Charlotte's Mayo bowl game suffered the smallest turnout in its 23-year history on Jan. 3.

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Never a bad thing to look to “The Bard” for literary answers/musings on vexing and weighty matters such as this:

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This discussion has pointed toward a LOT of things that conspired to affect attendance. In an attempt to summarize them in order of importance:

1. First ever Charlotte bowl outside of the week between the Holidays. Definite "post holidays" downer vibe and anchor on people wanting to take time off and travel.
2. Opt outs / transfers sucked the life out of the appeal of the game more than "usual" (especially for VTech fans).
3. Geography - no local "anchor" participants and MN was pretty far away
4. Second coldest kickoff temp in this bowl's history (hurt walk up sales)
5. potential lack of knowledge among locals for the existence of this game.
6. Very windy (hurt walk up sales)


Is this a pretty comprehensive list? Is it in the right order of importance? Did I miss any?
 

I live in NC, near Asheville, and was planning to attend with my brother, who lives in Charlotte. The weather was lousy, so we stayed home to watch.
 

Schnauzer said:
This discussion has pointed toward a LOT of things that conspired to affect attendance. In an attempt to summarize them in order of importance:

1. First ever Charlotte bowl outside of the week between the Holidays. Definite "post holidays" downer vibe and anchor on people wanting to take time off and travel.
2. Opt outs / transfers sucked the life out of the appeal of the game more than "usual" (especially for VTech fans).
3. Geography - no local "anchor" participants and MN was pretty far away
4. Second coldest kickoff temp in this bowl's history (hurt walk up sales)
5. potential lack of knowledge among locals for the existence of this game.
6. Very windy (hurt walk up sales)


Is this a pretty comprehensive list? Is it in the right order of importance? Did I miss any?
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Agree with your points, although I would quibble somewhat with #3. I met a Tech grad (Ben) at Graham's prior to the game. He told me that outside of the Greater DMV (District-Maryland-Virginia) metro area, Charlotte has the greatest concentration of Tech grads in the nation (his statement, not mine). Plus, Blacksburg is only 2+45 from Charlotte per Google Maps (almost the same driving time as from NCSU, BTW), so pretty easy for Tech fans to travel if they so wanted.

While it's true that there wasn't a Carolina team to serve as the anchor, Tech was as close to being an anchor as any of the NC teams. Of all your points above, I'd say that the opt outs and transfers was the #1 reason for squelching Tech fan interest/enthusiasm in this game.

A good showing of Gopher fans...very happy that our lads won! Gives me bragging rights over my Tech colleagues!
 



Personally, the opt-out trend will keep me from spending money to go to any non-CFP bowls. If the best players don’t want to play, I’ll just watch on TV.
 

GopherVotary said:
Personally, the opt-out trend will keep me from spending money to go to any non-CFP bowls. If the best players don’t want to play, I’ll just watch on TV.
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That's a very logical, prudent and practical response.

Assuming one has an annual budget/alliance allocated to watching the Gophers besides home games it seems like a better use of resources (including potential vacation time) would be to go to a road game then a potential Bowl game.

Said Bowl Game:

- Not assured they will even qualify until they get 6 Wins (or APR Bonus)
- Against an Unknown opponent
- Will be in an unknown location, date & time until 10 days after Thanksgiving
- Will take place 7 - 30 days after the announcement
- May have a large roster shake-up
- May have significant changes to the coaching staff
- Has to be worked into any Holiday plans and/or vacation allotment

Those that have the resources, time and means to go that's fantastic. I don't even consider going for various reasons but but even before opt outs were a thing the biggest barrier was work obligations.
 




gopherphil said:
Ya we don’t travel well. If I was to travel for a Gopher game I’d have to travel by myself… My four kids and wife have less than 0 interest in football…
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If you could have gotten away with it, this would have been the game to go solo. We (Wife and I) flew in Friday and left Saturday evening. The U of M tailgate was sold out. We didn't go into the Dukes hospitality tent. It appeared that some others did the same thing we did. Charlotte is a nice walkable city.

The Citrus Bowl was the one that I wish I would have given myself more time.
 
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Ummm. It was a bit nipply that night. I’m not sure if they expect any local Charlotteans to buy tickets, but I would guess they had near zero walk up crowd.

Pour some mayo on me - can’t get that out of my head
 

corcorangopher said:
Ummm. It was a bit nipply that night. I’m not sure if they expect any local Charlotteans to buy tickets, but I would guess they had near zero walk up crowd.

Pour some mayo on me - can’t get that out of my head
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If we had some low level bowl game here in town, I'd go every dang game.

But yeah I expect if you're a local and you step outside into that WIND. You look at your $10 ticket and you head back inside.

Inside the stadium it wasn't that bad but man outside. I was with a group hiding behind a building waiting for them to open the doors across the street.
 





Maybe they shouldn't have priced tickets at $100+ if they wanted strong attendance. That's about the get in price for our home games against Wisconsin or Iowa, for a mostly meaningless game with a lot of starters missing and an added cost of a few hundred dollars minimum for flights and a hotel.
 

