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Declining football participation
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Post: #41
RE: Declining football participation
(02-13-2018 02:48 PM)Stugray2 Wrote:  Looking at the numbers, it looks like 2010 was the peak year, when FBS averaged 46,632. This year 42,203. That represents a 10.4% decline in 7 years.

The south, as represented by the SEC, was typically behind the curve and probably holding up the numbers for half a dozen years, peaking in 2015 at 78,630, and fell to 75,074, which is still a 4.7% drop from peak. If the SEC follows pattern, just a few years behind, then a big drop is coming for national averages.

More evidence we are probably already past peak.

The 10% is a little misleading. About 3k of that decline can be attributed to the expansion of FBS. 11 of the 130 schools have moved up in that time and they averaged just over 17k last year.
02-13-2018 03:15 PM
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Post: #42
RE: Declining football participation
(02-13-2018 03:15 PM)bullet Wrote:  
(02-13-2018 02:48 PM)Stugray2 Wrote:  Looking at the numbers, it looks like 2010 was the peak year, when FBS averaged 46,632. This year 42,203. That represents a 10.4% decline in 7 years.

The south, as represented by the SEC, was typically behind the curve and probably holding up the numbers for half a dozen years, peaking in 2015 at 78,630, and fell to 75,074, which is still a 4.7% drop from peak. If the SEC follows pattern, just a few years behind, then a big drop is coming for national averages.

More evidence we are probably already past peak.

The 10% is a little misleading. About 3k of that decline can be attributed to the expansion of FBS. 11 of the 130 schools have moved up in that time and they averaged just over 17k last year.

While the 10% decline appears to be affected by the FBS expansion, the 2017 NCAA attendance report shows that eight of the 10 FBS conferences saw a drop in average attendance.

The B1G and MWC were the only conferences whose average did not drop (+76 seats for the average B1G game and +832 for the MWC, as compared to the 2016 season). I note that Purdue saw a monster year-over-year increase with +13,433 more fans per game in 2017 than in 2016. The MWC had some decent individual school increases: Fresno St. (+5,139), Colorado St. (+4,462) and SDSU (+2,058).

The SEC saw its average drop over 2,400 seats per game and the AAC dropped over 2,900 *per game*. It appears that much of this is explained by the fact that Tennessee, Ole Miss, Arkansas, Houston and USF had 2017 average game attendance more than 5K lower than their 2016 numbers.
02-13-2018 05:49 PM
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Post: #43
RE: Declining football participation
(10-17-2017 01:55 PM)Wedge Wrote:  
(10-17-2017 12:59 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  I think we're seeing that specialization at all levels of youth sports and it's getting more and more intense.

I spoke to the basketball coach at the middle school (*not* high school) that my kids will attend in a couple of years and he said that a kid isn't realistically making a middle school basketball team in our district today without multiple years of travel team experience. You can say the same for soccer and baseball. Once again, we're talking about *middle* school (not high school).

Right. Good athletes, who would have played three sports many years ago, are one-sport athletes today. A 9th grade baseball player who skips fall travel ball to play high school football might fall behind in his baseball coach's pecking order and not be a starter the next spring and summer. If he becomes just a pinch-hitter or late-inning sub on his travel ball team, he has little chance of getting noticed by college baseball recruiters. It has decreased the participation levels in every sport that would have been the all-around athlete's second or third sport.

Also, the emphasis on transitioning kids onto travel teams as early as possible makes even the younger kids' recreational programs more intense, with the side effect that the kids who only want to play recreationally either drop out earlier or never play in an organized recreational program at all, and that further reduces youth participation levels.

I played all three growing up. I loved baseball. I enjoyed defensive football and played basketball just because the football coach wanted me to stay in shape and because by buddies played. As I grew older I still found time for the diamond.

What I have witnessed in my grandchildren's generation is that some of the kids who are being pushed by their parents aren't playing a sport they love. It has become work for them. I think this actually damages their likelihood to stick with a sport they might otherwise have had an affinity for, instead of picking one they love and dedicating themselves to it.

And something else is being overlooked. The oddity in the 50's and 60's was the boy who didn't play sports. The parents of today's children attended public schools at a time when the majority of boys didn't play one of the big 3. So it's more likely they are pushing their kids into soccer, golf, tennis, or some other sport because Daddy never played baseball, basketball, or football and therefore doesn't have the same interest in them.

BTW Wolfman, I played when hand slaps were legal. Grab the center's earhole on a head slap and you could push him anywhere you wanted to. Defensive line was the place to be.
02-13-2018 06:35 PM
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Big Frog II Offline
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Post: #44
RE: Declining football participation
The decline in attendance has a lot to do with sky high ticket prices, games played at times and days that are not advantageous for fans, and games continuing to get longer and longer.
(This post was last modified: 02-13-2018 07:27 PM by Big Frog II.)
02-13-2018 07:27 PM
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Ohio Poly Offline
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Post: #45
RE: Declining football participation
"http://wnax.com/news/030030-fewer-high-school-athletes-play-football-amid-concussion-fears/"

Meanwhile, esports participation is increasing..
(This post was last modified: 03-23-2018 08:48 AM by Ohio Poly.)
03-19-2018 04:37 PM
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AntiG Offline
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Post: #46
RE: Declining football participation
I think a lot of you are also missing the obvious - this generation of kids don't play sports as much as the past few. They play outside less. They are on computers/phones/tablets all day and on social media all day. Combine that with helicopter parents and concussion fears, and that means a lot less population that will be playing.
(This post was last modified: 03-21-2018 03:55 PM by AntiG.)
03-21-2018 03:54 PM
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Post: #47
RE: Declining football participation
(03-21-2018 03:54 PM)AntiG Wrote:  I think a lot of you are also missing the obvious - this generation of kids don't play sports as much as the past few. They play outside less. They are on computers/phones/tablets all day and on social media all day. Combine that with helicopter parents and concussion fears, and that means a lot less population that will be playing.

Right there!!! Think you hit the nail on the head, AntiG!!
03-21-2018 04:57 PM
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