OT: College football experienced largest attendance drop in 34 years this season

It's not just that the games are too long now, it's that they are also too choppy when you are in the stands.

There are way too many intermittent delays, and they are way too long.

My son entered high school this year, so I started watching high school football games.  i enjoyed them way more than I thought I would, and his school is not even very good.

There is a flow to the game.  There are minimal pauses for non-game action.  The game moves.

There is not all the waiting around that there is in a Big House game.

 

during the Rich Rod/Hoke era. If I sat through that, then they clearly have me roped in for the long haul.

  Games are scheduled for the TV viewing audience, not for fans in the stadium.  No longer bound to Saturdays, some leagues play on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays or Fridays.  And the prime time Saturday games in Eastern and Central time zones aren't stadium-fan friendly;  who wants to battle traffic and drive any distance when games end around midnight.

  It's not surprising that attendance is dropping (everywhere but big ten).

 

The issue identified in this article is correct: the decline is led by students. You can see this at Michigan games, and in other games in the conference (I noticed it at 'Bama games, too.)

What is driving this to me is the game times. All of the good games are slated for prime time television on the east coast. That means games are scheduled for when students (and alums for that matter) may have better things to do. 

Michigan Stadium is not comfortable.

Well I did my part. Six games across the country which was my most since 2002. I’ll do my best to help the cause again this fall.

I think there are 4 big factors:

1) Ticket prices. For students, Michigan's tickets are about the same price as 25 years ago (adjusted for inflation), but more for everyone else.

2) Replays. Fans claim to want them, but they just take time away from being able to watch actual football, and are boring. Just get rid of them. There will be more or less the same amount of controversy anyway.

3) Crappy scheduling. This has improved significantly in recent years, but college football is still suffering from the effects of every team scheduling multiple tomato cans every year. They added a 12th game only to have every team fill it with garbage. That was a bad idea.

4) Cultural. For 50 years or so, college football was the best thing on TV for a lot of people, but now is it the best thing on TV or the internet? I just think younger people who would be college football fans a generation ago, probably spend their free time on their tablet or something else. Plus the issues with #2+3 give them less reason to watch.

I prefer watching the MMB high-stepping out of the tunnel pre-game than the talking heads in HD. I love the game day experience and if it is a good day for Michigan I can usually watch it again that week on BTN...in 60 minutes no less.

Obviously related. The TV money-grab has really damaged college football. 

Instead of catering to fans actually attending games, most decisions are made for the benefit of TV (and TV $$).

Endless TV timeouts, changes to game times, etc. hurt the in-game atmosphere, but IMO all that TV money has also moved college football far closer to professionalism. Coaching salaries and all other aspects of the current arms race wouldn't be so prominent without the explosion of TV money. 

And personally, I can't stand replay. Do people really believe replay has improved football?

 

 

The Atlanta Falcons had the lowest cost of concession on the NFL last year after slashing prices to be more affordable, and instead of losing profit, they actually MADE MORE MONEY.

Fans bought far more, and caused a gross increase in concession sales with the cheaper priced items.

Not saying I know economics, but why doesn't Michigan try this?  I spent over 60 bucks in concessions when I was at the night game this past year against Minnesota.

Tickets in the late 90s were $100 for the entire home schedule.  It didn't go up that much in my four years.  I honestly don't know why tickets would ever get raised on the students.  Not only do most pay thousands to go to school, but that four hour break is a great time to decompress after a week of studies.

On top of that, here are a few things they could do:

1. Scrap the neutral site non-conference games again.  We went a long time without them and survived.  If Alabama wants to play FSU, Wisconsin or USC, then don't be a chicken and play them in a "neutral site" venue a few hours from campus.

2. Incentivize strong non-conference scheduling in the CFP standings.  Teams should be docked for playing bad Group of Five teams.  Teams should also be docked big time for playing an FCS team.

3. Upgrade the WiFi in these stadiums.  The kids want to stay plugged in, so give them what they want in between these ridiculously long TV timeouts.

Outside of giving people free tix with their Coca-Cola, I don't know what else they can do.

