http://espn.go.com/college-football/stor...ball-games

very good piece

Its a concern for all sports, specifically football. With the way college football is scheduled, it puts 95% of the games on one day of the week. NFL scheduling on Sunday is just as bad. Couple that with a fan experience that is becoming more and more expensive, and a lot of fans are choosing to watch 7 or 8 games on their HDTV instead of dropping a load of cash and heading to the stadium. The NFL is more popular than ever, but tons of people would rather stay at home and keep up with their fantasy teams on Redzone. It's absurd what it costs to attend an NFL game. So, who can blame those who choose to stay home?

I guess I just am a pretty loyal fan for Tiger football (and I love drinking at the games). I've been there through the worst of the worst and will continue to be there as long as the team takes the field.

I've wondered if current trends in pop culture / youth culture are reducing the interest by:

A) being a sports fan is seen as uncool or geeky

B) kids would rather stay home and play whatever popular shoot 'em up / action video game than go sit through a live game with all its stoppages.

Several reasons:

1. Student seating for big time programs is pretty bad in terms of sightlines;
2. The HD/big screen TV phenomenon is pretty darn unreal;
3. Would LOVE to know the difference between DAY game and NIGHT game student attendance. Night games where there is more time to get ready, more atmosphere more 'whaddya doing after the game?' seems as though the night games would be better attended by the students;
4. Virtually ANY college FB game (BCS division or whatever they call it) is available on the Internet for free.


The same thing is happening for college hoops as well. I really think it is the impact of TV. It is just so much more convenient and better experience sitting at home with your friends getting awesome replays and reception with no lines for the bathroom, free food/beer as opposed to going to the game with bad sightlines.

I have been stuck with endzone seating for college FB and it really is quite bad both sightwise and experience-wise.

This is a problem that is not going to go away anytime soon.

espn has its version of redzone every saturday and wednesday night. its addictive with all the live cut ins from across espns platforms. soon enough college football will have a simliar channel and all bets will be off. but i've said for years that crowds at sporting events are just backdrops - tv could just show the games in empty stadiums and green screen in crowds if they wanted.

Red zone is awesome. It's on from 1-7 every Sunday at my house

(02-17-2014 08:44 PM)tigerjeb Wrote:  espn has its version of redzone every saturday and wednesday night. its addictive with all the live cut ins from across espns platforms. soon enough college football will have a simliar channel and all bets will be off. but i've said for years that crowds at sporting events are just backdrops - tv could just show the games in empty stadiums and green screen in crowds if they wanted.

Look no further than Major League Baseball. The Dodgers get around $250million/year just from their local TV rights. Gate receipts? Somewhere in the neighborhood of $150 million. The TV experience just keeps getting better and better. I really think the only thing for teams to do - which is pretty much no way for us and for pretty much any non-BCS division team - is to copy the Cowboys. That stadium is so unreal and so comfortable and so plush that it truly competes with the TV experience, pretty much regardless of where you sit in the stadium.

I actually have tickets at the Liberty Bowl a third of the way up and just one side of midfield. I prefer to sit in the endzone where I can have plenty of room with no one sitting near me.

I can't speak for other college stadiums, but to me, the expense of attending a Tiger football game is a myth. I have attended the games for years, park free on the street across from Tiger Lane, and bring whatever I want to drink or eat to my tailgate, just like I would if I stayed home. My only real expense is the cost of my season ticket, about $7 a game. I do have to use gas in my car to get there. No real need to purchase the $8 beers and nachos in the stadium. $7 for about four hours of fun.

(02-17-2014 08:44 PM)tigerjeb Wrote:  espn has its version of redzone every saturday and wednesday night. its addictive with all the live cut ins from across espns platforms. soon enough college football will have a simliar channel and all bets will be off. but i've said for years that crowds at sporting events are just backdrops - tv could just show the games in empty stadiums and green screen in crowds if they wanted.

Many games are shown on TV in practically empty stadiums or arena.

(02-17-2014 11:23 PM)21-17 Best Time I Ever Ha Wrote:  I actually have tickets at the Liberty Bowl a third of the way up and just one side of midfield. I prefer to sit in the endzone where I can have plenty of room with no one sitting near me.

