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Coming to grips with college football’s declining attendance

Beau Vine

By Beau Vine
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kopp0e

kopp0e 1135

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16 minutes ago, utee94 said:

There are some dumb hot chicks in the Dallas area that can't get into UT, and sadly end up choosing ousux instead of going to Tech like a normal dummy would.

It's a pity, of course.

 

 

Have you ever seen how easy it is to get in at Arizona State..? Makes Tech look as if there is an admission policy...

ASU_Dorm_Hotties.jpg

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Machinator

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This might be relevant. TL;DR, shorter halftimes, shorten the delay between announced kickoff and actual kickoff time, and add more in-game advertising so that traditional commercial breaks can be "restructured"

Pac-12 announces expansion of pilot program to shorten length of football games

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SAN FRANCISCO – The Pac-12 Conference announced today an expansion of its pilot program to shorten the length of football games, with year two of the innovative initiative to feature not only non-conference games on Pac-12 Networks, but also select Conference and ESPN and FOX Sports televised games.  In all, at least 30 games are expected to be included in the program for the 2018 season, up from 15 games in 2017.  The program was launched in an effort to be responsive to fan and broadcaster feedback on the length of games, and is designed to improve the fan experience.
 
The decision to expand the program to include ESPN, FOX Sports and Conference games follows positive feedback from member universities, broadcasters and fans on the initial test involving only Pac-12 Networks, that resulted in an eight-minute reduction in average broadcast window and five-minute reduction in average game time in the games participating in the pilot.  Among the benefits seen from the test was a reduction in back-to-back games being joined in progress.  The game shortening elements that will once again be included in the program include shortened half-times from 20 minutes to 15 minutes, restructured commercial formats and enhanced in-game advertising, and kickoff times moved from :07 to :01 after the start of the broadcast window.  Not all elements will be implemented in each game.
 
“Improving the fan experience is a critical priority for the Pac-12 and we believe that taking steps to shorten the length of football games is one way to meet that objective,” said Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott.  “We are very pleased that as we continue to pilot innovative ways to shorten the game that this coming year we will be able to include some Conference games as well as certain games televised by ESPN and FOX Sports.”
 
“We are in favor of maximizing the college football viewer and fan experience” said Nick Dawson, ESPN Vice President Programming and Acquisitions. “We commend the Pac-12 for pushing this initiative, while also collaborating with us on its rollout.  We look forward to studying the results following the season.”  
 
“FOX Sports is excited to work with our partners at the Pac-12 Conference on this new initiative and to continue to find new and innovative ways to enhance the college football viewing experience,” said FOX Sports President, Production and Executive Producer John Entz.
 

 

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The Golden Hat

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When Minnesota hosted Nebraska at TCF Bank Stadium last year, the game featured charismatic new Golden Gophers coach P.J. Fleck, a home team fighting for a bowl berth and a big-name opponent. The announced attendance was 39,933—an OK crowd for a crisp November day in Minneapolis—but it didn’t tell the whole story.

Only 25,493 ticketed fans were counted at the gates, 36% lower than the announced attendance and about half of the stadium’s capacity. More than 14,000 people who bought tickets or got them free didn’t show up.

College football has an attendance problem. Average announced attendance in football’s top division dropped for the fourth consecutive year last year, declining 7.6% in four years. But schools’ internal records show that the sport’s attendance woes go far beyond that.

The average count of tickets scanned at home games—the number of fans who actually show up—is about 71% of the attendance you see in a box score, according to data from the 2017 season collected by The Wall Street Journal. In the Mid-American Conference, with less-prominent programs like Central Michigan and Toledo, teams’ scanned attendance numbers were 45% of announced attendance.

Even teams in the nation’s five richest conferences routinely record thousands fewer people passing through stadium gates than they report publicly. The no-shows reflect the challenge of filling large venues when nearly every game is on TV, and they threaten a key revenue source for college athletic departments.

“Attendance drives recruiting, attendance drives donations, merchandise sales,” said Rob Sine, who until earlier this year was president of IMG Learfield Ticket Solutions, which works with dozens of colleges. If fans don’t use their tickets, he added, “they’re more likely to not come back.”

Most schools scan and keep count of tickets used at football games. The Journal requested access to those counts under public-records law, and most public schools supplied them. Private schools aren’t subject to public-records law.

Minnesota’s gap between scanned and announced attendance could have been worse—its announced attendance doesn’t include stadium staff, marching bands or media, as many other schools do. A Minnesota spokesman said officials were unavailable to comment.

When Minnesota hosted Nebraska at TCF Bank Stadium last year, only 25,493 ticketed fans were counted at the gates, 36% lower than the announced attendance. PHOTO: HANNAH FOSLIEN/ASSOCIATED PRESSWhen Arkansas hosted No. 21 Auburn, scanned attendance was more than 25,000 lower than announced attendance. Overall last season, Arkansas’s scanned home attendance was 58% of its announced attendance as the Razorbacks went 4-8. Nonetheless, Reynolds Razorback Stadium is reopening Saturday after a $160 million renovation that increased capacity by about 4,000. An Arkansas spokesman declined to comment.Florida State, which won the 2013 national title, last season had a scanned attendance that was 57% of its announced attendance. FSU spokesman Rob Wilson blamed personnel and technical issues in scanning tickets and said, “We do not believe the difference is as large as the data appears to show.”

Sine, the ticketing expert who’s now chief revenue officer at ticketing company AXS, said technology has improved to the point that scanning errors generally have a minor effect on ticket counts.

Attendance is more than a vanity issue. The NCAA requires schools to maintain a 15,000 “actual or paid” home attendance on a rolling two-year average to stay in football’s top division.

