre a real Panther you want to be nowhere but in the Georgia Dome on game day. If you cannot make it to all games look at the schedule from now and see if you can make one or two. It's up to you to build tradition. It starts now with you.

This Friday Night...this Fall.. the tradition continues...it all begins with you!