I can't speak for other college stadiums, but to me, the expense of attending a Tiger football game is a myth. I have attended the games for years, park free on the street across from Tiger Lane, and bring whatever I want to drink or eat to my tailgate, just like I would if I stayed home. My only real expense is the cost of my season ticket, about $7 a game. I do have to use gas in my car to get there. No real need to purchase the $8 beers and nachos in the stadium. $7 for about four hours of fun.

I know, but that's the problem that we have as a program: it is wonderfully cheap/easy to get tickets to Tiger FB and have a great time....alas that means that there is not a huge demand for tickets. Virtually all big time programs have demand > supply (with the exception of the student section of course).

That's why I have always been such a huge Tiger FB fan: it's a pretty good product (and during the DeAngelo years a very solid product) for a dirt cheap price.

people do not appreciate the one big advantage of not being on campus - there is plenty of great parking, ample tailgating and easy access. most college stadiums are landlocked and its a big hassle getting on and off campus on gameday, not to mention the expense and difficulty of aquiring tailgating rights somewhere on campus.

we've got it pretty good in that respect

one thing that was nice about this past season is that I only had to go to the illegal streams once this year.

(02-18-2014 08:13 AM)tigerjeb Wrote:  people do not appreciate the one big advantage of not being on campus - there is plenty of great parking, ample tailgating and easy access. most college stadiums are landlocked and its a big hassle getting on and off campus on gameday, not to mention the expense and difficulty of aquiring tailgating rights somewhere on campus.

we've got it pretty good in that respect

All very true, but there are also tremendous advantages of having an OCS. After all, you were a very vocal proponent of the OCS movement.

I still believe that the Liberty Bowl can become a tremendous venue with a tremendous home field advantage if we ever really getting it rolling in football. Other than not being on campus the only real complaint that you can make about the stadium is that we haven't been able to fill it because we haven't had enough on field succcess to grow the average crowd to the 50k-60k range.

thats right and i still think all said and done OCS is the way to go. BUT im a realist and LBS will be our home for at least the next decade or two, so settle back and enjoy all the upgrades that have been and will continue to be done to the place.

(02-17-2014 10:05 PM)fsquid Wrote:  Red zone is awesome. It's on from 1-7 every Sunday at my house

lots of people i know ignore the games and just watch redzone. im wondering if at some point they dont start poaching off enough viewers to make the network guys start squawking

Many students go to game to see and be seen. FB is no longer the big social item it has been in years past. They no longer come out in massive amount earl;y as they used to. Many either come late and leave early or do not show at all. The ones who do come early often stay out at tailgate and party. Also security procedures make it such a hassle that many say screw it i am not going through the mess.

(02-18-2014 07:22 PM)tigerjeb Wrote:  

(02-17-2014 10:05 PM)fsquid Wrote:  Red zone is awesome. It's on from 1-7 every Sunday at my house

lots of people i know ignore the games and just watch redzone. im wondering if at some point they dont start poaching off enough viewers to make the network guys start squawking

That's me. I rarely turn it on Fox or CBS is the regular season. especially since we get an overdose of the Florida teams here.

Honestly, most students never really cared if their team was winning or losing, they just wanted to go to the football game, pre-game activities, the game and maybe getting lucky afterwards. Its just not like that any more.

Also, us group of old guys who grew up to become true die-hard fans, seem to be getting fewer and fewer every year. Partially because of TV and partly because people grow old and die, or at least get to where going to a game is physically challenging. There doesn't seem to be enough new fans taking the places of the ones that disappear.

TV is a major part of it, but also all the other things you can do now is night and day compared to twenty-thirty years ago.

Just look at the city of Memphis now vs 1980.

In 1980, there was Overton Square, Mid South Coliseum concerts, I think the Orpheum was open and Tiger games. Now there are several times more entertainment options, all costing money.

(02-18-2014 07:21 PM)tigerjeb Wrote:  thats right and i still think all said and done OCS is the way to go. BUT im a realist and LBS will be our home for at least the next decade or two, so settle back and enjoy all the upgrades that have been and will continue to be done to the place.

Yep. As a wise man once said, it is what it is. We might as well make the most of it.