DarrenTheGreek said:
Some reasons I see for the low attendance is:
1. First time the game has been outside the week of Christmas to New Years. For most people, the Holidays were over on January 2. I know a few school districts that were going back already.

2. Game was prime-time kick instead of the usual afternoon kick that this bowl usually does. The temp was very cold for local averages (2nd coldest in the history of this bowl). That is going to keep away the casual walk-ups from locals.

3. As others have mentioned, the opt-outs took a lot of startch out from the V-Tech crowd, which would be counted on to increase attendance.
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4. ticket prices

The decision to only sell in the lower bowl was smart, but it created an artificial bubble. We waited until an hour before kick before biting the bullet and going with the cheapest get in price ($80). Most bowl games you can get in for $15-20.

That pricing plus the cold weather probably deterred much of the local walk up interest.
 

Two points on this one.

First, MinneNoVa and the Billds engaged VT fans before the game at Grahams and the die hards made up the VT contingent for this one. Their program is in a measure of turmoil with a lot of unhappy players if going into the Portal means you're unhappy. General fan excitement was pretty low but the folks that were there wanted to see one more game in the 2024 season (just like us).

Second, from the stands it looked like Minnesota traveled well. Not great, but well, for all the factors listed above. Attendance levels for this one will not be held against us in future bids, which in fact is becoming less relevant as the bowl selection order ossifies. We did good there.

As for the weather, yes, it was cold. Both sets of fans had a good time although winning is better.

I guess that was three points. Sip of coffee...
 

DarrenTheGreek said:
Some reasons I see for the low attendance is:
1. First time the game has been outside the week of Christmas to New Years. For most people, the Holidays were over on January 2. I know a few school districts that were going back already.

2. Game was prime-time kick instead of the usual afternoon kick that this bowl usually does. The temp was very cold for local averages (2nd coldest in the history of this bowl). That is going to keep away the casual walk-ups from locals.

3. As others have mentioned, the opt-outs took a lot of startch out from the V-Tech crowd, which would be counted on to increase attendance.
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This is spot on.

Plus $700 RT flights even for me in Phoenix.
 

Ope3 said:
The article was completely independent of the CFP Playoffs. Consolation Bowls only.

Yes the focus is on TV, but that current revenue is not enough for some of the (Consolation) Bowl organizers to offset the costs of shipping teams to whatever site, renting the stadium etc.
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I wouldn't mind if a few bowls folded.
 

gopherphil said:
Ya we don’t travel well. If I was to travel for a Gopher game I’d have to travel by myself… My four kids and wife have less than 0 interest in football…
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I really don't agree. Great crowd from the U for UCLA game.
 

PMWinSTP said:
I wouldn't mind if a few bowls folded.
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I wouldn't either, but the article suggests there is appetite from a TV viewership standpoint for a few more (as many as 5), though it didn't suggest there will be any expansion.

Whether it can be figured out how to keep the existing ones financially solvent relying on much less adding others is a different matter.

Conference tie ins might dissolve or be altered significantly is one suggestion, allowing Bowls to go for more regional matchups and help with costs.,

Just me speculating, maybe some are held on campus, cutting travel expenses at least in half. Maybe multiple bowls take place at the same site or even the same date.

TV viewers don't seem to care about the quality, they just want more college football to watch. I can't explain why, it just is.
 

PMWinSTP said:
I really don't agree. Great crowd from the U for UCLA game.
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A whole different deal for that compared to a Bowl. Gopher fans new the date, opponent and iconic venue more than 9 months ago allowing those wishing to travel the ability for budgeting their finances as well as vacation/work schedules.

They also were pretty reasonably confident in what Gopher players would be suiting up for the contest.
 

Ope3 said:
I wouldn't either, but the article suggests there is appetite from a TV viewership standpoint for a few more (as many as 5), though it didn't suggest there will be any expansion.

Whether it can be figured out how to keep the existing ones financially solvent relying on much less adding others is a different matter.

Conference tie ins might dissolve or be altered significantly is one suggestion, allowing Bowls to go for more regional matchups and help with costs.,

Just me speculating, maybe some are held on campus, cutting travel expenses at least in half. Maybe multiple bowls take place at the same site or even the same date.

TV viewers don't seem to care about the quality, they just want more college football to watch. I can't explain why, it just is.
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Agree it is cheap sports entertainment for TV and a boost to local economies. On the other hand, the CFP added four games not bowl aff
 



BilldGopher said:
Also worth noting we traveled the Band for this one. That has been an issue in the past. Not sure what's changed...
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I assume someone paid.

At least in the past that was the issue, band didn't have the budget for such things.

Hopefully everyone's mom was satisfied with the accommodations this time ...
 

I thought the band always went to bowl games? Don’t the bowls themselves pay for at least part of that?
 

Forgive me for not looking too hard, but did anyone see a player swag bag for this bowl?
 


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