Saban blows up about lack of student body interest at Alabama.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/ncaafbv...spartanntp

Disturbing trend for those who have to fill an 80, 90, 100k stadium.

Maybe if the game was a team that the students would want to watch.

I get the impression that going to a televised college game is more like being a background extra for a movie. A lot of "hurry up and wait," away from the heart of the action, and it can take a long time.

Catering too much to people not willing to show up by putting everything on television is one thing, but what was given back to those who still show up? Ticket prices rise. The length of the games seem to grow. The seats are still typically the worst ones in the house. The weather may not be great. The opponent is someone you probably should simply not be playing, but do anyway. "They're not entitled to anything?" Heh. You don't say. Doesn't seem to be congruent to what the school, conference, and network is doing for us geezers who don't make it down there to see the game...

The game against Louisiana was less than 3 hours, probably closer to 2.5 assuming it kicked off at 11:22 CDT.

A few years ago, it was difficult for freshmen and sophomores to even get student tickets. Enrollment is roughly double what it was twenty years ago, but the student section had not grown with the enrollment.

Sold out games where the stadium is full but half the student section exits at halftime leaving a gaping hole in the crowd seems to be the new norm around the country.

(10-04-2018 06:54 AM)chargeradio Wrote:  The game against Louisiana was less than 3 hours, probably closer to 2.5 assuming it kicked off at 11:22 CDT.

A few years ago, it was difficult for freshmen and sophomores to even get student tickets. Enrollment is roughly double what it was twenty years ago, but the student section had not grown with the enrollment.

And you expect students to come out for a pre-noon kickoff against a Sun Belt school after a night/early morning of drinking/tailgating. Man, you have insane standards.

(10-04-2018 07:11 AM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  Sold out games where the stadium is full but half the student section exits at halftime leaving a gaping hole in the crowd seems to be the new norm around the country.

Especially when you are up by 40 plus at the half.

Pretty bad when even Alabama is having that issue.

The games are too long. With half time now being 20 minutes long instead of the old 15 minutes, (The NFL has 12 minute half time) students are losing interest. Add that and the way too many commercials and reviews, the younger generation is tuning out. The colleges want more money for their product, but they are going to run off fans for their future.

This usually falls on deaf ears on these boards (since we're all presumably college football fans), but football in general is losing its appeal as a live sporting event that can practically print their own money. It's a combination of many things:

less kids are playing it (because of concussion concerns);

the costs and inconveniences of attending a game (expensive parking, traffic, concessions, tickets) are being re-evaluated in light of the vastly improved experiences sitting in your living room (with high definition TV's, better replays, no lines for the bathrooms, no bad weather);

the games are now spread out over Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays;

you have to go through metal detectors that create long lines just to get in;

the kickoff times are often held hostage until 13 days prior, making it hard to plan to come to games...

I could go on. The camaraderie of attending games with like-minded fans and tailgates are about the only thing that's not really replicated at home, and the fact that all of these games are on TV is killing the sport. It's the main reason why I don't want USF to spend nine figures to build a stadium on campus that will get used 6 days a year, when it might be a monument to a bygone era within the next quarter century.

USFFan

(10-04-2018 09:07 AM)Big Frog II Wrote:  The games are too long. With half time now being 20 minutes long instead of the old 15 minutes, (The NFL has 12 minute half time) students are losing interest. Add that and the way too many commercials and reviews, the younger generation is tuning out. The colleges want more money for their product, but they are going to run off fans for their future.

Throw in the fact that there's a TV timeout after nearly every possession a la the NFL and there are at least 3 injury timeouts per quarter, games are all nearly 4 hours long. And there isn't much parity either -- lots of blowouts.

My least favorite person in any stadium is the guy in the red shirt who stands at the 20 to indicate it's time for a TV timeout

It's a general trend in society. Anything that involves getting together with actual people is on the decline.

And if you think this is just a "kids these days" thing, just check out the declining popularity of your local bowling alley or adult softball league.

Nick, maybe they're studying?

11:00 am kickoffs are bad.

The “kickoff times are held hostage until 12 days before” is definitely curtailing attendance. Many people’s ability to go is dependent on the time if living close and making flight/drive/hotel arrangements if living far away. If you live far away, you don’t know whether to book flight and hotel for Friday (11am game) or Saturday (night game).

I was highly considering taking the 21-hour Texas Eagle train to the Cotton Bowl this week but the kickoff time not coming out until so much later turned out to be the fly in the ointment. Conversely, I’ll be able to take that same train to Shreveport for the Independence Bowl (and not stay overnight) because the gametime is known (and fits between trains).

Games that aren’t competitive don’t draw crowds.

Yeah not a big surprise.
1) Bad competition for a team as good as Alabama
2) 11:00 AM start
3) From my experience college kids main priorities are parties or studying
4) Blowout and standing around for 20 minutes at halftime with nothing to do sucks. At OSU at least it’s hard to sit in big groups of friends.
5) I went to one big game a year and that was it as a student. Much better experience watching the games with all your friends at an outdoor party/bar.

(10-04-2018 09:15 AM)usffan Wrote:  This usually falls on deaf ears on these boards (since we're all presumably college football fans), but football in general is losing its appeal as a live sporting event that can practically print their own money. It's a combination of many things:

less kids are playing it (because of concussion concerns);

the costs and inconveniences of attending a game (expensive parking, traffic, concessions, tickets) are being re-evaluated in light of the vastly improved experiences sitting in your living room (with high definition TV's, better replays, no lines for the bathrooms, no bad weather);

the games are now spread out over Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays;

you have to go through metal detectors that create long lines just to get in;

the kickoff times are often held hostage until 13 days prior, making it hard to plan to come to games...

I could go on. The camaraderie of attending games with like-minded fans and tailgates are about the only thing that's not really replicated at home, and the fact that all of these games are on TV is killing the sport. It's the main reason why I don't want USF to spend nine figures to build a stadium on campus that will get used 6 days a year, when it might be a monument to a bygone era within the next quarter century.

USFFan

All good points.

lol the student section is usually the only place that has a decent crowd for us...

(10-04-2018 07:14 AM)whittx Wrote:  

(10-04-2018 07:11 AM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  Sold out games where the stadium is full but half the student section exits at halftime leaving a gaping hole in the crowd seems to be the new norm around the country.

Especially when you are up by 40 plus at the half.

The joke is calling it "sold out." Whether you sell tickets to people who just buy them to donate to the program but never show up or distribute blocs for nothing and then count them against the gate, the screens don't lie, and neither should commentators without some context.

In that other thread about expelling teams, I took a shot at Rutgers, and, specifically, that empty stadium from the Penn State game. That, I believe, was sold out, or nearly so. But it doesn't look like it at all. And it reflects poorly on the school, the conference, and it's like a subtle way to tell viewers to keep paging through the channels.

But, it's true. Even if this Alabama game was short (a real shocker), these games are stretching way out. And unlike the pro's, networks mettle with the game flow and have more of a say with overall production. Pro's...can't tell you how many times I've seen games (CBS, Fox, NBC, ESPN) where if the network feed wasn't perfectly synced, you were returning to a game already in progress. Always the local feed trying to get a little greedy. The pro's don't play that ****. And oddly, the networks will print money so they can have a piece of the NFL. But, where it hits are those who are stuck in the stands and have to see teams and officials loafing about because they didn't get the call yet to that the commercial break ending.