(08-28-2018 12:37 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  We have no qualms saying playing midweek hurts attendance, if you are a school drawing fans from a couple hours away, a pre-noon kickoff is difficult. Fans might tough it out once or twice but asking them to do so repeatedly isn't going to sell tickets.

Yeah, midweek is a killer no matter who you are. Friday nights might not be the worst, but they aren't Saturday. For those schools in the central time zone who keep getting hosed by the noon starts...yeah, as a fan (and even a student), forget it. This doesn't happen all of the time in the Big Ten...seems common in the Big XII. You can't keep doing that to people, especially if they don't have time to process and plan.

(08-28-2018 11:29 AM)CardinalJim Wrote:  

(08-27-2018 08:34 AM)orangefan Wrote:  I do think that the requirement as part of recent television contracts not to set kickoff times until a couple of weeks out hurts advance sales for many schools, since fans traveling greater distances are uncertain as to what travel plans to make. If I drive two hours to a game, I may not want to go to a night game and have to get a hotel room. I may not want to bring kids to a night game either.

This....
I try to catch at least one Louisville road game a year. I have done that for years. It has become increasing more difficult to travel because of how games are slotted for TV.

This year I am traveling to Orlando for the Louisville - Alabama game. (That's a long way to witness an ass whipping...lol) I rented a house in Orlando for the week the day the game was announced. That's the easy way to travel now. Block out a week, or weekend and travel. Don't worry about TV and go.

Really surprised to see Purdue on this list. They brought 20K to Indianapolis last year for Jeff's first game as head coach. They didn't even know what they had then and now this years season ticket sales are down? Has to be something else going on as far as ticket sales in West Lafayette. Maybe it's fan experience or something else. It's not the coach or
CJ

The Purdue references are to last year and before. They sold out their student tickets this year. I don't know the status of other ticket sales, but I'm sure it's way higher than last year.

(08-28-2018 12:53 PM)The Cutter of Bish Wrote:  

(08-28-2018 12:37 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  We have no qualms saying playing midweek hurts attendance, if you are a school drawing fans from a couple hours away, a pre-noon kickoff is difficult. Fans might tough it out once or twice but asking them to do so repeatedly isn't going to sell tickets.

Yeah, midweek is a killer no matter who you are. Friday nights might not be the worst, but they aren't Saturday. For those schools in the central time zone who keep getting hosed by the noon starts...yeah, as a fan (and even a student), forget it. This doesn't happen all of the time in the Big Ten...seems common in the Big XII. You can't keep doing that to people, especially if they don't have time to process and plan.

Purdue played Illinois and Indiana at home last year both at noon.
In 2016 all seven home games were at noon.

Minnesota had two 11am kickoffs last year and four in 2016.

Illinois had four 11am kickoffs last year and three in 2016.

It's the money. If you charge $50-75 a ticket (plus a donation for season tickets), hold off announcing game times for TV (requiring hotel bookings), charge money for parking, charge more for concessions and local hotels often require two night stays on game weekends.... how do you expect average people to attend a lot of games with their families? I am in SEC territory and for one of their games you probably need to budget $750-1000 for a weekend trip to see the nearest team play.

Even the "G5" prices are ranging up to the $30+ per ticket range.

Wages are down and prices are up for everything that Americans buy to survive and all the games are televised now. Going to a game is a luxury now and not just a fun way to spend a fall afternoon.

Paying HCs $4 mill and coordinators more than $1 mill is a big part of the problem that is compounded by the facilities arms race.

I was off a little. Prices are HIGHER than I stated.

NCAAF ticket prices

(08-28-2018 01:38 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(08-28-2018 12:53 PM)The Cutter of Bish Wrote:  

(08-28-2018 12:37 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  We have no qualms saying playing midweek hurts attendance, if you are a school drawing fans from a couple hours away, a pre-noon kickoff is difficult. Fans might tough it out once or twice but asking them to do so repeatedly isn't going to sell tickets.

