Interesting college football attendance declining article

[Harry]

Last week, the Michigan athletic department admitted what many had long suspected: student football ticket sales are down, way down, from about 21,000 in 2012 to a projected 13,000-14,000 this fall.

The department has blamed cell phones, high-definition TV, and a sweeping national trend – but those don’t tell the whole story.

How’d Michigan lose so many students so fast? Answer: a lot of hard work.

Athletic director Dave Brandon has often cited the difficulty of using cell phones at Michigan Stadium as “the biggest challenge we have.” But when Michigan students were asked in a recent survey to rank seven factors for buying season tickets, they ranked cell phones seventh – dead last.

What did they rank first? Being able to sit with their friends.

But Brandon did away with that last year, with his new General Admission seating policy. Instead of seating the students by class – with the freshmen in the end zone and the seniors toward the fifty, as they had done for decades – last year it was first come, first served. (They also raised the price to $295, up from $195 the year before, when Michigan played six home games instead of seven.) The idea was to encourage students to come early, and come often. Thousands of students responded by not coming at all.

This was utterly predictable – and I predicted it, 13 months ago, in this column.

TV networks loved showing blimp shots of the sold-out Big House – one of the iconic sights in college football. Now they don’t show any.

read more: http://annarborchronicle.com/2014/06/06/column-paying-the-price-at-michigan/

[UNT90]

http://annarborchronicle.com/2013/05/03/column-um-football-policy-a-bad-bet/

This is the "I predicted it" article in Harry's link above. A stunningly dead on article about what is driving down attendance and a sacrifice that UNT is beginning to make.

The 11AM game time for SMU is one example. The maddening 5 to 10 minute wait every time the "commercial" official turned on his light is another.

Just the cost of trying to be "big time," I guess. Sadly, alienating young fans will eventually be the downfall of college football.

[Harry]

I thought the slow internet in the stadium being an issue as interesting -- also the long TV commerical pauses don't help.

Hey this is happening in other sports as well. My father in law is a huge Ranger Fan but he watches the games in his comfortable chair in crystal clear HD...

I'm just saying, it isn't just us. When storied programs like Michigan are struggling it tell you there is more to the story than just apathetic fans.

The good news for us is our student attendance is actually trending upwards.

[UNT90]

Sadly, college football has made EVERYTHING about money. Just look at the makeup of the AAC. Complete idiocy, except that they all have a TV market.

Keep going the way they are going a ratings will drop and the money pool will dry up.