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.
I do believe takethepoints actually used a point, and I can relate somewhat to it but in an odd way: I subscribe to Amazon Prime and Netflix. Both still cheap with lots of movies as well as some interesting programming from England and Australia. (In English, in other words, don't need CC.) But here's where these lines cross: I don't watch cable but I subscribe to it. I subscribe to it because right now it is the only way to get ESPN. I need ESPN because that is where the ACC games are, so that is where I get GT. (I also subscribe to MLB.com to get the LA Dodgers.) I love pain. Now, I can get to a couple of Tech games most seasons, but that's it. All else I get off ESPN, free give or take if you consider putting up with some of the amateur hour announcers they assign us as not a payment. Add in the drop in student interest, tailgating, etc., and crowds have to drop. (The last time I was at Clemson, a GT game, every parking spot adjacent to the stadium itself, prime parking, was snapped up by tailgaters. They all had two spots, some had three: car, trailer, grill, tent, 52 inch or better TV with portable satellite dish. So they got the burgers, beer, snacks, instant replay ... and the sound of 82,000 people yards away. Better than being inside, I was told. It is all part of this tectonic shift that all sports are struggling with, and I get it: give it to me free or if not free, cheap.