Jim, good on you for sticking with Indiana all these years. It is quite a bit of a commitment to spend all that money to come up from Florida, get kicked in the jewels, and then head back home. On the positive side, Bloomington has quite a bit to offer the fall traveler and alumni making a trip back to the old Alma Mater. On the negative side for the football team, I can get all of that stuff without dropping $200+ to watch Indiana football do what they do. 4 hours someone would have spent out in a cold, high wind environment, and all they could come up with is the tried and true IU cheer of, "well we gave them a good game..."
Here is the deal, I have seen quotes from former players (mostly on the basketball side but I am sure this rings true for football too) who laugh at the idea that fans are part of Indiana athletics. We are not on the team, they are. We do not ever get to use all the nice facilities that our donations pay for, they do. If the team finally starts winning games, do you think the fans are going to get credit? No, because that is asinine. We do not play.
So I have been to games and I have dropped money and time on the team that I will never get back. And people say, well, you got to spend a nice fall in Bloomington. Yeah, I did. But I can do that without IU football. Without the crowd it brings. Without the frustration of dropping several hundred on a bad product because I feel guilted in to supporting the team. I can enjoy fall weather and cooking out with friends in my backyard with the game on TV. You have to give people a reason to give up their entire day to travel down to Bloomington. Watching our football team come up just short for the umpteenth time is no longer doing that for me. Kudos to those of you who do. The University just jacked ticket prices up on all of you 25,000 or so that they can count on no matter what to cover for those of us who have given up. So thanks for subsidizing the half a game of college football I usually get to enjoy from my living room on the weekend.
Lastly, I truly feel for you guys that have been actively engaged with this for 50 years. The commitment to something that brings joy in such few and far between instances is something.