College football has largest attendance drop in 34 years - CBS Sports

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A blip in the stats and you guys are writing the epitaph. I’m not dead yet...
 

Pompous Elitist said:
A blip in the stats and you guys are writing the epitaph. I’m not dead yet...
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- Even the most rabid league in the country saw a dip. In 2017, the SEC experienced its sharpest per-game decline -- down an average 2,433 fans -- since 1992. That figure led the Power Five in fans lost per game in 2017.

While the SEC led all FBS conferences in average attendance for the 20th consecutive year, its average attendance (75,074) was the lowest since 2005. The SEC has slipped an average of 2,926 fans per game (3.7 percent) since a record 78,630 average in 2015.

- 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. Marketers continue to struggle to find a successful balance in stadiums. Across all leagues, that means making the game experience as close to that living room experience as possible.

- Some of the slippage nationally can be attributed to the growth of the FBS. In recent years, FCS schools with smaller fan bases and stadiums have moved up to FBS. Since 1988, Division I-A/FBS has grown by almost a quarter from 104 schools to 129 in 2018. Example: Georgia Southern last year drew a hurricane-impacted crowd of 3,387 vs. New Hampshire.

But across all divisions, 1,693,661 fewer fans attended games in 2017 compared to 2016. That's the biggest per-year drop since 2004. Although the average decline for FBS, FCS, Divisions II and III was only 380 fewer fans per game, that marks the sharpest year-over-year drop since 1993.

- Bowl game attendance also declined for the seventh straight year to an average of 40,506 in the 40 games. That marks a 23 percent drop-off in average bowl attendance since 2010.

Waters said a mitigating factor in bowl attendance dip is an expansion in recent years to several smaller venues.

The total of 47.6 million fans who attended NCAA football in 2017 is down almost 2.7 million fans (5.3 percent) since an all-time high of 50.3 million in 2013.

In fact, there were indicators across the board that fewer fans are paying the price of admission to actually watch games.

- 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.
In the latest realignment era (since 2012), Power Five conference attendance is down an average aggregate of 11,383 fans per game. Only the SEC is up in average attendance during that six-year period.

- The Pac-12 has experienced the biggest overall drop of any Power Five league: 4,078 fans per game since 2012. Its 2017 average of 49,601 is the conference's lowest average attendance since 2001.

- The ACC experienced its lowest average attendance (48,442) since 1999 (45,073). The 2017 figure was the lowest among Power Five conferences for the 13th straight year.

- Only the Big Ten and Mountain West had average per-game increases in attendance from 2016. In once again leading FBS in attendance, Michigan (111,589 per game) posted the six largest crowds of 2017.

- Purdue had the largest attendance increase (up 13,433 per game) going from 34,451 in 2016 to 47,884 in 2017. The Boilermakers won seven games for the first time since 2011.
 

hungan1 said:
In addition to all the realignments, P5 Conferences are bending over backwards for big TV & other electronic media money at the expense of of live fans.

They jerk around with starting times for the convenience of TV slots. The lesser teams like the Gophers get stuck with 11:00 AM or so start times to the chagrin of tailgaters. Some students don't even bother waking up in time for the games after a night out on the town even with free tickets.

They are giving fans multiple reasons not to attend games or be loyal.
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Yeah...given the $$ those contracts bring in, a more reasonable price point to attend would make more sense in a lot of ways. Of course the Gophs need to win as well.
 

Given the author cannot perform basic mathematics, I question the entire article. Furthermore, when it consists of limited tables and cherry-picked stars instead of a complete longitudinal data set in the form of a nice graph.
 

Someday, given a long enough timeframe, we'll all be watching the games in VR from field level in our homes or wherever. Crowds will continue to thin further until ticket prices drop and eventually, only the biggest games get live interest. For many games crowds will be digitally created or enhanced for fans at home, but the games themselves in real life would look like a Gopher spring game. A big reason people show for live games is the atmosphere of a full stadium, so it then becomes a vicious cycle until there's nobody there in person.