I'll fork over a couple hundred bucks for one marquee game a year, but why would I drop a grand or more for season tickets to watch blowouts against Cinncinati, Air Force, Rutgers, or Maryland? 

Expansion has killed attedance.  Every year you have a couple MAC cupcakes but now you get a couple garbage B1G teams - there's no sense going to those games when its over by the 3rd quarter and half the stadium empties out.

Next year's home schedule is:

WMU

SMU

Nebraska

Maryland

Wisconsin

PSU

Indiana

That's possibly three but likely only two ranked teams and no rivals.  If Michigan's attendance was down this year, it will be even lower next...

I imagine it's the same across the country. College football is turning into the NFL - no one cares about Browns versus Titans because there's no history there.   What is the draw for Nebraska to play Purdue every year?  Or West Virginia against Kansas State?  You can go on down the line...I like my team but couldn't care less who they play about 75% of the time.  

EDIT: I just went through the schedule when my brother attended UM from 1996-1999.  During those four seasons (96, 96, 98, 99) they played ONE MAC team, Hawaii, and Rice.  Those are the only games against mid-major (or less) competition - three over four years.  

Price is just too much for my middle class family.  I simply cannot afford to go to a game anymore. 

In 2015, I was able to scrape some money together to take my oldest daughter to her first game and we had an incredible day watching Michigan curbstomp Northwestern, but with a wife and 4 kids now, it is just not a feasible outing for all of us to do. 

but I imagine the mystique is gone for most. There are so many games televised that nothing feels like an event anymore.

Over the past couple of years men in suits get alarmed at the decrease in attendance of college basketball and football games. 

They start to blame technology, the fans, game rules, and society.

And yet somehow, they fail to recognize any issues with commercial intrusion into games, goofy-ass game time starts which change week to week to accomodate television programing, the continued seperation of athletes from the general student population, soaring ticket and concession prices, and rampant cheating altering the balance of competition. 

Sorry, as a fan, I'm smarter than that. That's why I went to college.

 

 

1) Cost: obvs

2) TV Timeouts/DVR: no one mentioned this but with modern DVR tech, it's soooo easy to start the game at home 45 mins into it and zip thru the commercials, QTR and Halftimes, dumb reviews, etc. That's the TV difference b/t now and 20 years ago: DVR.

3) a few have mentioned this but I'll expand on it: "Frat Bros." That's right. You know the douchebags that think they own the place and feel they are entitled to have everyone know that they think the own the place. Drunk, obnoxious, not kid friendly, not funny, not really enjoying it b/c they clearly have anger issues, hate on the opponent (or their own team) in hateful ways.

those guys should be kicked out of the stadium but no, the rest of us have to suck it up. Well, fuck that shit - I'd rather watch it at home with DVR with people that aren't complete douchbags. I can kick the douchbags out of my house/not let them in and thus don't have to deal with those mouthbreathers.

To watch UM play Alabama in my own backyard here in Dallas. There was no way in hell I was going to waste that much money again and so I watched the Florida game from my home.

Lots of great thoughts regarding what needs to be fixed, but how about we spend a little more time analyzing the #'s. Pieces pop up like this all the time regarding attendance and ratings and they all have the same formula: make a single comparison, put it in a context that provides a WOW headline, throw down a bunch of meandering opinions, lace with some non-relevant facts and Voila! Here's a serious sports/business article. In this specific case, what exactly does "largest drop in 34 years" mean? A 3.2% drop in avergae per game attendance. Ceratinly not ideal, but attendance at football is not somethign that you grow each year at 10% like you're some kind of business selling a product made on an asembly line. Growing attendance essentially requires expansion of stadiums (sorry, you can't count on getting more people to the Illinois & Rutgers of the world - there will always be bottom feeders that can't draw). And while there has been some notable expansion over the last 20 plus years (Michigan, ND, Penn State, Texas A & M come to mind) there has also been additional teams added to D1 that bring the average attendance down. Overall holding steady seems like the best case scenario and guess what you find when you look at the #s? In 1983 avergae/game attendance was 42,162 and in 2017 it was 42,203. There's probably some more digging and analysis to be done on this, but after a cursory look I can't say that there's some new, huge problem that needs addressing.      

