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re: Question for all SEC fans: Are you having trouble with football attendance?
Posted on 10/15/13 at 11:51 am to Stonehog
Posted on 10/15/13 at 11:51 am to Stonehog
quote:
Texas A&M's expansion is incredibly shortsighted and outdated, instead of increasing the capacity they should have just increased the amenities and the suites. Right now the nice but smaller stadiums are in, as evidenced by Baylor's plans and Washington's new stadium.
People that can afford suites will still go, but a person making $30,000 a year will be more inclined to stay home and watch on tv instead of fighting the crowds and sitting asses to elbows with 110,000 other people. They are going to have a serious problem filling that stadium.
I agree with all of this. The numbers for national attendance have been going down for a few years across the board, and we decide to increase capacity by 20k? We're gonna have a tarp of shame in 15 years, or $15 50 yardline seats.
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Posted on 10/15/13 at 11:52 am to Bama Bird
To be fair, we shouldn't be using Alabama as a benchmark on attendance and ticket sales. They aren't a fair representation for college football attitudes because their success is unparalleled. Just like we wouldn't use Wyoming on the low attendance end, we shouldn't use Bama as an example of common feelings of college football fans.
Posted on 10/15/13 at 11:54 am to Stonehog
That's really true as well. A good example would be like Michigan State or Purdue- not an SEC school where the demand is unusually high, and not a Big Ten school that has a lot of success.
Posted on 10/15/13 at 11:54 am to Stonehog
quote:
Texas A&M's expansion is incredibly shortsighted and outdated
I'll pass that along. And they will tell me that its sold out.
Posted on 10/15/13 at 11:55 am to sec13rowBBseat28
quote:
I can deal with the heat, but dammit, dont run out fricking water in the second qrt. during a day game.
This.
Are yall allowed to bring in water? A&M has a written policy of 1lt. per person but you'll normally see gallon jugs being carried in.
Posted on 10/15/13 at 11:57 am to Bama Bird
quote:
Demand doesn't entail only ticket prices, but the opportunity costs of attending games which is essentially what do you give up to go to a game? The answer is time and money, and lots of both. The tickets themselves aren't that much- it's just a combination of everything else.
I suggest the ADs solve this by figuring out a better parking option. I think parking is truly the root of all of this.
You are getting closer now. Your first post suggested that ADs lower ticket prices as the solution, but I don't think that would have much of an impact. The tickets are being sold and cheap tickets are to be found everywhere if you want them. Concession prices are not driving this either.
It's people's time and other opportunities. A lot of people just don't think it's worth their time to go to a game anymore and that has a lot to do with a shift in our society (we don't like to commit a half day to anything anymore and the attention span of the digital generation is like 30 minutes) and vastly improved technology (many people simply prefer HDTV to being in the stands). Going to be hard to combat.
Posted on 10/15/13 at 11:58 am to The Spleen
quote:
his sounds good, but Bama's AD already gets the revenue on the front end. Season tickets are sold out and there's a waiting list a mile long. Their supply is meeting their demand. It's what happens with those tickets once they're in the hands of the purchaser that is the problem, and the AD has no power over that.
Season tickets also dont account for all the tickets. I believe bama is in the 60's as far as percentage of season tickets vs the whole
Posted on 10/15/13 at 11:59 am to relapse98
quote:
I'll pass that along. And they will tell me that its sold out.
Yeah, this year it is. Super duper. Thinking about it in terms of 20 years down the road? Probably not such a good idea. TV is only going to get better, all games will be available on television or the internet live, and demand will decrease.
Look I'm glad that I'll be able to get cheap season tickets in 10 years when the newness of the SEC has worn off, but it will look bad on TV when the 112k stadium has 80k people in it.
Posted on 10/15/13 at 12:00 pm to relapse98
We are not allowed to bring any liquid what so ever into the stadium. People were waiting in line for 20/30 minutes to get water. They then ran out of water and ice in the secnd qtr.
Posted on 10/15/13 at 12:01 pm to relapse98
quote:
I'll pass that along. And they will tell me that its sold out.
When will the expansion be completed?
By the time they finish that stadium I'll be able to watch the game on my ESPN Gameplan Brain Stem viewer, and I'll just have to think about the game and it will be projected onto the backs of my eyelids.
Posted on 10/15/13 at 12:03 pm to Stonehog
quote:
When will the expansion be completed?
In time for 2015 season. Technology is really gonna get a boost in the next year and a half, apparently.
Posted on 10/15/13 at 12:05 pm to LSUdm21
Families are paying their TAF fees for their season tickets just to keep the seats they have in their name. Say a 80 year old man has 6 season tickets on 50 yard line 30 rows up, he will continue to buy them and so will his son/daughter after he passes because you would never be able to get those seats back. All the families who have had tickets for 50+ years will continue to buy them just because they know if they give them up then they will never have them again. Families with 6,8 or 10 season tickets may very well only be using 3 or 4 per game.