These developments wouldn't move the economic needle too much for major sports - for years they have generated more and more money from TV and less from the gate. As long as people watch somehow, they make $ and survive.
 


The cause of things that are bad are things I don't like.... so clearly this decline is caused by broccoli.
 

I'm interested in how the price of a hot dog or a soda has changed over the decades at college football games. Concessions have become more expensive, and these two would be good benchmarks because they've been on the menu for decades. Tickets keep going up, but concessions are part of the rising expense of taking the family to a game. A ticket to first Super Bowl cost $10 - the equivalent of $75 today. A ticket for the 1961 Rose Bowl was $6.
 

All I was that the price of gasoline in 1973 was about $0.37/gal. The OPEC Oil Embargo occurred around December 1973. By 1989, gas prices soared to about $1.25.gal.

Comparison of prices over the years - http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/70yearsofpricechange.html

Food Prices:
1930s - http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/30sfood.html

1940s - http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/40sfood.html

1950s - http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/50sfood.html

1960s - http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/60sfood.html

1970s - http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/70sfood.html

1980s - http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/80sfood.html

1990s - http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/90sfood.html
 

RodentRampage said:
I'm interested in how the price of a hot dog or a soda has changed over the decades at college football games. Concessions have become more expensive, and these two would be good benchmarks because they've been on the menu for decades. Tickets keep going up, but concessions are part of the rising expense of taking the family to a game. A ticket to first Super Bowl cost $10 - the equivalent of $75 today. A ticket for the 1961 Rose Bowl was $6.
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I have to wonder if a plain old hot dog and soda are really an attraction or if it's the other foods that are options.
 



A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
I have to wonder if a plain old hot dog and soda are really an attraction or if it's the other foods that are options.
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I chose those as examples because you could compare the price of them over decades, while some of the newer options haven't been around long enough. I'm just interested in how much concessions have gone up, and I don't have any good data for that.
 

hungan1 said:
In addition to all the realignments, P5 Conferences are bending over backwards for big TV & other electronic media money at the expense of of live fans.

They jerk around with starting times for the convenience of TV slots. The lesser teams like the Gophers get stuck with 11:00 AM or so start times to the chagrin of tailgaters. Some students don't even bother waking up in time for the games after a night out on the town even with free tickets.

They are giving fans multiple reasons not to attend games or be loyal.
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For me personally, this is a big thing going forward. My kids are playing football on Saturday's (and hockey, which is now starting in September as well). There will always be some games that we'll miss because of this, but it would help to be able to plan things out if more game times were known in advance. We were able to attend the MSU game last year because we were able to plan out in advance, knowing that it was a night game. Same with the homecoming game vs. Illinois. We were not able to make it to the Maryland game (although in fairness, even knowing that it would be at 11AM a month earlier probably wouldn't have been able to change that). Granted this wouldn't solve every game, but I think it would help for some if they knew game times ahead of time.

I think definitely that ticket prices are playing a part when you can stay at home & watch numerous games on a beautiful television. But I think that one may be difficult to roll back to a level that makes both sides happy.
 

FireDaveLee said:
For me personally, this is a big thing going forward. My kids are playing football on Saturday's (and hockey, which is now starting in September as well). There will always be some games that we'll miss because of this, but it would help to be able to plan things out if more game times were known in advance. We were able to attend the MSU game last year because we were able to plan out in advance, knowing that it was a night game. Same with the homecoming game vs. Illinois. We were not able to make it to the Maryland game (although in fairness, even knowing that it would be at 11AM a month earlier probably wouldn't have been able to change that). Granted this wouldn't solve every game, but I think it would help for some if they knew game times ahead of time.

