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Topic: Steady decline in college football attendance
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giacomo
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Posted: 7/9/2017 2:25 PM
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Universities turn focus to young fans as football attendance declines
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/college/2017/07/09/NCA...

Article giving reasons why younger fans don't go to games.
Alan Swank
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Posted: 7/9/2017 3:04 PM
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giacomo wrote:expand_more
Universities turn focus to young fans as football attendance declines
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/college/2017/07/09/NCA...

Article giving reasons why younger fans don't go to games.
7% decline in 9 years. I wonder if the fact that there is one MAC Saturday game after October 21 has anything to do with it.

http://www.dispatch.com/sports/20170705/rob-oller--pro-sp...
Last Edited: 7/9/2017 3:06:14 PM by Alan Swank
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Posted: 7/9/2017 3:36 PM
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Alan Swank wrote:expand_more
7% decline in 9 years. I wonder if the fact that there is one MAC Saturday game after October 21 has anything to do with it.

Of course, but how much? If you figure that there are roughly 20 MAC games a year on Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday, and that the mid-week games cost about 4,000 butts in the seats a game, that's 80k people less a year. Now, figure that there are 124 teams, and they average of 6.5 home games each, that means about 806 total FBS games a year. Thus the MACtion games cost about 100 people a game, spread across the entirety of FBS. Attendance is down from 45,912 a game to 43,070, a drop of 2,842 a game, of which about 100 is from MACtion.
Last Edited: 7/9/2017 3:37:53 PM by L.C.
Alan Swank
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Posted: 7/9/2017 4:32 PM
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L.C. wrote:expand_more
7% decline in 9 years. I wonder if the fact that there is one MAC Saturday game after October 21 has anything to do with it.

Of course, but how much? If you figure that there are roughly 20 MAC games a year on Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday, and that the mid-week games cost about 4,000 butts in the seats a game, that's 80k people less a year. Now, figure that there are 124 teams, and they average of 6.5 home games each, that means about 806 total FBS games a year. Thus the MACtion games cost about 100 people a game, spread across the entirety of FBS. Attendance is down from 45,912 a game to 43,070, a drop of 2,842 a game, of which about 100 is from MACtion.
Actually, if there are 124 D 1 teams each playing 12 games Hawaii and its opponents with 13), there are the same number of home games as away games - 6 per team on average. We averaged 23000 for our 4 Saturday games and only 17569 for the non-Saturday games, a drop of 5431 tickets sold per game. Actual butts - a much bigger drop than that. The point is that the times they are a changing. I was shocked by that article that listed the average age of TV viewers for various sports and was even more surprised by the growth of soccer. Here in SE Ohio, it just isn't as big as in cities like Columbus so we're not exposed to it as much. One of the biggest take aways I got from that article is that all the games in all sports need to be sped up/shortened. Rally scoring now pretty well fits volleyball into a two hour window.
BillyTheCat
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Posted: 7/9/2017 5:10 PM
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Alan Swank wrote:expand_more
Universities turn focus to young fans as football attendance declines
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/college/2017/07/09/NCA...

Article giving reasons why younger fans don't go to games.
7% decline in 9 years. I wonder if the fact that there is one MAC Saturday game after October 21 has anything to do with it.

http://www.dispatch.com/sports/20170705/rob-oller--pro-sp...
I'd say the fact that one can sit at home and watch almost any game.
Alan Swank
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Posted: 7/9/2017 5:32 PM
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And if you're planning on staying up till the end of the game time anyway, you can start watching about an hour or so before that and do it without commercials. That's huge!
Sam bobcat
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Posted: 7/9/2017 5:39 PM
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BillyTheCat wrote:expand_more
I'd say the fact that one can sit at home and watch almost any game.