Yeah, midweek is a killer no matter who you are. Friday nights might not be the worst, but they aren't Saturday. For those schools in the central time zone who keep getting hosed by the noon starts...yeah, as a fan (and even a student), forget it. This doesn't happen all of the time in the Big Ten...seems common in the Big XII. You can't keep doing that to people, especially if they don't have time to process and plan.

Purdue played Illinois and Indiana at home last year both at noon.
In 2016 all seven home games were at noon.

Minnesota had two 11am kickoffs last year and four in 2016.

Illinois had four 11am kickoffs last year and three in 2016.

I've always hated attending games at 11 am Central Time. It's made even worse where the Eastern Time Zone teams in the Big Ten (particularly Michigan and Ohio State) seem to LOVE those noon starts local time even though they blow for the rest of the league.

Of course they are. Adding Rutgers and Maryland and even Nebraska was dumb. I miss the real big 10 when Iowa played Michigan and Ohio St and Michigan St about every season. The Big 10 I grew up watching, not this rat sh!t pretender conference with 3 eastern schools and a Big 8 team in it.

(08-28-2018 12:53 PM)The Cutter of Bish Wrote:  

(08-28-2018 12:37 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  We have no qualms saying playing midweek hurts attendance, if you are a school drawing fans from a couple hours away, a pre-noon kickoff is difficult. Fans might tough it out once or twice but asking them to do so repeatedly isn't going to sell tickets.

Yeah, midweek is a killer no matter who you are. Friday nights might not be the worst, but they aren't Saturday. For those schools in the central time zone who keep getting hosed by the noon starts...yeah, as a fan (and even a student), forget it. This doesn't happen all of the time in the Big Ten...seems common in the Big XII. You can't keep doing that to people, especially if they don't have time to process and plan.

The South Alabama and Troy series has seen large crowds in recent years, but ESPN keeps putting it on weeknights. But not only are they putting it on weeknights, they aren't being consistent with which day of the week they're putting it on. This will be the 5th year in a row with a 5th different day of the week in which our game will be played. It's completely annoying. Thanks ESPN.

2018 - Tuesday @ South Alabama
2017 - Wednesday @ Troy
2016 - Thursday @ South Alabama
2015 - Saturday @ Troy
2014 - Friday @ South Alabama

(08-28-2018 12:52 PM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  http://www.courant.com/sports/uconn-foot...story.html

I know many like to think that UConn is a punching bag around here, but they, too, have similar problems. UConn has allocated about 9,000 season tickets for the upcoming football season. That's a 44 percent decline from 2017. Their home schedule this year is UCF, Rhode Island, Cincinnati, UMass, SMU and Temple.

UConn football is in trouble. They brought back their old coach who was a awesome for them in the big east days...but he that BCS label for recruiting then. We shall see.

(08-28-2018 04:37 PM)SkullyMaroo Wrote:  

(08-28-2018 12:53 PM)The Cutter of Bish Wrote:  

(08-28-2018 12:37 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  We have no qualms saying playing midweek hurts attendance, if you are a school drawing fans from a couple hours away, a pre-noon kickoff is difficult. Fans might tough it out once or twice but asking them to do so repeatedly isn't going to sell tickets.

Yeah, midweek is a killer no matter who you are. Friday nights might not be the worst, but they aren't Saturday. For those schools in the central time zone who keep getting hosed by the noon starts...yeah, as a fan (and even a student), forget it. This doesn't happen all of the time in the Big Ten...seems common in the Big XII. You can't keep doing that to people, especially if they don't have time to process and plan.

The South Alabama and Troy series has seen large crowds in recent years, but ESPN keeps putting it on weeknights. But not only are they putting it on weeknights, they aren't being consistent with which day of the week they're putting it on. This will be the 5th year in a row with a 5th different day of the week in which our game will be played. It's completely annoying. Thanks ESPN.

2018 - Tuesday @ South Alabama
2017 - Wednesday @ Troy
2016 - Thursday @ South Alabama
2015 - Saturday @ Troy
2014 - Friday @ South Alabama

AState vs. Louisiana
2017 Thursday @ AState
2016 Saturday after Thanksgiving at UL
2015 Tuesday at AState
2014 Tuesday at UL
2013 Tuesday at AState
2012 Tuesday at AState

Actually been played weeknight 6 times from 2005 forward.

