College football attendance continues to decline

Coloradojacket

Coloradojacket

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Ok, so here is why.
1. Too many games on TV so you can stay home and watch your team
2. The rise of the group of five. The stat shows drop by team but I would bet that overall there are more people going to games. KSU, Georgia State etc did not exist 5 years ago.
3. Students just aren't the same as when we went to school. How many parents took their kids to games. I started at Tech games when I was 7
4. Well, it is expensive. Season tickets for me are $2,400 when you include donation that is required.
 
GT_05

GT_05

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No surprise, really. I wonder how many international students have an interest in college football. I only ask because if I moved somewhere for college where soccer was the predominant sport, I probably couldn’t make myself attend soccer games or matches (I don’t even know which word is correct.). I find soccer to be extremely boring which is probably due to the fact that I didn’t play it when I was growing up. Anyway, GT is fairly popular with international students and we already have a relatively low overall student population when compared to schools like Florida, Michigan, Ohio State, etc. Regardless, I’ve noticed that student attendance is quite light. There appears to be as many students partying at the Boggs Building during the game as there are students attending the game.


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takethepoints

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Coloradojacket said:
Ok, so here is why.
1. Too many games on TV so you can stay home and watch your team
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Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner!

I really think this is the main problem. I go to most Tech games and I'm a season ticket holder, but there have been times in recent years that I've declined attendance because I can see the game on tv. I also almost never follow the team on the road; too much trouble and I can watch the games. It used to be that this wasn't so; if you wanted to see Tech play, you had to, you know, actually go to the games.

Well, I'm getting older (believe it) and having access to the games on tv is handier then it used to be. Oth, I can see why this is clobbering attendance all over. Tv receipts won't cover the difference for many programs either.
 
CuseJacket

CuseJacket

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Coloradojacket said:
Ok, so here is why.
1. Too many games on TV so you can stay home and watch your team
2. The rise of the group of five. The stat shows drop by team but I would bet that overall there are more people going to games. KSU, Georgia State etc did not exist 5 years ago.
3. Students just aren't the same as when we went to school. How many parents took their kids to games. I started at Tech games when I was 7
4. Well, it is expensive. Season tickets for me are $2,400 when you include donation that is required.
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Re: #2, according to the article it's a total decline in attendance, in addition to a drop in per team attendance.
But across all divisions, 1,693,661 fewer fans attended games in 2017 compared to 2016.
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Despite an uptick in the number of teams playing NCAA football (666), the total amount of fans (47.6 million) were the fewest since 2005.
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Thought these comments were interesting as well
Arizona State, Kentucky, North Carolina and Penn State are all in the process of downsizing stadiums. In marketing circles, that creates a more intimate experience.
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Some have suggested downsizing BDS would be embarrassing. I was partially in that corner, however reading about it now I don't feel embarrassed for those other programs already downsizing. Just makes sense.

"This is not surprising to me," said Bill Lutzen, a veteran sports TV programmer who is currently the CFO of a web optimization firm. "This issue is with lack of involvement of the college students. They no longer view attending sporting events as part of the university experience."
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This feels right to me, given some of my friends' feeling during my time at GT and my interactions with students on gameday as well as at other events. I just don't think football is a big deal to many, and apparently it extends beyond only the type of student that attends GT.
 
joehamiltonfan14

joehamiltonfan14

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I’m all for taking about 3-4K seats out of the upper north. Create scarcity, make tech games a hot ticket. Plus fewer visiting fans so a better home atmosphere
 

whitegoldsphinx

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UNC needs to widen their seats. We were squashed in like sardines attending games there in the '80's and '90's. Way tighter than BDS and the population hasn't gotten any thinner since then.
 
Eastman

Eastman

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“Customer Experience” is a huge focus for my company and many others right now. I flight a ton and love being upgraded to first claaa for one main reason and that reason is seat size. There is a reason those seats cost more.a big 240 lb guy like me does not look forward to rubbing up against one or more people I don’t know for several hours after paying a lot of money to attend a game. I would bet that more room could be cost justified with ticket prices and it may even pull some of us out of our lazy boys at home to visit a game or two.
 
BCJacket

BCJacket

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augustabuzz said:
Just add 2" to the width of each seat.
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I second this... Or better yet, replace the bleachers with actual seats (wish we'd have bought a bunch cheap from the Dome or Turner field). Widen the seating area and improve the game experience/comfort level. Probably reduce capacity by a significant margin with no major structural changes.

Also, make the upper north into a party deck...
 

FightWinDrink

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WreckinGT said:
TV ratings are down as well, so I'm not sure TV can be blamed completely. Personally, I think interest in the sport in general is starting to wane a little.
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a lot of the TV rating change for college was reshuffling of the network deals though. Fox had a big boom and ESPN/ABC had a drop because of the Big 10 games moving. Overall viewership was pretty similar. It's the NFL that's seeing a bigger drop on tv.
 
BuzzbaitGT

BuzzbaitGT

Georgia Tech Fan
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BCJacket said:
I second this... Or better yet, replace the bleachers with actual seats (wish we'd have bought a bunch cheap from the Dome or Turner field). Widen the seating area and improve the game experience/comfort level. Probably reduce capacity by a significant margin with no major structural changes.

Also, make the upper north into a party deck...
Click to expand...

Totally agree with both of these points. By replacing bleacher seats with chairbacks, it adds to fans' comfort level (greater incentive to see game in person, as opposed to watching on TV while sprawled on a recliner).

Tearing out seats in upper north and replacing with party deck would be great. I seem to recall having read Stansbury doing this at one of his previous AD jobs. Also suggest including a kids' zone in the party deck. In for a penny, in for a pound.
 
etbee

etbee

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I'm guilty of contributing to it. After holding season tickets for 18 years even though I lived 3 hours away from BDS, I just got tired of the whole game day experience and gave up my seats. So many noon kickoffs & Thursday games in the past few years - for TV. So I quit fighting them and bought a huge TV with the money I would have spent on season tickets. 6 hours of driving, a tank of gas, $30 to park, uncomfortable bench seat in a season ticket-holder section where I was surrounded by opposing fans every game, missing every other game that day, can't get there in time for a decent tailgate experience, Thursday games require taking a day of vacation to attend, etc. Call me a whiner or a bad fan...I don't care. As I approach 60 it's just not worth it to get to the games in person anymore.
 
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