That and the economy the last 10 years. From 1997 to 2008 I probably went to 3-4 games a year. After 2008 I've been to far fewer. Some years none at all.
Bobcat1996
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Posted: 7/9/2017 8:43 PM
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Attendance is down not only in football, but basketball and some other sporting events. With games being played on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights in both sports it hurts attendance. Basketball in November and December used to play on Sunday and compete vs. the NFL. Not a wise decision. If the majority of the MAC fans were polled, I am guessing they would prefer Wednesday and Saturday for basketball and Saturday games for football. Those days unfortunately are gone.
giacomo
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Posted: 7/9/2017 8:49 PM
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Alan, makes a good point about length of games. Rounds of golf played are suffering for the same reason.
Last Edited: 7/9/2017 8:58:24 PM by giacomo
Bcat2
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Posted: 7/9/2017 9:08 PM
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giacomo wrote:expand_more
Alan, makes a good point about length of games. Rounds of golf played are suffering for the same reason.
Honestly an 8:00 p.m. start at Purdue projecting O dark:thirty end of game, not còol.
mf279801
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Posted: 7/10/2017 12:05 AM
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Alan Swank wrote:expand_more
Actually, if there are 124 D 1 teams each playing 12 games Hawaii and its opponents with 13), there are the same number of home games as away games - 6 per team on average.
Just to nitpick on this one sentence (and I didn't do the math or actually count it up, so I could certainly be wrong), but since many FBS schools play non-FBS schools (primarily FCS), and since those games nearly always occur as home games for the FBS school, there actually should be more home games than away games played by FBS schools. (Now if strictly looking at games played between FBS schools, your original point does hold)
L.C.
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Posted: 7/10/2017 2:10 AM
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mf279801 wrote:expand_more
Actually, if there are 124 D 1 teams each playing 12 games Hawaii and its opponents with 13), there are the same number of home games as away games - 6 per team on average.
Just to nitpick on this one sentence (and I didn't do the math or actually count it up, so I could certainly be wrong), but since many FBS schools play non-FBS schools (primarily FCS), and since those games nearly always occur as home games for the FBS school, there actually should be more home games than away games played by FBS schools. (Now if strictly looking at games played between FBS schools, your original point does hold)

Exactly. That's why I estimated 800 games, rather than 744.

Alan Swank wrote:expand_more
We averaged 23000 for our 4 Saturday games and only 17569 for the non-Saturday games, a drop of 5431 tickets sold per game. ...

Yes, Ohio lost more than 4,000, but as the MAC leader in attendance, they had more to lose. I can assure you that EMU did not lose 4,000 people from mid-week games since that would put them in negative numbers.
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Posted: 7/10/2017 10:57 AM
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L.C. wrote:expand_more
Actually, if there are 124 D 1 teams each playing 12 games Hawaii and its opponents with 13), there are the same number of home games as away games - 6 per team on average.
Just to nitpick on this one sentence (and I didn't do the math or actually count it up, so I could certainly be wrong), but since many FBS schools play non-FBS schools (primarily FCS), and since those games nearly always occur as home games for the FBS school, there actually should be more home games than away games played by FBS schools. (Now if strictly looking at games played between FBS schools, your original point does hold)

Exactly. That's why I estimated 800 games, rather than 744.

We averaged 23000 for our 4 Saturday games and only 17569 for the non-Saturday games, a drop of 5431 tickets sold per game. ...

Yes, Ohio lost more than 4,000, but as the MAC leader in attendance, they had more to lose. I can assure you that EMU did not lose 4,000 people from mid-week games since that would put them in negative numbers.
Also, you have to compare Saturday games in November vs weekday games in November. My guess is November games in the MAC just draw as well because of the weather, no matter what day of the week they're played on.
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Posted: 7/10/2017 10:58 AM
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Pataskala wrote:expand_more
Actually, if there are 124 D 1 teams each playing 12 games Hawaii and its opponents with 13), there are the same number of home games as away games - 6 per team on average.
Just to nitpick on this one sentence (and I didn't do the math or actually count it up, so I could certainly be wrong), but since many FBS schools play non-FBS schools (primarily FCS), and since those games nearly always occur as home games for the FBS school, there actually should be more home games than away games played by FBS schools. (Now if strictly looking at games played between FBS schools, your original point does hold)

Exactly. That's why I estimated 800 games, rather than 744.

We averaged 23000 for our 4 Saturday games and only 17569 for the non-Saturday games, a drop of 5431 tickets sold per game. ...

Yes, Ohio lost more than 4,000, but as the MAC leader in attendance, they had more to lose. I can assure you that EMU did not lose 4,000 people from mid-week games since that would put them in negative numbers.
Also, you have to compare Saturday games in November (maybe from a few years ago) vs weekday games in November. My guess is November games in the MAC just don't draw as well because of the weather, no matter what day of the week they're played on.
Brian Smith (No, not that one)
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Posted: 7/10/2017 11:03 AM
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There's an argument to be made Peden at its current capacity is the perfect size for the future, given TV availabilty for our games now and attendance trends.

Baseball parks are shrinking. I think NFL stadiums with 40-50k will be on the horizon. More intimate, less embarrasment when 20k seats are empty on TV.

