Not all that surprising of an article but has a nice little dig at Purdue’s “largest increase” claim... https://www.wsj.com/articles/college-footballs-growing-problem-empty-seats-1535634001
CF Attendance story
- Thread starter stripetology
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This link should let you click through and read it without a sub
WSJ said:
This brings into question the claims that one thing or another will bring materially higher attendance. Surely winning would but what else?
In my opinion, Winning is the #1 ingredient but there are others, including the degree difficulty to reach the stadium, the entertainment factor during pregame, TV time outs, and post game entertainment, is the venue both adult and kid friendly, is the venue safe, along with ease of egress...(etc...[everyone has their own special ingredient that is most important to them: music being one).
Winning is #1 though.
Although from what I've seen over the years we have some fans that would still leave early even if we were winning...
The truth is even winning wont always do it. I have seen it at IU...I have argued here many times over the years that there is NO fans-in-waiting for schools like IU. Everyone who cares about college FB has a team. It become a zero sum game...to gain more fans in the stands here, someone has to lose some. For IU, I don't think even that is possible. Too low population density. For IU to see say a 10,000 seat increase in sales might take a decade of winning, or even more. Have get them very young, wait for them to grow up IU fans and start over. Those people, the 45,000 that always showed during the Mallory era are mostly dead or too old or ill to attend. Its a do over for us. Not an easy chore...any way you twist it. The challenge here is to keep what we have...and that aint a sure thing either,
It's become a pastime for the well off. It's tough for a working stiff to justify the cost of going to the game when you can watch from the comfort of your living room.
Spend $20 to park, $30-75 per ticket, then add in prep time spent if you tailgate. It's a no brainer to spend that money for a single game on a 65" TV.
And who cares how many tickets are scanned? Ticket revenue is what matters most. The biggest reason Purdue had the biggest increase wasn't faulty equipment, it was Purdue was terrible for 4 years before last. That's why I also don't care too much about capacity. Ticket sales are falling everywhere, why do programs like IU and Purdue, who don't sell out anyway, need more of seats to be empty?
I completely disagree. With over 650,000 living alumni, IU has one of the largest college alumni networks in the country. A significant percentage of our alums are living within a 4-5 hour drive to Bloomington. There are plenty of folks with IU connections who are waiting to hop on the football bandwagon. It was evident in 2007 (the Bucket game that season was one of the most electric atmospheres I have ever experienced at a sporting event) and it will happen again when we start winning.
It realistically begins with students. If they didn’t attend while they were in school, preferring to tailgate or sleep in or do laundry or hit the bars, they aren’t likely to attend as alums. Growing them younger is great, but growing them while they’re on campus is the best, most realistic way to make them fans and keep them that way.
Well I can tell you who is not gonna have the attendance problem this weekend.
126 tickets as low as $408
Those are the ticket prices for the Michi-ND game. That place will be a party!
126 tickets as low as $408
Those are the ticket prices for the Michi-ND game. That place will be a party!
Uncle Mark - Good Post. Also difficult for the working man to attend games scheduled for TV during the week like Thursday night games. Same in hoops. Try to find a B1G game on Saturday. Hard to do. If you're flying in and out it's a bitch and expensive.
Go Hoosiers!
Well, I respectfully disagree and submit these facts...they aint showed up yet and I've been waiting for 40 years. How about you?...vbg IU has a great alum base of which my wife and I are members. But the hard cold truth is that they have not come...and winning will have to take place over a long time to bring any. Stadiums like IU fill with locals...it was always that way at IU. You must have tradition to bring them consistently from a distance. I wish this was not the case. But we do not have a winning tradition. And a tradition isn't formed in a season or three. Give it a decade and maybe you can argue that you have become one. We are no where near that.
But that isn't the end of the world. You build with what you have. New stadium improvements help. But its a big big picture to make a winning program.
I don't know if you live around Btown but if you do I would suggest you to go to a public place with a lot of teens. (My wifes teaching exposed me) See what sweatshirts they are wearing. You'll find as many ND and UMs as IUs. That real, talk to them, but this is where new fans must come from...but non are holding their breath for us...vbg. We cant get the future alum to games when they are on campus!!!! Students don't care right now. We have our work cut out for us.
PS...try to give away game tickets around town and most likely you'll be stuck with them. Happens way too often.
PPS...I don't intend this as negative at all. This has always been our challenge. Back during Mallorys time we sat in the stands and tried to figure out how to get sellouts. Winning wasn't doing it. We never achieved it and Coach was fired. Hasn't been solved yet.
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I will say that I feel IU hasn’t done bad with attendance despite a lot of the accurate comments above. Access construction, population density with multiple div 1/pro options, losing record and until recently subpar facilities. Seems to me the negative that’s been most damaging is the early departures. But here is a die hard core and you have seen the occasional sellout and energy that makes you believe it could take on an assembly hall like atmosphere if they could just stop shooting themselves in the foot as we all have sadly become accustomed to.
Well I don’t believe those football programs light it up attendance wise so not sure of your point. And no where near the number of strong div 1 programs in same state nor even surrounded by the number of big programs vs population. And not aware of any 6yr plus construction nightmares in those areas either.
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