Many schools take a generous approach in compiling announced attendance, by including ushers, security guards and even the guy at the concession stand who sells you a Coke. That partly explains how Purdue’s announced attendance last season spiked 13,433 per game—the largest jump in college football. (Purdue didn’t report how many tickets it actually scanned last year, citing what a spokesman called “outdated equipment, connectivity problems and user error.”)

The NCAA accepts the announced attendance numbers schools submit “at face value,” NCAA spokesman Christopher Radford said.

Despite the rising value of TV-rights contracts, football ticket sales and donations often make up more than half of athletic-department revenues. College sports officials say many factors are incenting fans to stay home including: affordable big-screen TVs; the availability of more games on TV; ever-changing kickoff times that make it difficult to plan ahead; games that span more than four hours; traffic; and rising ticket prices.

Sagging student attendance remains a problem, even at perennial power Alabama. As part of a recently announced renovation of Bryant-Denny Stadium, the school plans to add a student terrace to create “a more interactive and social environment,” athletic director Greg Byrne said.

The renovations also will add more club and lounge areas and slightly reduce the stadium’s 101,821 capacity, part of a trend of downsizing college football stadiums.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/college-footballs-growing-problem-empty-seats-1535634001

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CfRhTxStBobcats

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On 7/25/2018 at 12:31 PM, Machinator said:

This might be relevant. TL;DR, shorter halftimes, shorten the delay between announced kickoff and actual kickoff time, and add more in-game advertising so that traditional commercial breaks can be "restructured"

Pac-12 announces expansion of pilot program to shorten length of football games

 

If they want to shorten the game, give the damn replay officials 1 minute to review or the call on the field stands.

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Artie Fatso

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Interest in football - over the long haul - will continue to decline because younger people have other choices and interest when it comes time to spend their money. Add on the explosion in costs associated with buying tickets and there just won't be as many folks going to the game. Hell, with all the cable cutting, there are a lot fewer even watching it on tv. Sure, wealthy alums will always be there to put up money to make college teams targets for their private interests and investments, but Joe six pack and the students are the ones being slowly locked out of the games. Wait until the conference renewals get negotiated. What you are going to see as a small group (maybe 16 large schools) getting contracts for huge sums and they are going to sign up opponents based on their whims. Texas will be the first to take the money and leave conference affiliation. Why would they do otherwise? Split what they can pull with a bunch of midgets like Baylor, TTU, TCU, Kansas State, ISU etc? The good part is Texas will be formulating strategies to play real teams that draw interest - thats why they are already signing up bg name schools.

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kopp0e

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24 minutes ago, Artie Fatso said:

Interest in football - over the long haul - will continue to decline because younger people have other choices and interest when it comes time to spend their money. Add on the explosion in costs associated with buying tickets and there just won't be as many folks going to the game. Hell, with all the cable cutting, there are a lot fewer even watching it on tv. Sure, wealthy alums will always be there to put up money to make college teams targets for their private interests and investments, but Joe six pack and the students are the ones being slowly locked out of the games. Wait until the conference renewals get negotiated. What you are going to see as a small group (maybe 16 large schools) getting contracts for huge sums and they are going to sign up opponents based on their whims. Texas will be the first to take the money and leave conference affiliation. Why would they do otherwise? Split what they can pull with a bunch of midgets like Baylor, TTU, TCU, Kansas State, ISU etc? The good part is Texas will be formulating strategies to play real teams that draw interest - thats why they are already signing up bg name schools.

I would place some of the blame at the feet of having only a 4 team playoff that is in effect just an "invitational"...

 

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kopp0e

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1 hour ago, Sbbruin said:

Haven't followed this thread, but one total killer of attendance out here is the late kickoffs. We have a 7:30 kick for Fresno St in 2 weeks, and I'm not sure if I'm ever gonna go, and I always go. But getting home at 1 am is bullshit.

That sucks, it will probably be resolved in the next contract...

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MirrOlure

MirrOlure 14774

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Some of you have this weird fascination with the aggy game that it never merited. After everything they did in leaving the conference, they don’t deserve to play us. But let’s not act like it was a healthy rivalry over the preceding their chickenshit move. 
Flashback to the Bonfire game. 12 aggies were killed due to drunken negligence in the week leading up to our annual game. Texas bent over backwards to show sympathy and kindness to their university for several days. We held blood drives, among other things, to show that we’re all Texans and that we could come together to rise above tragedy. Mack Brown said all the right things as an ambassador of The University. And I knew we didn’t stand a chance in the game because we were focused on showing mercy and they were focused on winning the game to honor their senselessly killed brethren. 
How were we repaid? By shitty aggy fans lining the road into college station with nasty derogatory signs to greet our team buses. By shitty aggy fans calling our players’ rooms all hours of the night before game day, despite the hotel having been told that no calls should be put through to the rooms. By shitty hotel staff deliberately no-showing to cook breakfast for our team before the game. By having to eat at Jack in the Box or eating bowls of cereal before the game, and several of our players getting food poisoning. By a dumbass aggy fan yelling “beat the hell out of...” during a moment of silence while our band was playing a tribute to the needlessly killed aggies. Do you remember any big apologies from Texas A&M? Me, either  
That’s not a healthy rivalry. Those people are deranged. I won’t even bring back up the time (as I’ve mentioned here a few times) the looney 50-something aggy choked a Longhorn fan in the stands at the 2005 aggy game for no other reason than we were about to win the game. 
Not only should we never play them again, we should probably file a restraining order against them. Fuck those classless turds. 


And the People say “Amen”
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kopp0e

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2 minutes ago, Cairn Horn88 said:

Well, I can already tell you 3 of the 4 teams that will be in the playoffs...and that just sucks.

That's why I have started looking at it akin to the post season NIT version for college football...
Someday they will have to expand the playoffs to keep interest in more than just in parts of the SEC & B1G...

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