So the goal should not be to expand Peden, it should be to refurbish what we already have.
Last Edited: 7/10/2017 11:03:38 AM by Brian Smith (No, not that one)
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Posted: 7/10/2017 11:11 AM
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Alan Swank wrote:expand_more
And if you're planning on staying up till the end of the game time anyway, you can start watching about an hour or so before that and do it without commercials. That's huge!
I do that on Sunday's quite often for Bengals games. DVR and start watching at about 1:45-2pm. Caught up to "live" by the 4th Q as long as I skip the halftime talking heads, and kickoffs.
OU_Country
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Posted: 7/10/2017 11:12 AM
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L.C. wrote:expand_more
7% decline in 9 years. I wonder if the fact that there is one MAC Saturday game after October 21 has anything to do with it.

Of course, but how much? If you figure that there are roughly 20 MAC games a year on Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday, and that the mid-week games cost about 4,000 butts in the seats a game, that's 80k people less a year. Now, figure that there are 124 teams, and they average of 6.5 home games each, that means about 806 total FBS games a year. Thus the MACtion games cost about 100 people a game, spread across the entirety of FBS. Attendance is down from 45,912 a game to 43,070, a drop of 2,842 a game, of which about 100 is from MACtion.
I'm assuming LC, that you've done the research, but is it really only about 4,000 fewer butts in the seats for midweek MACtion? It always seemed to be quite a lot more to me.
OU_Country
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Posted: 7/10/2017 11:13 AM
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giacomo wrote:expand_more
Alan, makes a good point about length of games. Rounds of golf played are suffering for the same reason.
I can attest to that fact. 18 holes takes too damn long. 9 holes, plus a stop off for lunch and a beer, is more ideal in my mind.
Brian Smith (No, not that one)
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Posted: 7/10/2017 11:27 AM
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Par 3 courses are the future, aren't they?
mf279801
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Posted: 7/10/2017 11:40 AM
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Brian Smith wrote:expand_more
Par 3 courses are the future, aren't they?
"Executive" golf courses
Ohio69
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Posted: 7/10/2017 12:36 PM
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mf279801 wrote:expand_more
Par 3 courses are the future, aren't they?
"Executive" golf courses
Good ones are hard to find.... but fun to play.

Come on people, 80% of being a fan is just showing up! Jeesh.

Did anybody mention video games yet? They are worse than Elvis' legs and Fahrenheit 451 and N.W.A.! They are destroying humanity !
Last Edited: 7/10/2017 12:41:45 PM by Ohio69
C Money
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Posted: 7/10/2017 1:06 PM
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OU_Country wrote:expand_more
Alan, makes a good point about length of games. Rounds of golf played are suffering for the same reason.
I can attest to that fact. 18 holes takes too damn long. 9 holes, plus a stop off for lunch and a beer, is more ideal in my mind.
Imagine you could have a local microbrew right there on the course itself. You'd go ahead and play the back 9, wouldn't you?
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Posted: 7/10/2017 1:54 PM
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C Money wrote:expand_more
Alan, makes a good point about length of games. Rounds of golf played are suffering for the same reason.
I can attest to that fact. 18 holes takes too damn long. 9 holes, plus a stop off for lunch and a beer, is more ideal in my mind.
Imagine you could have a local microbrew right there on the course itself. You'd go ahead and play the back 9, wouldn't you?
C Money is killing it lately with these business proposals.

If only those pesky pouring rights weren't getting in the way (sarcasm)
OU_Country
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Posted: 7/10/2017 3:13 PM
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C Money wrote:expand_more
Alan, makes a good point about length of games. Rounds of golf played are suffering for the same reason.
I can attest to that fact. 18 holes takes too damn long. 9 holes, plus a stop off for lunch and a beer, is more ideal in my mind.
Imagine you could have a local microbrew right there on the course itself. You'd go ahead and play the back 9, wouldn't you?
I probably wouldn't. I don't like golf enough to consistently show up to play 18 on a regular basis. Golf is something I do with my friends who prefer golf when they want to hang out. I'd rather spend my time under the hood of my old truck, or hiking/running some trails somewhere. Or on the patio of a winery/brewery watching the world go by as I start into a second bottle of goodness. ;)
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Posted: 7/10/2017 3:33 PM
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While average attendance might be declining as you add more non-P5 schools to the mix, 2013 and 2015 appear to be the best years ever for total colleget football attendance. And attendance in 2016 was more than it was in 2007. 

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