It's completely free, and often comes with free giveaways, for the best seats in the arena, is a quick walk for most on campus and has a pretty solid team with likable players. There's just nothing you can do except understand it is a nationwide problem even with major programs. The 18-23 year olds of today just aren't into organized events. Sports attendance, bowling leagues, clubs, social organizations, etc. are all down with this crew. The only thing that is up is streaming data and video games.

Higher profile non-conference opponents. Be like Gonzaga and go 28-0 so every game is a can't miss affair. Alums aren't into it either. Some think Ohio would get a 16 seed if it ever made the tournament. It's because Athens is a small town therefore a small perception to the athletics. We know as a good G5 athletic school Ohio is pretty far up the food chain but many will never see it this way.

Oh BABY, what a big time diversion while drinking a glass of wine!

This topic hit me like a ton of bricks yesterday. I usually come with my wife, kids, friends or some combination of the three. Yesterday it was just me. I walked a round the campus and while sitting drinking a soft drink found myself in brief conversation with a two groups; one a group of young female students and then male students.

They were very pleasant and asked me if I was an alum and if there was a game today (dressed in my OU attire I am sure it was pretty obvious, the days have long passed for me being confused as a current student.) They young women said they sometimes go to games but weren't going today, but said they hoped we win. The young men said they were big basketball fans, they too sometimes go to games. However, some of them said they were going to hang and drink with friends, while a couple of others said they were going to work out or take a run. Just a totally different mindset than I remember from when I was an undergrad in the 80s.

At halftime talked to a couple of guys sitting near me who seemed to be around 40. They kind of laughed about the thought or promotion getting more students to come. Different world they said from when they were here in the 90s.

Think about it, we are the ones who other MAC schools look up to for crowd involvement. As bad as Miami crowd supports can be, Eastern Michigan probably thinks it is impressive compared to their atrocious numbers. The number of our alums, fans and townspeople in the Convo hasn't changed at games, but the number of students though double the size of the student body of the 80s isn't even half the size of that era, maybe a third. Winning can temporarily solve problems, but we are facing a different mindset from what many of us who originally came to games in the 70s, 80s and 90s experienced.

There are statistics on this but college basketball nationally isn't as popular as what it was in the 80's and 90's when it was on ESPN and ESPN was a new thing. Students will fire up for big games. Sibs and Parents weekend introduces kids to the Convo always strong drawing weekends. Its too many home games for people to commit to and that is more the problem.

So this begs the question - at what point will the vast majority of the 20K students on campus who don't go to games but pay the fee, do something about it?

When will the business economics dictate a different path? As the costs of collegiate athletics continues to soar and student attendance continues to dwindle, something's got to give. If these athletic events exist primarily for the benefit of the student population and the student population is voting with their feet to stay away it doesn't seem to be a sustainable model.

Do what?

Transfer to another school that doesn't have a fee?

Oh wait, applications are going up, not down.

A national decline would suggest demographic factors rather than an individual choosing another program. If Ohio's enrollment drops compared to schools that do not offer additional student activities at added cost, that's a valuable dataset.

I don't see the value of attending a university (rather than just taking online classes) if you aren't also interested in what a school offers outside the classroom.

Imma say it...

There aint a whole lot to do in Athens, i always looked forward to attending a FREE sporting event..and mine were the Cleve Larry years.

The only regret i have is not doing more on campus the 4 years i had there.

Mark it sounds like you may be a couple of years older than me, but we were basically in Athens around same era and with all due respect, I have to vigorously disagree with you. Here's why; I usually went with the same 3-5 guys every game. We had a routine usually getting to the game about 15 minutes before tip off. I don't ever remember sitting in the lower section. On occasion we would sit in the first row of the section above the general walkway. On a few big games, I actually remember sitting near the upper press box, I specifically remember doing that on a weeknight against Miami in 1986.

Now look at today, Saturday was a continuation of what I have been seeing for some time. There were actually empty student seats in the lower level for the entire game and we are talking a Saturday game. Also keep in mind that the student body is about twice the size compared to when we were in school. You are correct there is a great deal more OU shirts, pants, sweaters etc available to students than when we were there, especially to those outside of Athens. We have talked about this before on this board, at least now you can OU gear outside of Athens which just wasn't an option when we were in school. I am certainly glad to have students who are there. It is not a knock against the student body, we are just living in different times. There are many things they could be doing, more kids have cars etc. Like the guys sitting near me at the game said, different times and different mindset.

Selling beer would be a big step in the right direction.