I think definitely that ticket prices are playing a part when you can stay at home & watch numerous games on a beautiful television. But I think that one may be difficult to roll back to a level that makes both sides happy.
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Have kids, yeah it's a pain when I've no clue if I can take them / can't arrange for childcare or whatever because I'm waiting on a TV network to decide.
 

Last season all kinds of people were complaining about all the empty seats at games. Now some of them are complaining about stats confirming what they were saying.

That sums up internet boards.
 



Iceland12 said:
Last season all kinds of people were complaining about all the empty seats at games. Now some of them are complaining about stats confirming what they were saying.

That sums up internet boards.
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Big Ten attendance was up.
 


Iceland12 said:
Yeah, remember you bragging about that last season.. :D
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Wasn’t me? I think the only attendance arguments I’ve waded into are this one and the debate last off-season on whether PJ’s public appearances would lead to a dramatic increase in attendance (I said no).

For the record, I’m in the camp of drop prices on tix and concessions to fill the stadium. Make it a loss leader if necessary. Sometimes ROI is not immediately apparent. Unfortunately the on the field product was so bad last season it may be difficult to give away tickets and fill the stadium this year. Winning will garner interest.
 

Pompous Elitist said:
Wasn’t me? I think the only attendance arguments I’ve waded into are this one and the debate last off-season on whether PJ’s public appearances would lead to a dramatic increase in attendance
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Public appearances? I remember a discussion about how hanging an oar in the campus subway was an indication of the spike about to happen.


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60's Guy said:
Along those lines... I was thinking the other day....you got Sawvel, defensive coordinator at Wake Forest with a run of drafted Gopher DB's. You got Limegrover coaching o-line at 2X playoff runnerup Penn State. You got Tracy the Defensive Coordinator at Washington State. Pretty much anybody would agree like him or not Jerry Kill is thought of pretty highly in the football community and as a person. He is without a job for 10 minutes and multiple schools make overtures to come work for us...we create a position for you. That's four pretty well respected coaches.

Now we have PJ who has a following. And maybe Callahan? Maybe OC Kirk? And maybe DC Robb? Is that progress?
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Outside of Sawvel all your other examples received demotions. Also PJ seems to hire well-respected people as well...as seen by the poaching we have experienced this off-season.

All that said, if you gave me the option to have Fleck as HC, Sawvel/Claeys as DC and Limegrover as OL coach I'd take it in a second.
 

Pompous Elitist said:
Wasn’t me? I think the only attendance arguments I’ve waded into are this one and the debate last off-season on whether PJ’s public appearances would lead to a dramatic increase in attendance (I said no).

For the record, I’m in the camp of drop prices on tix and concessions to fill the stadium. Make it a loss leader if necessary. Sometimes ROI is not immediately apparent. Unfortunately the on the field product was so bad last season it may be difficult to give away tickets and fill the stadium this year. Winning will garner interest.
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This. So much this when it comes to gopher football
 

From a Badger season-ticket holder perspective, I missed a home game last year for the first time in 20+ years. The weather was ****ty, the opponent poor (Maryland maybe?), and the game was on TV in HD. We "tailgated" at my brother's house in town, making the actual game a lst minute decisioin. My son, who has tickets with our group, looked at me in disgust and said "Is this your new MO? If it might rain, you aren't going?"

As I get older, the lesser games don't have the allure, especially when they are on TV (in HD) and the weather is iffy. When the weather is nice, the tailgate makes the crappy games worthwhile. We are waiting for the young 'uns to pick up responsibility for the tailgate.

In summary, I don't think cost is that big of an issue, but I think UW cost is relatively low.
 

Some hard core fans develop beer guts and become fat and lazy and would rather stay in the comfort of home to be closer to the toilet, the grill & the kitchen, and the beer cooler and watch the game on Big screen HDTV with instant replays.

Why haul all these stuff and their carcass to tailgate at the stadium lot and go to the game to watch a s#i%%y opponent on a cold dreary day?

Besides, beer is cheaper at home than in the stadium.
 

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