Mercer sells out first game...

[pike51]

In 30 minutes!

http://www.13wmaz.com/sports/article/239960/45/Tickets-Sell-Out-for-Mercer-Football-Opener

They've also already sold 5300 season tickets. In relation, Georgia State has only sold 2766 season tickets as of June 1.

http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/georgia-state-sports/2013/jun/20/q-gsu-ad-cheryl-levick/

I think Mercer will be a force very quickly with a strong fan base.

[WH49er]

Mercer continues to prove they were a great add by the SoCon.

[dbackjon]

Great for them. Would be funny if they outdrew GaState

[Laker]

Congrats to Mercer! xthumbsupx

[PaladinFan]

Great for them. Would be funny if they outdrew GaState

Drove by the stadium a few days ago. Looks ready for kickoff. Will be an exciting day when those players run out of the tunnel for the first time to a packed house.

[ursus arctos horribilis]

That's really cool Mercer fans. Way to go!

[citdog]

The comparison betwixt Mercer and GA State is a non-starter. Mercer would BEAT Ga State.

[JSUBison]

I'm not about to say Mercer and ETSU are going to replace ASU and GSU, but Mercer having this support may help start to fill the vacuum left by those two.

[Sly Fox]

This was long overdue for Mercer to have football and the response proves the point. But it certainly does show what a mess they have at Georgia State if they can't draw more than they have in such a football crazy market.

[Tribe4SF]

Georgia State played a bad card when they hired Bill Curry. Mercer has a known winner in Lamb. I think Trent Miles will get the Panthers competitive in the near future, but the program has been a shambles so far. They managed 30,000 for their opener, but within weeks they were becoming a laughingstock. There's an awful lot of ground for them to make up.

[Tribal]

It took 30 minutes?!?! Imagine it would have only taken 29 minutes if they were in a large media market, had a HOF head coach, and played in a NFL stadium.

Slackers.

[Eagle22]

I suspect Mercer will do okay, but it remains to see how they will do once the novelty wears off. I'm certain a fair part of the season ticket base is similar to folks like myself ... area professionals who graduated from the school (undergrad or graduate) who want the program to do well ... but may rarely grace the stadium grounds on Saturday afternoons. I bought season tickets, as I know that they'll get used (my younger brother and sister graduated from Mercer).

Macon is somewhat akin to an athletic burial ground ... where many programs were born, some thrived, and nearly all died. There is a long list of semi-pro and professional level teams that once graced the town.

The locals are geographically positioned to do quite a bit .... outside of Macon. UGA, Tech, Georgia Southern, Falcons, Hawks, Braves all are less than 2 hours away. Auburn, UF, FSU aren't much further. Even Clemson and USC are just a touch outside of 3 hours away.

But, there is one positive I see in Mercer's favor and that is there seems to be a renaissance underway in downtown Macon. The teams that all folded, bolted and faded away the last two decades did primarily because the downtown environment became more sketchy and less of a place to want to hang out after a game. Though the Macon City Council ditched the plan to allow alcohol on the street during game days, I don't think that will impact game day too much.

[danefan]

Awesome for Mercer. Congrats

[IBleedYellow]

Hell yeah, way to support the team, Mercer!

Keep it up! Great fans are part of a great program!

[seantaylor]

Mercer will be an Elon type program. Nothing more.

[walliver]

I suspect Mercer will do okay, but it remains to see how they will do once the novelty wears off. I'm certain a fair part of the season ticket base is similar to folks like myself ... area professionals who graduated from the school (undergrad or graduate) who want the program to do well ... but may rarely grace the stadium grounds on Saturday afternoons. I bought season tickets, as I know that they'll get used (my younger brother and sister graduated from Mercer).

Macon is somewhat akin to an athletic burial ground ... where many programs were born, some thrived, and nearly all died. There is a long list of semi-pro and professional level teams that once graced the town.

The locals are geographically positioned to do quite a bit .... outside of Macon. UGA, Tech, Georgia Southern, Falcons, Hawks, Braves all are less than 2 hours away. Auburn, UF, FSU aren't much further. Even Clemson and USC are just a touch outside of 3 hours away.

But, there is one positive I see in Mercer's favor and that is there seems to be a renaissance underway in downtown Macon. The teams that all folded, bolted and faded away the last two decades did primarily because the downtown environment became more sketchy and less of a place to want to hang out after a game. Though the Macon City Council ditched the plan to allow alcohol on the street during game days, I don't think that will impact game day too much.

Private schools in general don't get a lot of unaffiliated community interest. Mercer's crowd, like Wofford, Furman, Samford, and Elon will consist mostly of students, alumni, and friends of the college. The average sports fan in Macon, like the rest of Georgia, will stay home and watch UGA on TV.

[SpeedkingATL]

Great start for Mercer. Congrats.

[Hammerhead]

Isn't that also true for public schools unless they are in a state that has no FBS teams so the FCS teams are the biggest show around?


Private schools in general don't get a lot of unaffiliated community interest. Mercer's crowd, like Wofford, Furman, Samford, and Elon will consist mostly of students, alumni, and friends of the college. The average sports fan in Macon, like the rest of Georgia, will stay home and watch UGA on TV.

[Twentysix]

Isn't that also true for public schools unless they are in a state that has no FBS teams so the FCS teams are the biggest show around?
xthumbsupx

[Eagle22]

Private schools in general don't get a lot of unaffiliated community interest. Mercer's crowd, like Wofford, Furman, Samford, and Elon will consist mostly of students, alumni, and friends of the college. The average sports fan in Macon, like the rest of Georgia, will stay home and watch UGA on TV.

Generally, I would agree with this. I don't know much about the local dynamics in Birmingham, Greenville, Spartanburg and Burlington .. but in Macon the private high school industry is very strong, and it feeds a lot of students into Mercer's student body. One thing Bobby Lamb has already done is to recruit well in several of these schools, as well as reach into some of the regional outlying counties and pick up some D1 public school prospects that might have otherwise slipped away to some of the lower FCS conferences like the OVC and Big South.

Lamb also has a better foothold throughout the state with his past recruiting efforts than most 'new' coaches, and I think that will also help drive some attention to the Bears. Finally, pretty much everywhere you go in the state can reach Macon within three hours. That can be a pretty good sell, coupled with a private school education.

But yeah, UGA casts a large shadow.