(08-28-2018 04:37 PM)SkullyMaroo Wrote:  

(08-28-2018 12:53 PM)The Cutter of Bish Wrote:  

(08-28-2018 12:37 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  We have no qualms saying playing midweek hurts attendance, if you are a school drawing fans from a couple hours away, a pre-noon kickoff is difficult. Fans might tough it out once or twice but asking them to do so repeatedly isn't going to sell tickets.

Yeah, midweek is a killer no matter who you are. Friday nights might not be the worst, but they aren't Saturday. For those schools in the central time zone who keep getting hosed by the noon starts...yeah, as a fan (and even a student), forget it. This doesn't happen all of the time in the Big Ten...seems common in the Big XII. You can't keep doing that to people, especially if they don't have time to process and plan.

The South Alabama and Troy series has seen large crowds in recent years, but ESPN keeps putting it on weeknights. But not only are they putting it on weeknights, they aren't being consistent with which day of the week they're putting it on. This will be the 5th year in a row with a 5th different day of the week in which our game will be played. It's completely annoying. Thanks ESPN.

2018 - Tuesday @ South Alabama
2017 - Wednesday @ Troy
2016 - Thursday @ South Alabama
2015 - Saturday @ Troy
2014 - Friday @ South Alabama

Don’t you think some/most/all of the blame falls on the schools and conference not listening to fans or playing their own game with network partners, though? That there’s something that should be said by the school to fans to at least indulge them the frustration of being a fan and supporting their school?

It may be what it will be, but there exists little to no consideration to the fans who fund the program the honest, traditional, and direct ways. They get blamed enough, at least the students are, when they don’t represent, but, again, what is really in it for them?

Schools are just really bad at this.

It's because people care only about the Top 10 teams thanks to having the Top 10 teams only shoved down our throats by ESPN. This hurts even the bottom-tier P5 teams. Why watch Purdue play Illinois when you can watch a top-ranked Michigan play a top-ranked Notre Dame or top-ranked Alabama play a top-ranked Florida?

(08-28-2018 12:52 PM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  http://www.courant.com/sports/uconn-foot...story.html

I know many like to think that UConn is a punching bag around here, but they, too, have similar problems. UConn has allocated about 9,000 season tickets for the upcoming football season. That's a 44 percent decline from 2017. Their home schedule this year is UCF, Rhode Island, Cincinnati, UMass, SMU and Temple.

That's not a bad home schedule, tbh.
UCF - a Top 25 conference opponent
Rhode Island - a local team
Cincinnati - an old rival
UMass - a local team (and a bit of a rival)
SMU - OK, not much connection here.
Temple - an old rival

A Big Ten or ACC home opponent would be nice, but really I'd say save those for years when you don't have a good home AAC schedule - this one's not so bad.

Besides, Minnesota is pretty much Siberia when you’re talking about D1 college football. Minneapolis/St. Paul is usually in the bottom 5 markets for any college football on national TV. And Purdue has the Indy market, but it is is in its own TV market, Lafayette, which now is a full market with all 4 networks.

The Twin Cities was getting 50+ ratings for the Vikings playoff games. What does a big Minnesota Golden Gophers game get? Probably nowhere near.

Central Illinois and Indiana are basketball territory anyways. College football is #2 behind basketball, and in the Indy area, the Colts will be #1 for years to come.

I envy you guys complaining about 12n starts. That is so much better than an 8:30 pm kickoff. People get home around 2am if they come from a distance, it is usually colder than crap, and you get sunshine during the game.


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(08-28-2018 06:14 PM)The Cutter of Bish Wrote:  

(08-28-2018 04:37 PM)SkullyMaroo Wrote:  

(08-28-2018 12:53 PM)The Cutter of Bish Wrote:  

(08-28-2018 12:37 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  We have no qualms saying playing midweek hurts attendance, if you are a school drawing fans from a couple hours away, a pre-noon kickoff is difficult. Fans might tough it out once or twice but asking them to do so repeatedly isn't going to sell tickets.

