College football attendance a concern

[Harry]

With new television contracts driving the most powerful schools together into super conferences, competition appears brisk. And it should only improve next year when the new College Football Playoff kicks in to drive even more interest.

But even with that, cracks are present that worry college athletic administrators.

A lot, in fact.

Attendance at Football Bowl Subdivision schools dipped to 45,274 fans per game in 2012, the lowest since 2003. It marked the second straight season where average attendance for FBS schools slipped.

The Southeastern Conference continued to lead the country with an average of 75,444, but it was its lowest attendance average since 2007. Nine of the 14 SEC schools showed attendance dips in 2012.

Florida showed a five-game improvement last season during the regular season, but the Gators saw home attendance drop by 1,500 per game. The Orlando Sentinel reported that the major reason that students leave games at venerable Ben Hill Griffin Stadium was spotty internet connectivity.

Texas led the Big 12 with an average attendance of 100,884, but anybody who was at the Longhorns' last home game of the season last year against TCU on Thanksgiving night would have noticed the large swaths of empty seats scattered across Darrell K. Royal Texas Memorial Stadium.

A number of reasons have been blamed for the nationwide attendance erosion. But the core question is, can enough be done to get fans out of their creature comforts at home and back to stadiums.

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/article/College-football-has-never-appeared-healthier-4704931.php

[UNT90]

'Mericans don't take kindly to monopolies. We root for the underdog.

Wanna see the big boy's attendance really crash? Let them go all NCAA 4, or whatever the hell they are calling it

Edited August 4, 2013 by UNT90

[JesseMartin]

Connectivity and signal strength? Blah. The only reason you should need your device at a game is if you want to snap a picture. Maybe to let friends know where you're sitting, unless you're a blogger or journalist. Other than that...concerts, meetings, classes, work, football games...why do you need to Facebook and Twitter every second? "I was the first to post it online." Great. You're missing half of your life so you can let your friends know something that everyone else will say in 8 seconds anyway. Maybe if you were living that other half of your life instead of playing around on your phone, you'd experience more interesting things and not be another phone clone. News flash: most of what you're checking out is just as uninteresting as what you're posting. So you're missing out on your life for the opportunity to be constantly connected to basically NOTHING. I'm not opposed to social networking and technological advancement, but if it's a priority over experiencing what's really happening, your individual experiences in life will be greatly diminished.

[buff64]

With most games on TV and the cost of going to games, not just the tickets, is it any wonder that more people enjoying soft seats and air conditioning.

[shutter]

August 31 will be a hot one indeed. It has been a while since we have had a home opener on such an early date. I am sure by game time it will be just fine as long as we win.

[unt_rocket09]

HD TV and AC in your house. Hard to beat sometimes. Now UNT is very fan friendly so going to a game is great, but lets just say going to a Cowboy game is a beating. Rather watch at home.

[meangreener]

HD TV and AC in your house. Hard to beat sometimes. Now UNT is very fan friendly so going to a game is great, but lets just say going to a Cowboy game is a beating. Rather watch at home.

I mean, it depends. Cowboys games are indeed terrible, the new stadium is horrendous (even though I hate the Cowboys, Texas Stadium games were a lot of fun) but it really depends on the stadium and the environment. I love going to Reliant. And I love going to NT games.

Edited August 4, 2013 by meangreener

[oldschoollefty]

Connectivity and signal strength? Blah. The only reason you should need your device at a game is if you want to snap a picture. Maybe to let friends know where you're sitting, unless you're a blogger or journalist. Other than that...concerts, meetings, classes, work, football games...why do you need to Facebook and Twitter every second? "I was the first to post it online." Great. You're missing half of your life so you can let your friends know something that everyone else will say in 8 seconds anyway. Maybe if you were living that other half of your life instead of playing around on your phone, you'd experience more interesting things and not be another phone clone. News flash: most of what you're checking out is just as uninteresting as what you're posting. So you're missing out on your life for the opportunity to be constantly connected to basically NOTHING. I'm not opposed to social networking and technological advancement, but if it's a priority over experiencing what's really happening, your individual experiences in life will be greatly diminished.

^^^^^This^^^^^

[jdennis82]

Connectivity and signal strength? Blah. The only reason you should need your device at a game is if you want to snap a picture. Maybe to let friends know where you're sitting, unless you're a blogger or journalist. Other than that...concerts, meetings, classes, work, football games...why do you need to Facebook and Twitter every second? "I was the first to post it online." Great. You're missing half of your life so you can let your friends know something that everyone else will say in 8 seconds anyway. Maybe if you were living that other half of your life instead of playing around on your phone, you'd experience more interesting things and not be another phone clone. News flash: most of what you're checking out is just as uninteresting as what you're posting. So you're missing out on your life for the opportunity to be constantly connected to basically NOTHING. I'm not opposed to social networking and technological advancement, but if it's a priority over experiencing what's really happening, your individual experiences in life will be greatly diminished.

This is another example of choosing to criticize and discount the target market's tendencies rather than seeking out ways to engage them more effectively.

I, personally, have a hard time understanding the desire to live tweet (for example) an event as it requires me to essentially step away from "the action" long enough to do so. That said, I think it's critical that all sports (including North Texas) continue to be progressive in incorporating these elements in the game-day experience because it's not going away.

[JesseMartin]

Perhaps. But mostly I just don't feel bad for poor Florida whose attendance was less than the non-student population of Denton for a couple of games primarily because people couldn't tweet if they were "watching" the game. It's not that I'm criticizing our target market...I'm criticizing everybody who does it. Like I said before, I'll take any level of fan or attendee or involvement because the overall increase will help, and everybody walks to their own beat. So I'll take every Tweeter in Denton and give away all of the unused seats if it was ever up to me, but that won't stop me from thinking it's ridiculous to miss out on your life to find everything labeled "#rofl #omg #grumpycat".