(01-04-2019 08:36 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(01-04-2019 08:26 PM)bullet Wrote:  I seem to recall Alabama filling the Rose Bowl before as well.

They filled it in the 20's when they had to travel by rail.

What they are tired of is getting fleeced for the experience and having their money go to Left Coasters they don't really care to visit.

The South has traveled well to about anywhere. Auburn filled up the Fiesta. But the trip was crappy and the accommodations 45 miles away. Where we come from we call that a piss poor experience, except for the game. Would much rather go to Big D, the Big Easy, or Nashville. Even San Antonio offers a superior experience.

No Stugray, it's not an issue of Southerners not traveling. It's an issue of Southerners enjoying the experience and not having to put up with ******** when we get there.

Even though I could take my tent and stay for free on the streets, I do not want to step on any dirty needles or feces. Thanks Jerry Brown.

(01-04-2019 08:12 PM)bullet Wrote:  Texas turned the Rose Bowl burnt orange twice. TCU's purple matched the Wisconsin red in the Rose.

Right, but would Texas have turned say FedEx Field burnt orange the week after they turned the Rose Bowl burn orange?

Remember, the Clemson and Alabama fan bases just traveled 600+ miles to Dallas and Miami respectively just last week.

(01-04-2019 08:36 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(01-04-2019 08:26 PM)bullet Wrote:  I seem to recall Alabama filling the Rose Bowl before as well.

They filled it in the 20's when they had to travel by rail.

What they are tired of is getting fleeced for the experience and having their money go to Left Coasters they don't really care to visit.

The South has traveled well to about anywhere. Auburn filled up the Fiesta. But the trip was crappy and the accommodations 45 miles away. Where we come from we call that a piss poor experience, except for the game. Would much rather go to Big D, the Big Easy, or Nashville. Even San Antonio offers a superior experience.

No Stugray, it's not an issue of Southerners not traveling. It's an issue of Southerners enjoying the experience and not having to put up with ******** when we get there.

It’s too bad the Fiesta Bowl isn’t in Tempe anymore.

(01-04-2019 11:01 PM)Gamecock Wrote:  I wonder how many Washington or Stanford fans would show up to a national title game in somewhere like Charlotte?

A good point. But we also dont repeatedly see/hear chest thumping about those program's traveling fanbases like we do from Big 10 and SEC schools

The bottom line is the CFP committee chose poorly. With fans paying something like $475/ticket face value.(Yes I know scalping prices have fallen dramatically.) Putting the game in a not so easy place to fly to or stay is a recipe for disaster. Get ready for the cameras not showing empty seats.

(01-05-2019 08:58 AM)esayem Wrote:  It’s too bad the Fiesta Bowl isn’t in Tempe anymore.

It really is. Sun Devil stadium is a nice venue with a beautiful view of local hills and topography, plus that time of year, the weather is beautiful, usually a crisp 65 with nary a cloud in the sky.

(01-05-2019 08:10 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(01-04-2019 08:12 PM)bullet Wrote:  Texas turned the Rose Bowl burnt orange twice. TCU's purple matched the Wisconsin red in the Rose.

Right, but would Texas have turned say FedEx Field burnt orange the week after they turned the Rose Bowl burn orange?

Remember, the Clemson and Alabama fan bases just traveled 600+ miles to Dallas and Miami respectively just last week.

Yes.

Clemson and Alabama would do it as well if they hadn't been doing it for 4 or 5 years running.

The hotels and bowl tickets are expensive. Time off, especially, after the New Year, is tough. People won't do it year after year.

Now if you expand to 8, the semis will be tougher to fill even if it is new teams. But that's ok.

The ticket sales are an argument for having home quarters in December, or as Frank suggests, home semis in January. But that's not where the bulk of the money is coming from. Its from TV.

(01-05-2019 11:31 AM)bullet Wrote:  

(01-05-2019 08:10 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(01-04-2019 08:12 PM)bullet Wrote:  Texas turned the Rose Bowl burnt orange twice. TCU's purple matched the Wisconsin red in the Rose.

Right, but would Texas have turned say FedEx Field burnt orange the week after they turned the Rose Bowl burn orange?

Remember, the Clemson and Alabama fan bases just traveled 600+ miles to Dallas and Miami respectively just last week.

Yes.