Yeah, midweek is a killer no matter who you are. Friday nights might not be the worst, but they aren't Saturday. For those schools in the central time zone who keep getting hosed by the noon starts...yeah, as a fan (and even a student), forget it. This doesn't happen all of the time in the Big Ten...seems common in the Big XII. You can't keep doing that to people, especially if they don't have time to process and plan.

The South Alabama and Troy series has seen large crowds in recent years, but ESPN keeps putting it on weeknights. But not only are they putting it on weeknights, they aren't being consistent with which day of the week they're putting it on. This will be the 5th year in a row with a 5th different day of the week in which our game will be played. It's completely annoying. Thanks ESPN.

2018 - Tuesday @ South Alabama
2017 - Wednesday @ Troy
2016 - Thursday @ South Alabama
2015 - Saturday @ Troy
2014 - Friday @ South Alabama

Don’t you think some/most/all of the blame falls on the schools and conference not listening to fans or playing their own game with network partners, though? That there’s something that should be said by the school to fans to at least indulge them the frustration of being a fan and supporting their school?

It may be what it will be, but there exists little to no consideration to the fans who fund the program the honest, traditional, and direct ways. They get blamed enough, at least the students are, when they don’t represent, but, again, what is really in it for them?

Schools are just really bad at this.

I don't mind some weeknight games. Most A-State has had at home in a season is two and that's really pushing it. One is sort of fun other than traffic sucks because everyone tries to arrive about the same time. I was travelling with a group of friends to a weeknight home game which meant taking off work early then driving just short of two hours to Jonesboro and then it took nearly and hour and half to drive the final 1.3. miles to the stadium because one of the guys left his parking pass and we couldn't come in the back way.

Weeknight road games are great. Get home, go grab some take out or order delivery kick back and enjoy the game and then you've got the weekend free.

Last year my wife and I used the long break between a Saturday game and a Wednesday game to travel to Boston and Montreal and this year we are taking a cruise during a long week between a Saturday and and weeknight game. Taking your wife on a vacation 4-6 weeks before the insanity that starts with Thanksgiving? 10/10.

(08-28-2018 09:41 PM)Jjoey52 Wrote:  I envy you guys complaining about 12n starts. That is so much better than an 8:30 pm kickoff. People get home around 2am if they come from a distance, it is usually colder than crap, and you get sunshine during the game.


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Noon games are the worst. But of course in SC its 90+ every day until mid November

(08-29-2018 06:16 AM)Gamecock Wrote:  

(08-28-2018 09:41 PM)Jjoey52 Wrote:  I envy you guys complaining about 12n starts. That is so much better than an 8:30 pm kickoff. People get home around 2am if they come from a distance, it is usually colder than crap, and you get sunshine during the game.


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Noon games are the worst. But of course in SC is 90+ every day until mid November

YES. Blacksburg, VA isn't as bad thanks to altitude, but Columbia, SC and Clemson, SC are both HOT!!!

Season Ticket sales have cratered at UConn too

From 27k+ to 9k in 8 years...

(08-29-2018 07:55 AM)TexanMark Wrote:  Season Ticket sales have cratered at UConn too

From 27k+ to 9k in 8 years...

Some extra data to further that point.

UConn Football Attendance Average
2003: 37,059
2004: 39,304
2005: 40,000
2006: 38,939
2007: 38,919
2008: 39,331
2009: 38,229
2010: 38,248
2011: 36,668
2012: 34,672
2013: 30,392
2014: 27,461
2015: 28,224
2016: 26,796
2017: 20,334

UConn Football Season Tickets Allocated
2003: 25,500
2004: 28,500
2005: 32,500
2006: 28,000
2007: 27,000
2008: 28,500
2009: 27,000
2010: 27,500
2011: 26,000
2012: 23,000
2013: 25,000
2014: 20,000
2015: 16,000
2016: 16,000
2017: 16,000
2018: 9,000

Basically, UConn will need to average 11,000 walk-ups per home game just to match last year's average fan attendance (which was the lowest ever). That is no good.