re: The Steady Erosion of the Gameday Experience

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if not,,, suggest a blog,, nobody here is really that interested in your opinion.

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I thought it was pretty good. Better than the normal Rant dick grabbing.

not about the experience, it's about the money.
price of tickets etc vs HDTV

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In summation, you are wrong. The gameday experience has never been better for the fan, and college athletics has never been more exciting than right now. Period.

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So how long have you been working for IMG?

Also, OP is not wrong in the broad strokes but needs some tweaking on the finer points.

a) Media companies control gameflow and it can alter games. Last night at the UT @ UK game it came down to the last few seconds. UK was hot but time was called (I thought to put about 1.8 seconds back on the clock) and neither team called it, nor did the refs to reset the clock. It was called just so ESPN could get in a few commercials. UT regrouped and UK went cold. 1 point win was achieved by UT when 1 point win by UK probably would have happened with no media timeout.

b) Schools do not spent on a budget the way you or I might. Say an AD in the SEC a decade ago made 150K and had a staff of 2 making 50K each for 200K annual budget. Power 5 schools have more and more money flowing in so instead of maybe growing to 300K in cost at the next AD hire it goes to 500K + 50K in bonuses and a staff of 6 (in their early 20's who don't know much) making 75K each. Cost rockets from 250K to 1M just in salary cost. I would love to run a company where arbitrary increases like that could happen and the company did not go belly up. In short the more they get the more they increase spending without really needing to. All this happened while the rest of the US was slogging through the 08' recession / depression.

c) Harvesting the baby boomers is still in peak cycle but that will start to decline in the next decade as they start to die off. The folks in the generation below them will not have that same money and the long time fleecing of donors will end that gravy train. The AD's are quick to blame folks staying home because of TV's but they ignore the reality that they have priced the live event out of the average persons pocket between ticket prices and hefty "donations".

d) As for IMG, certain SEC schools now sub the "donation" work out of house to folks like IMG so when they hit you up, part of your donation goes to a private for profit company and not to the actual school itself. Next time you write a donation check as first who is speaking to you and where that money really goes. It is more cost effective for IMG to solicit say in a North Carolina headquarters but they wont know you like the old way of a person who has met you personally and is actually employed by your alma mater.

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The Steady Erosion of the Gameday Experience

was this quoted from something? if so,,, source?

if not,,, suggest a blog,, nobody here is really that interested in your opinion.

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13 upvotes (and counting) say otherwise.

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You didn't even hit on the real reason why people aren't going to the games. TV timeouts.

Nobody wants to go and watch the Red Hat Man stand on the field

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This and the cost argument are my biggest beefs with CFB games.

If I'm going to a game (which I still enjoy doing), frick buying it from the school directly.

i think there will always be people who prefer the live experience but, as has been said here, the market is driving them home. traffic, subpar facilities, high cost, time commitment, rent a wins, information connectivity problems are outweighing the live experience.

in addition, universities already have the fan money up front in the form of season tickets and premium seating so, there is little motivation to make any substantial changes.

if universities do eventually want bodies in seats for the majority of the games, they have to address the above issues. i think they will need to take a cue from baseball and make the events family affairs with kids' playgrounds, arcades, etc. if the kids are entertained, the parents will stay. they also need to figure out alcohol. jerryworld has an interesting solution with the bars in the stadium. some sort of adult area will need to be added.

traffic is obviously going to take city wide efforts. millennials aren't going in large numbers until universities partner up with mobile providers to get better connectivity.

tiger stadium has added some better food choices but, if people are going to be there for a few hours, they expect better options.

i think steps are being taken but, that's a lot of heavy problems. it will take years before the overall experience is noticeably better.

We needed it for soulja boy

Well said