Clemson and Alabama would do it as well if they hadn't been doing it for 4 or 5 years running.

The hotels and bowl tickets are expensive. Time off, especially, after the New Year, is tough. People won't do it year after year.

Now if you expand to 8, the semis will be tougher to fill even if it is new teams. But that's ok.

It is? The only reason anyone in any sport ever expands playoffs is because they think it will make more money. If attendance at more playoff games is going to be down, that could be costly.

(01-05-2019 11:51 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(01-05-2019 11:31 AM)bullet Wrote:  

(01-05-2019 08:10 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(01-04-2019 08:12 PM)bullet Wrote:  Texas turned the Rose Bowl burnt orange twice. TCU's purple matched the Wisconsin red in the Rose.

Right, but would Texas have turned say FedEx Field burnt orange the week after they turned the Rose Bowl burn orange?

Remember, the Clemson and Alabama fan bases just traveled 600+ miles to Dallas and Miami respectively just last week.

Yes.

Clemson and Alabama would do it as well if they hadn't been doing it for 4 or 5 years running.

The hotels and bowl tickets are expensive. Time off, especially, after the New Year, is tough. People won't do it year after year.

Now if you expand to 8, the semis will be tougher to fill even if it is new teams. But that's ok.

It is? The only reason anyone in any sport ever expands playoffs is because they think it will make more money. If attendance at more playoff games is going to be down, that could be costly.

No major pro sport holds playoff games at a neutral site, with the Super Bowl being the one-game exception that works because NFL teams have fans from all over but mostly because people with money want to be there even if they don't care about the teams that are in the game.

College basketball does three weeks in a row at nominally neutral sites, but...

1) The first week has 8 participating teams in each arena, and the committee puts higher seeds very close to home whenever possible, e.g. Duke in Greensboro or KU in Kansas City, to sell more tickets. And of course there are far fewer tickets to sell in an arena than in an NFL stadium.

2) The second week still has 4 participating teams in each arena, usually has at least one reasonably close team in each regional, and, obviously, still has far fewer seats to fill than in an NFL stadium.

3) The final four has 4 participating teams, has been built up as a major event, and even though it's played in a stadium (ugh), the NCAA distributes most of the tickets to corporate sponsors, to coaches of various college teams, and some to each participating team, with only a few thousand available to the general public. If there were only a few thousand CFB championship game tickets available to the general public, the people who are spazzing out about StubHub ticket prices would have to find something else to spaz out about.

(01-05-2019 11:34 AM)bullet Wrote:  The ticket sales are an argument for having home quarters in December, or as Frank suggests, home semis in January. But that's not where the bulk of the money is coming from. Its from TV.

5.5-7 million for a home game, even if split with the opponent is still an incentive for home games for the higher seeds, and their opponent. That's money lost to the venue for a neutral site game.

Since when it’s the Bay Area a hard place to fly to? There’s three airports, four if you include nearby Sacramento.

To me it’s not the location that’s the problem, Northern California is a beautiful place and there’s tons of things to see and do. Besides, these venues get chosen years in advance. It’s not like they knew another repeat of Alabama vs Clemson was in the works. The issue I see here is the novelty to Alabama and Clemson fans is wearing off. If this was their first or second time, we wouldn’t have this conversation.

Could it be that the playoffs are becoming boring that fans will not show up or watch the game?

(01-05-2019 12:53 AM)Stugray2 Wrote:  After the poor showing at the Fiesta, to see fans again not turn out for the NCG is another sign of how poorly southerners travel.

Alabama is closer to California than Wisconsin or Northwestern or Ohio State of Penn State. But look at how they travel to the West, the South and Texas. This is a total BS complaint. Southerners are the worst traveling outside of region. This is one thing that says Texas is not South, their fans travel.

For the West the best comparisons are large public schools like Arizona State, UCLA or Cal. To compare Stanford is like comparing Vandy or Duke. It's just a very small school.

Football is a religion to southerners, so you'd expect them to travel for a Championship. UCF is a commuter school, so no shock they didn't travel. But Alabama is a flagship. No excuses for this.

EDIT: my original response as posted had incorrect data. Mea culpa and I'll start over...

Regarding the bolded, yeah that was not impressive.