Posted on 10/15/13 at 12:08 pm to sec13rowBBseat28
LSU makes getting to the stadium, tailgating, getting in the stadium, buying concessions, and getting off campus a huge pain in the arse. Who wants to pay to go to a game then miss half a quarter waiting in line for water. For me it had zero to do with tix price (my season tix are cheap in comparison to other schools) it has everything to do with LSU sucking the enjoyment out of the gameday experience. Oh and frick the piped in music, frick the band not being able to play any of the good songs, and frick half the jumbotron being nothing but ads.
Eta: not even being able to send or receive a text on campus on gameday. Update your tech LSU
Eta: not even being able to send or receive a text on campus on gameday. Update your tech LSU
This post was edited on 10/15/13 at 12:10 pm
Posted on 10/15/13 at 12:10 pm to Stonehog
quote:
Texas A&M's expansion is incredibly shortsighted and outdated, instead of increasing the capacity they should have just increased the amenities and the suites.
Why? We have one of the largest alumi-bases in the country, have a over 50k students and are located an hour away from the 4th largest city in the country.
quote:
Right now the nice but smaller stadiums are in, as evidenced by Baylor's plans and Washington's new stadium.
Baylor does not represent a bellwether for anything stadium related. Jesus, man.
quote:
People that can afford suites will still go, but a person making $30,000 a year will be more inclined to stay home and watch on tv instead of fighting the crowds and sitting asses to elbows with 110,000 other people. They are going to have a serious problem filling that stadium
It's 102,500, not 110,000 (we'll only be that high for one year).
Aggies graduate with the highest median starting salary in a state with a booming economy. Plenty of new grads are in Houston and have the cash to make it down for what is the most exciting time in Aggie football history, as evinced by the fact that we sold out the new stadium months ago.
Of course there will be games with 85-90k people. They will be the exception.
This post was edited on 10/15/13 at 12:14 pm
Posted on 10/15/13 at 12:10 pm to Bama Bird
It is not a unique thought, but I think television is the root cause for the lack of fan interest in stadiums, on many levels.
-It is easier/cheaper to stay home and watch.
-Commercial breaks lessen the stadium experience with lulls in the action/dragging the game on.
-"TBA" kickoff times catered to television make it somewhat more difficult to plan in advance.
-It is easier/cheaper to stay home and watch.
-Commercial breaks lessen the stadium experience with lulls in the action/dragging the game on.
-"TBA" kickoff times catered to television make it somewhat more difficult to plan in advance.
Posted on 10/15/13 at 12:11 pm to relapse98
quote:
2015
That's why I said the expansion is shortsighted. You're spending $400 million to add seats so people can watch a team that won't even feature Manziel.
And before you say Sumlin's offense will always be exciting to watch, I agree. But he may not even be there by the time the stadium is finished. I'm not trashing A&M or predicting that Sumlin will leave, these are just things that should have been considered before spending nearly half a billion dollars to add seats.
When attendance is dropping nationwide, it makes more sense to assume that A&M is not the sole exception to the rule, and that declining attendance will also affect the Aggies. That's why you spend the money to make the stadium nicer instead of bigger.
Posted on 10/15/13 at 12:14 pm to DWag215
quote:
Why? We have one of the largest alumi-bases in the country, have a over 50k students and are located an hour away from the 4th largest city in the country.
NFL teams with much larger fanbases have much smaller stadiums than A&M. Why is that?
quote:
Baylor does not represent a bellwether for anything stadium related. Jesus, man.
You clearly haven't been paying attention and your bias against Baylor is preventing you from thinking critically.
This post was edited on 10/15/13 at 12:16 pm
Posted on 10/15/13 at 12:16 pm to Stonehog
quote:
NFL teams with much larger fanbases have much smaller stadiums than A&M. Why is that?
NFL stadiums give you more area per person, NFL teams also make much more revenue per person than CFB. So they are able to have smaller total capacity stadiums
Posted on 10/15/13 at 12:18 pm to LovejoyLSU
Let's figure this out. If one of the problems with attendance is season ticket holders not attending games, and those willing to be season ticket holders is in high supply, then we need to filter out those not attending. We need to place season ticket holders who have poor attendance in the back of the line come next season. Tickets are already scanned in at entry so it wouldn't require much to catalog attendance by seat. Even if a season ticket holder couldn't attend every game this system would further push them to sell their ticket successfully, maintaining their attendance record.
TL;DR: Season tickets should be given to those with proven attendance records first. This will filter out those who buy them and do not fill up their seats.
TL;DR: Season tickets should be given to those with proven attendance records first. This will filter out those who buy them and do not fill up their seats.
Posted on 10/15/13 at 12:21 pm to NYCAuburn
quote:
NFL stadiums give you more area per person, NFL teams also make much more revenue per person than CFB. So they are able to have smaller total capacity stadiums
So you're saying NFL stadiums are smaller because they already make enough money. That doesn't make sense, if adding seats meant they would make significantly more money then they would do it. NFL teams aren't in the business of providing extra leg room.
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