(01-10-2020 01:37 PM)Wedge Wrote: (01-10-2020 01:02 PM)dbackjon Wrote: So the killing of the Golden Goose many predicted with high ticket prices, mandatory "donations", etc is catching up.
No, they've just found a different golden goose.
Take any P5 team you like, and compare
(A) 1979 football ticket and game-day revenue plus media revenue
with
(B) 2019 football ticket and game-day revenue plus media revenue
Pretty sure that (B) will be a much larger number for all of those programs.
Couple years ago went searching about for images of old ticket stubs and compared to the cost via the school at the time. I'm sure no would be surprised to learn that adjusted for inflation the cheapest ticket offered at most schools is more expensive now than in the past or that a ticket requires a greater percentage of the median household income today than in the past.
That's not even taking into account mandatory donations.
On the "positive" side, games now take about 10% longer to play so in theory getting more for your money until you realize that the longer playing time primarily comes from halftime being 5 minutes longer and longer media breaks.
On the plus side, if the fans start getting excited and start up a cheer or the band starts playing something good then someone will make sure to play a loud commercial on the video board.
The upside of the longer halftime is it gives more time to go get that $7 polish sausage and $5 Coke (for those who don't have a Pepsi contract).
Friend is an infamous tightwad who gave up buying concessions because the local convenience store chain tend to run a 2 hot dog, bag of chips, and 20oz drink for $3.99 special and that includes smoked sausage, cheddar stuffed smoked sausage, and japaleno smoked sausage at that price with about 12 or 15 more fountain drink options. So he stops there, has a quasi-tailgate in the parking lot.
I blow my money on concessions. One, a local caterer makes kick ass barbecue and has a vendor slot and two, one of the side effects of my cancer treatment is it left me with dry mouth problems so I fork out $6 for two bottles of water to get through a game, otherwise I'd be too uncomfortable to make past the first quarter.
Going to a game takes a bigger investment in money and a bigger investment in time and the game day experience has changed. The bands have been minimized, the added noise of commercials and canned music means cheerleaders are seen but not heard, they've added a dance troupe which was a staple at hoops, but they end up doing their routine during a break in an end zone so most people are further from them at a football game than the people on the last row of the upper deck at hoops.
Used to be you could take your kid to a game and see the team dressed out in a manner very similar to what you saw when your parents took you to the game. Now you won't see them outfitted the same way for any two of the six or seven home games.
In general schools took a popular entertainment outlet and changed it all up because different has to be better and maybe that will make you feel like those big price increases are worth it.