Friday, September 27, 2013

College Football: Declining Student Attendance Hits Georgia

Pretty good article in today's <i>Wall Street Journal</i> about falling student attendance at SEC football games.

Http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304795804579097223907738780.html

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Even though Im not a student. I would rather watch any football on a nice big screen TV. To me going to any event is becoming a hassle with all the crazy security they have everywhere now. To me its just not fun anymore.

Anonymous said...

It's just too damned expensive for anyone who doesn't have a shitload of daddy's money to burn. They ought to redistribute these tickets to young alumni or alumni in general. They have jobs and can afford the parking, the food and the whole experience of being there. College kids would rather be where they can drink and check their cell phones.

Anonymous said...

To me, there's nothing like being there and I wish the students felt the same way. We've been on a waiting list for season tickets for seven seasons now, and have had to scrounge around for tickets whenever we go. In light of this, it's particularly frustrating to look up and see empty seats in the student section.

Anonymous said...

I love the experience of attending a college football game, but as I get older it often seems like too big of a hassle. Parking is a nightmare, I hate standing in lines and everything is much too expensive.
It's also easy to see why no one enjoys attending the nonconference games against overmatched opponents, unless of course you are a Mississippi State fan and Alcorn and Troy are the only likely victories on the schedule.

Kingfish said...

All schools have different policies BUT it used to be at LSU, a student could walk up to the gate, show ID, and walk in. Perhaps that is the best model. Can't sell those spots on Ebay.

The students come first. Period. This is college football. All about the school and the students. They've made it alot tougher for students.

1. Scheduling creampuffs. You get four SEC games at home. Too often the schools schedule rent a wins so we get to see Big Bad State U beating up on Southwest Dallas State. Boring as hell. No one cares, and guess what? They don't show.

2. Prices. Many now charge students for tickets. Prices add up. Not every student has daddy's credit card.

3. More prices. LSU last year abolished free parking on campus. $40 per car. Not every student lives in a dorm. Just made it tougher for students to come on campus, tailgate, etc. Student spends $50 or more on tickets. Then has to pay to come on campus. $100 is alot of money to alot of twenty year olds.

Thus it is too much hassle when the students can simply go to a bar, drink and watch game on HDTV instead of enjoying game day. Simple truth is adminstrators, AD"s, and boosters have made game day cost too much and surprise, those with the least money are not attending.

Kingfish said...

What is also driving this is stubhub. Students would get paper tickets and if they didn't go, give them or sell them to their fellow students.

UGA partners with Stubhub. Paper tickets stop. Coincidence the attendance dropped?

Anonymous said...

20+ years ago it was $35 for a season of student tickets at MSU. Can't imagine what it must be like now.

No day makes a regular college student at an SEC school feel LESS important than home game day. Kids get kicked out of their parking lots (Bama makes the residents at Tutwiler move so RVs can park close to the stadium). They usually get some of the worst seats, AND the student section gets split up all over the place so the kids don't get too rowdy.

Heaven help you if you get caught with the demon alcohol -- which, of course, happens only after you get felt up by the campus police officer who drew the short straw and is checking student bodies for flasks or bourbon-filled water bras.

Anonymous said...

8:01 you need to get your facts straight. You're right about the parking, but the students are either in the lower bowl or a section of the new upper deck. Definitely not scattered all over the stadium. Most of those seats are better than some alums have. I don't think the alcohol policy is any different than any other SEC school and nobody is patted down without cause, if caught they are turned away. For that matter, it's no different anywhere in the stadium.

Anonymous said...

I got a 55 inch screen at home. My seat is comfortable. Restroom is 18 steps away. I get replay and commentary. I can pause or rewind the game. I have excellent parking.

Anonymous said...

I'm happy for the students who take a pass on football. Its pure business and to them its hype. University presidents want to get the student athletes to take stipends and sign waivers for head injuries. Simply put its what alumni want not students.

Anonymous said...

Question: Who and why has someone been on a season ticket waiting list for seven years. If you join the athletic foundation and pay dues you should not wait nearly that long.

Question: I keep hearing about student drinking. What percentage of students do you think are of legal drinking age, 21? I think it's a fact that football's interest no longer is the driving force behind more than 20% of the student population. The rest have other interests

Observation: I can remember when very few girls would go to a game without a date. Now we see hundreds and hundreds of girls going in alone or in groups or just with a girl buddy.

Opinion: Football stadiums are just one more place on campus saturated with rules, rules, rules and lines, lines, lines. Kids want the weekend time for themselves without the hassle of adult rules and more control from the university. Do this, do that, sit here, cheer now, don't ring, ring, no sticks, no chants, sit butt cheek to butt cheek crammed in to a giant sweaty sardine can. The excitement of game day may be the same for some of us as it was forty years ago. Apparently the attraction is not there for a lot of folks.

Anonymous said...

I attended the University of Virginia during the 1980's. Students only had to show a student ID to get in. There were no tickets for students. Also, there were no reserved seats in the student section.
That meant the fraternities would send pledges to the stadium hours ahead to save large sections of seats. The only seats left for everyone else were between the 10 yard line and the back of the end zone (or during those days you could sit on the hill behind the north end zone). Also, when U.Va. got good in 1984 and 1985, there weren't enough seats for the students. All in all, the ID system did not work very well.



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