PonyFans.com

In era of technological, financial change, has college football peaked?
Dennis Dodd
By Dennis Dodd | Senior College Football Columnist
Jan. 22, 2013 8:02 AM ET

127 | Comments

Average attendance for Maryland home games has been among the lowest in the BCS. (Getty Images) Average attendance for Maryland home games has been among the lowest in the BCS. (Getty Images)

It hit Mark Hollis on a rainy Saturday last October. Michigan State's innovative AD couldn't quite figure out why there were so many empty seats at Spartan Stadium. Despite the weather, this was a Big Ten rival -- Iowa. The day was sacred, one of only six home football Saturdays -- the opener against Boise State was on a Friday -- the beloved Spartans could be seen.

The crowd of 70,000 was the smallest of the season.

"What can't you do in the rain?" Hollis asked himself. "Text. So they stay inside."

They being students who grow up to be the alums who form the foundation of any school's future financial base. And if they aren't going to games when they're in school because of smartphone issues, what does that bode for the future?
Average Attendance
Year Avg
2012 45,274
2011 45,498
2010 45,912
2009 45,545
2008 46,456
2007 46,328

"That age group is going to be -- I don't want to call it a threat -- but a high concern," Hollis said. "If you lose that 10 years [after college] ... or they're watching it on TV, or they're tweeting about it. We've got to find a way to connect."

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootbal ... all-peaked

This goes hand in hand with the short attention span and instant gratification technology provides. Personally, I'm on the younger side and take advantage of the technology, but that won't keep me from attending football or basketball games.

In my opinion, yes. As ticket prices continue to go up and century-old rivalries are ditched in favor of better TV contracts, I think we are going to see game attendance decline and TV viewership will follow.

yes - what they are doing are sacrificing the attending fan for the maybe TV viewer. Not a healthy recipe. They will end up making the college game as boring as the NFL - and that is saying alot.

MustangStealth wrote:In my opinion, yes. As ticket prices continue to go up and century-old rivalries are ditched in favor of better TV contracts, I think we are going to see game attendance decline and TV viewership will follow.

Exactly... If you would have said 15 years ago that UT and A&M would be in different conferences and not even play each other, people would have thought you were crazy. When I was growing up, Thanksgiving and that game went hand in hand. (At least until A&M went on probation so they couldn't go on TV and they moved the game) Now people are like, oh well... At least we got our Network.

NCAA Basketball is at its all time worst as well... Unless they require a minimum of 2 years for players to showcase their talents for the NBA, the product will continue to go downhill. Expanding the tourney for TV along with a diluted talent base = crappier fan experience.

gostangs wrote:yes - what they are doing are sacrificing the attending fan for the maybe TV viewer. Not a healthy recipe. They will end up making the college game as boring as the NFL - and that is saying alot.

Judging by all of the empty seats in NFL stadiums across the country and the league's plunging TV ratings, you're obviously right.

East Coast Mustang wrote:

gostangs wrote:yes - what they are doing are sacrificing the attending fan for the maybe TV viewer. Not a healthy recipe. They will end up making the college game as boring as the NFL - and that is saying alot.

Judging by all of the empty seats in NFL stadiums across the country and the league's plunging TV ratings, you're obviously right.

All bowl games with the exception of the Rose,Sugar and BCS had huge numbers of empty seats.

not Cotton Bowl-it has a logical regional matchup which is a big part of the problem. Bowls with regional matchups do pretty good

East - assuming you are being sarcastic - there have been lots of empty seats throughout the NFL all year.

gostangs wrote:East - assuming you are being sarcastic - there have been lots of empty seats throughout the NFL all year.

Yeah I was referring to the NFL, and in the NFL, just like in college, winning teams sell tickets. It's not a difficult formula. People like winners. In college you need to win a lot longer than in the NFL to sell out, though.

East Coast Mustang wrote:

gostangs wrote:East - assuming you are being sarcastic - there have been lots of empty seats throughout the NFL all year.

Yeah I was referring to the NFL, and in the NFL, just like in college, winning teams sell tickets. It's not a difficult formula. People like winners. In college you need to win a lot longer than in the NFL to sell out, though.

No built in fan base for the college game. Anyone living near Dallas most likely will cheer for the Cowboys. Doesn't work that way for college teams - not the same sense of it being the "home" team unless you are in a town like Austin, Norman, Lubbock etc.

SMU2007 wrote:

East Coast Mustang wrote:

gostangs wrote:East - assuming you are being sarcastic - there have been lots of empty seats throughout the NFL all year.

Yeah I was referring to the NFL, and in the NFL, just like in college, winning teams sell tickets. It's not a difficult formula. People like winners. In college you need to win a lot longer than in the NFL to sell out, though.

No built in fan base for the college game. Anyone living near Dallas most likely will cheer for the Cowboys. Doesn't work that way for college teams - not the same sense of it being the "home" team unless you are in a town like Austin, Norman, Lubbock etc.

Right, you need to win a lot longer at SMU to sell out. I just took exception with the post that the NFL is "boring" and somehow on the decline. The NFL is the premiere sports league in the world.

I guess Henry Winkler has "jumped" over to college football.

You can do it Bobby Boucher

It is only logical to see that discretionary spend during economic downturns to decrease. Thus, entertainment dollars are reallocated to other needs.

Granted, we are in a 'recovery' yet the unemployment is high, the cost of fuel (gas), food and others non-discretionary items contiunes to go up. Include that health insurance premiums contiune to rise and the overall cost of living (not government statistics) contiune to rise, it is understandable and expected that sporting events would have lower revenues (as in attendence).

This is a story about the Sun raising n the East every morning and assuming it indicates an unexpected event.