Non semifinal Fiesta Bowl attendance in the CFP era:
January 1, 2016 #7 Ohio State 44 #8 Notre Dame 28 71,123
December 31, 2014 #21 Boise State 38 #12 Arizona 30 66,896
December 30, 2017 #9 Penn State 35 #12 Washington 28 61,842
January 1, 2019 #11 LSU 40 #7 UCF 32 57,246

92.6% of the next lowest. 80.5% of the best of that small sample.
Outside of the CFP era, there are not really any earlier "two southeast schools to the Fiesta" for comparison: the most recent was Tennessee Florida State for the BCS championship 20 years ago.
Id submit that attendance is down across the board, and I would blame the CFP eclipsing others and the HD vs stadium factor. Datapoint there is OSU-ND being 5,000 fewer than ten years earlier. But yeah, less than impressive, and taken with lagging Bama Clemson sales (ennui or not) your major point stands.

Original gaffe below
---------
Regarding the bolded, did I miss something?

Non semifinal Fiesta Bowl attendance in the CFP era:
January 1, 2016 #7 Ohio State 44 #8 Notre Dame 28 71,123
January 1, 2019 #11 LSU 40 #7 UCF 32 69,927
December 31, 2014 #21 Boise State 38 #12 Arizona 30 66,896
December 30, 2017 #9 Penn State 35 #12 Washington 28 61,842

And if the intent is to crow about the ND-OSU attendance, THAT number is 5,000 less than the same matchup ten years earlier.

(01-06-2019 09:39 AM)slhNavy91 Wrote:  January 1, 2019 #11 LSU 40 #7 UCF 32 69,927

Fiesta Bowl attendance this year was 57,000.

https://www.newsday.com/sports/college/c...1.24180893

(01-06-2019 10:05 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(01-06-2019 09:39 AM)slhNavy91 Wrote:  January 1, 2019 #11 LSU 40 #7 UCF 32 69,927

Fiesta Bowl attendance this year was 57,000.

https://www.newsday.com/sports/college/c...1.24180893

That's what i get for going to wikipedia...
My post now extensively edited

(01-05-2019 02:41 PM)UTEPDallas Wrote:  Since when it’s the Bay Area a hard place to fly to? There’s three airports, four if you include nearby Sacramento.

To me it’s not the location that’s the problem, Northern California is a beautiful place and there’s tons of things to see and do. Besides, these venues get chosen years in advance. It’s not like they knew another repeat of Alabama vs Clemson was in the works. The issue I see here is the novelty to Alabama and Clemson fans is wearing off. If this was their first or second time, we wouldn’t have this conversation.

There's no real college football fanbase in the Bay Area to fill the seats, leaving it reliant on the teams thousands of miles away. Stanford and Cal know this, which is why their stadiums seat 50k, not 90k

Utah-Washington in November had 35,000 for a trip to the Rose Bowl.

Oregon-MSU last week had 30k.

(01-06-2019 10:29 AM)slhNavy91 Wrote:  

(01-06-2019 10:05 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(01-06-2019 09:39 AM)slhNavy91 Wrote:  January 1, 2019 #11 LSU 40 #7 UCF 32 69,927

Fiesta Bowl attendance this year was 57,000.

https://www.newsday.com/sports/college/c...1.24180893

That's what i get for going to wikipedia...
My post now extensively edited

One good thing about playing this Fiesta Bowl in a dome was that while 57,000 meant there were a lot of empty seats, it was enough fans to fill the arena with loud noise, so on TV, the game didn't sound like the crowd was on the small side, it has a boisterous feel to it, and I'm sure the players experienced it that way too.

(01-05-2019 05:24 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  Could it be that the playoffs are becoming boring that fans will not show up or watch the game?

Unlikely, as Clemson and Alabama have played two classic CFP finals, and this one features both teams being 14-0 and have been #1 and #2 almost all year.

On paper, it's the equivalent of the 2005 title game between USC and Texas.

(01-06-2019 12:35 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(01-05-2019 05:24 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  Could it be that the playoffs are becoming boring that fans will not show up or watch the game?

Unlikely, as Clemson and Alabama have played two classic CFP finals, and this one features both teams being 14-0 and have been #1 and #2 almost all year.

On paper, it's the equivalent of the 2005 title game between USC and Texas.

Alabama is having trouble getting students to show up for their home games.
All the winning does dull the enthusiasm somewhat.