re: Question for all SEC fans: Are you having trouble with football attendance?

Stonehog,

While a lot of the factors you bring up make sense for just about every school in the country, there are MANY factors that show A&M running counter cyclical.

First off, the stadium renovation is far more about improving the experience than the expansion. Yes, we will add about 15k more seats but the infrastructure and experience will be drastically improved. The West Deck will be a palace whereas now it is a dump. You have $3k per seat donation seats where you have to pee in a trough, smell bat shite, and have limited concessions areas now. The field is being lowered and moved to fix the sight line issues (currently well over 10k seats have horrible sight lines). They are putting in a bigger jumbotron than Jerryworld in the South End Zone and 2 large Jumbotrons in the NE and NW corners so that nothing will be missed. They are putting in escalators in the North and West Decks. They are doubling the suites and adding Loge Boxes. They are more than doubling club areas. They are putting concourses on each level of the stadium so you will be able to walk around the 3rd deck without going down to the bottom and that will DRASTICALLY increase the concessions and amenities with the extra room. They are adding shade.

The outside of the stadium is also getting a complete facelift and they are putting in statues, walkways, and parks all over. They are very focused on taking what is a great gameday experience and making it even better. They are doing all they can to make tailgating, parking, amenities and activities outside the stadium, and overall experience better. They understand you have to make the game about more than just watching football if you want people to give up their Saturday's to come because you don't play a Top 5 Team every week.

As for attendance its all about demographics. A&M has sold out every game since Mid 2010 and they have already sold out season tickets for the new stadium (and have commitments from additional donations that have already paid for the stadium). The money is FLOWING. A&M is approaching 400k living alumni and is adding a net of over 11k per year (12k grads replacing classes in the '40s and '50s that were about 1k). The school plans to grow to 75k by 2025 as well and has 31k student season tickets. There are currently 225k in B/CS and that is growing at a rapid rate to deal with the school growth. The State of Texas is now at over 27 million and adding 500k annually, almost all of which is within 250 miles of BCS. A&M is also the closest major conference school to Houston which is the 4th largest metro in the US. A&M grads make more annually than any public school over 25k as well and the Texas economy is rock solid, diverse, and growing.

Will we be full for every game? Doubtful for next year with 109k but after that its going to be close. Demand is only going up and its not just the Manziel factor. Even in the depths of the Fran era we were still averaging about 80k and that was with an uncommitted AD, a dated stadium, and 90k fewer Aggies. Really the only risk is the cheap seats in the upper decks of the EZ's, the demand for the sideline seats is off the charts and those are what is paying for the stadium.

Yeah, yeah, I know. TL;DR

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I didn't use a single criterion, that was one example.

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It is a loaded example. Viewing angles isn't an option they can take in to proper example, it is an extension of the HD experience. There is no cost benefit tied to increasing viewing angles. Would people pay differently for more angles?

For UF, no one wants to watch paint dry (offense). I'm convinced that there are too many other exciting things to do around here than watch paint dry. I'm actually sure of it.

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In LSU's case it is definitely NOT price of tickets. All these games sell out with no problem. The problem seems to be people buying tickets and then not bothering to go for whatever reason

When you factor in tickets, concessions, parking, tailgating, and possibly hotels, a football game is pretty expensive for your average joe.

When every single game is on high def tv I can see why non-diehards choose to watch it at home.

Spence is only one area but it will get a facelift, there are many other tailgate spots and every year the ease and experience is getting better. This is also an area Hyman made a big priority at USC and is likely to continue to at A&M, he understands the value of tailgating to the gameday experience.

This was Hyman's baby at USC, it won't be long before A&M gets something similar:

LINK

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Washington. They just spent about $280 million and reduced capacity by more than 2,000.

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But an increase in demand wasn't a driving force for the Huskies' renovations. They're also not experiencing the demand-increasing changes TAMU is (SEC, still increasing enrollment, young grads with loads of cash). And while it's a good environment up there, they're not nearly as football-crazed. The Huskies also have to share Seattle with the Seahawks, which necessarily limits their ability to expand.

Moroever, one school doesn't set a trend, which is your original premise.

You can make the argument that TAMU didn't need to add 13k seats--perhaps 5-10k would suffice. But with the school's increasing growth and membership in a conference with other fans who travel, I think you'll be surprised by just how filled the stadium will be on a regular basis.

The difference is negligible and irrelevant for this thread's purpose.

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Houston is not the 4th largest metro area. Dfw is 4th.

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Correct. Texas A&M is less than three hours from the number 4, number 5, number 25 and number 35 metropolitan areas. Or more than the populations of Arkansas, Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi combined.