It's not hard to see why. Games are longer, they're considerably more expensive for a whole family to attend, so many TV timeouts, and for the price of a hot dog and small coke at the stadium, you might as well go to Zingermann's down the street because you're going to pay the same amount there but for a far better meal. And with all these neutral games in sterile, corporate NFL stadiums, a lot of the mystique of big time football games has been taken away. USC and Alabama don't play home and homes anymore. They play one game in effing JerryWorld. Sometimes its just easier (and far cheaper) to watch on the couch. 

The fan experience has lessened considerably, but as long as all this money is being made off of the sport, you shouldn't ever expect it to stop. And I don't blame the conferences, cable companies or broadcasting companies for whoring themselves out for this. I can't definitively say I wouldn't do it either if I were the one making the decisions. 

College football is a business. Whether we want to admit it or not. And business is a boomin'. If you're staring at a multi-million dollar paycheck, you'd be hard-pressed to find ANYONE who would turn that away. I'm sure a lot of them wish we could have a more "purified" experience like we did back in the good old days, but then again, walking home with a cool couple million in your pocket feels even better. 

 

Live in NYC and don't know what tickets costs at the Big House, but I refuse to go to a pro sports game here in NYC because prices are aburd. I will watch on TV and use my money on concerts since a majority of the music I listen to is confined to clubs and not arenas.But I got to think cost is the number one driver for this.

Cheap huge HD flat screen TVs...that and all the fucked up extra commercial breaks they are now taking to pay for Jim Delamer's new yacht

camera angles do not allow you to see the whole field, the routes develop and the coverage, etc.  I agree the game day experience pretty much sucks now, but high quality tv's do not give you the same feel for what's going on as being there.  although if you are in an end zone, good luck figuring out how far each play went until they spot the ball.  

I like having my scotch and bathroom nearby, so for my money, the gameday in the suite is the best way to watch because you have other games on tv while the man in the red hat is halting everything.  it's warm, you are at the game, and you are not crammed into a 20 inch wide seat next to larry the cable guy.  so civilized.

Larger separation between upper and middle class and the cost of attending sporting events these days (especially for a family) and no shit...attendance is down.  That and I personally would mostly rather sit at home in front of 65 inches of 4k/UHD...as noted, game atmospheres kind of suck.

Football reached peak popularity and is regressing toward the norm. There are a million reasons why attendance dropped and we can all pick are own personal problem to blame it on, but reality football peaked and was more dominant in its category than any business/sport can maintain over time. It is regressing toward a more sustainable level of popularity.

There are too many advantages to staying home to be honest, especially if it isn't a big game.

If I stay home I can:
(1) Watch the game in HD, pause and rewind any plays I wanted a second look at on my command.
(2) Easily grab a snack or make the bathroom without missing a play.
(3) Have better and cheaper food during the game.
(4) Not spend 3 hours to get there and 3 hours to get back, which means more time with my kids.
(5) I can take a quick jog out in the sanddunes during halftime if I need to relieve the stress of the sputtering offense.
(6) Save money and buy stocks with it.

 

There are advantages of going to games too, but when half the home schedule isn't as interesting of a match up...

The way were playing lately I want to be able to move on with my day when I want to and not be stuck in a bowl watching us run the same pass routes every down.

The link below was posted in another thread.  But the declines are across all-divisions.  FBS isn't unique, and that strikes me as meaningful:

FCS --- from 8357 to 8223 (-1.6%)

D2 --- from 3459 to 3273 (-5.4%)

D3 --- from 1954 to 1873 (-4.1%)

http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/football_records/Attendance/2017.pdf

Television, the playoffs making so many games meaningless, too many bowls, too many TV time outs, late starting times (3:30 is late if you have plans on a Saturday night), crowds, traffic, parking, and probably a million other things are negatively affecting the desirability of attending games. Another factor that doesn’t get discussed a lot is that the fans whose generation routinely filled stadiums are getting older - it’s hard for older fans to attend a game, and if you’re over a certain age, it’s tiring to stand for a whole game because folks won’t sit down. This news is hardly surprising.

Let's blame the night game trend. We need more noon games not less.

Our end of the bargain :)