FBS attendance continues to drop

GoJacketsInRaleigh

Helluva Engineer
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1,089
They charge a million bucks for these games and make it harder than hell to plan when you have a family with 6 day holds and 12 day game time announcements.
 
Vespidae

Vespidae

Helluva Engineer
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Auburn, AL
I don’t think anything beats the live game experience. Still, the trends are against attendance for many reasons.

First, college football is now a commodity ... pure programming content. In season, I can watch a game Wed night, Thursday night, Fri night and all day Sat.

Second, the secondary market is exploding. Stubhub and similar services make buying tickets super easy. So you don’t need to buy a tix package. It’s the same as what iTunes did to record albums. Go to the good games, dump the rest.

Third, games are about the experience, not the game itself. Food, beverage, music ... its a total gameday experience now and that takes a lot of commitment from all stakeholders.

If I could wave a magic wand, I’d schedule all games at 330pm and 8pm. You’re more likely to able to plan for those times and food and drink sales would be highest. But ... with more and more people streaming games, it’s going to be increasingly hard to get them in the stands.
 
majorQ9

majorQ9

Jolly Good Fellow
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Augusta_Jacket said:
I remember in 2015, in the midst of our losing streak, getting to a point where I was tempted to just watch the games on TV. I took my wife to the FSU game and we made a weekend out of it. Walking up to the stadium that night, I had an FSU fan offer me almost three times face value for my two tickets. My wife, not a huge football fan to begin with, told me I should consider selling the tickets, and we could go do something else like sit at a bar and watch the game. I, of course, was not about to sell my tickets to opposing fans. As the game went on, my wife was drawn more and more into the electric atmosphere of that night. On Fourth and Stewart, she erupted louder than anyone near us. When the Miracle on Techwood Drive occurred, she was jumping up and down and yelling as loud as anyone there. Normally, she's ready to leave as soon as the game was over, but that night, she wanted to stay and soak up the atmosphere. She looked at me and said she was grateful I didn't sell the tickets.

You see, that's the atmosphere you don't get from watching on TV. Sure, you can yell and scream at home, but there is an electricity in the air at games that's contagious. I love my TV, but I wouldn't trade it for a live game unless I become physically unable to make it to the games.
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how many times has there been electricity in the stands like that since?
 

whitegoldsphinx

Ramblin' Wreck
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825
majorQ9 said:
how many times has there been electricity in the stands like that since?
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How many home games in our history have had a finish like that? The point is that if you don't attend, you could miss a historic game. Is that likely? No. But there are many games that come down to the last series, and when they occur, you can feel the tension in the air. I'd put the UVA game 2 years ago in that category, even with the poor attendance.
 

gtg970g

Jolly Good Fellow
Messages
327
deeznats said:
Yeah, but multiply that by the size of the average family and you are at a million bucks.
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You can attend most of our games for under $20 a ticket. There are many legitimate explanations for why attendance is decreasing but ticket prices is not one of them.
 
gtstinger776

gtstinger776

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565
SteamWhistle said:
It will settle down when there aren’t so many Neutral Site games. ESPN is obsessed with stacking week 1 with Neutral games and that hurts a bunch of teams schedules. When you take away a big home game from big programs every year it hurts attendance. Also the playoffs expanding to 8 teams would help, makes it easier to argue your team is still relevant and has a fighting chance making more people want to keep coming back and opposing teams wanting to watch your team when you come to their stadium. In the past any team could fill the stadium against a top 10 team but now it just doesn’t feel the same when only the top 5 maybe 6 teams are really the only ones drawing a big buzz for the matchups.
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I agree with the top part - removing big home games is a big a factor. You will see a drop if you move from 6 home games featuring a big P5 fan base to 6 hour games with a FBS school.

I think Int’l fan engagement is another factor: MLS and NBA are growing and are probably the most popular leagues among foreign-born Americans. CFB anchors so much to tradition that it’s not really expanding its pie.
 
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