Attendance is Barta's fault - Iowa only issue

[Fryowa]

Only if you're talking about behind-the-times national sports channels. My 4k movies rock. Oh, and 4K upscales 720 and both 1080i/p to something quite remarkable. Just sayn.

Lol. Sports is literally the only thing I watch on my TV.

On my list of fun shit to do, spending three hours on my couch watching the 374th Marvel movie is way down there.

 

[Northside Hawk]

Commute isn't bad, it's a town 7 miles away; from where I live it takes me 8 minutes. It's actually kind of nice sometimes to wind down a little bit.

A coworker and I were talking the other day, I'm thinking I must have made that drive at least 10,000 times.

Thats not bad at all. When my two oldest were toddler age and I had normal job stress with deadlines and the like, my twenty minute commute to and from work was my sanctuary. A place to get my thoughts together and organized.

Since I moved to Wisconsin in 2001 I cross the bridge into or out of Dubuque at least four times a day. Thats roughly 1,000 times a year for the last eighteen years just for work. Add weekends and my trips into Wisconsin from 2001 to 1982 when the bridge opened and I estimate I've crossed it well over 30,000 times.

If you think that's crazy you should have seen the bridge it replaced. It was one of those steel deck jobs and very narrow. Lots of bent and broken side view mirrors.

 

[Northside Hawk]

I worked at a place that had "unlimited PTO" which was their way of shirking out of having to pay accrued vacation when people quit or got terminated. I was there 2 years. I got about 20 Saturdays and 30 Sundays off in 2 years. 0 weekdays off. My wife made me quit after a 4 day stretch without going home. She brought me Jamba Juice and clothes in the office but I couldn't talk because I was running a call. She said she was worried I would die if I stayed there and that it wasn't worth the extra $30k I would make.

A company that I worked at for eleven years was sticking it to me during a period when they were growing, but cutting personnel at the same time. They were making me cancel approved time off, among other things. When I told them I had accepted a position with another company there was blood draining from faces in that meeting room. Nobody expected it. When they found out that they were going to have to pay me for all that unused vacation they kept talking away from me, which was approaching 150 hours plus two full biweekly pay checks, they probably got drunk.

 

[Robowe]

Thats not bad at all. When my two oldest were toddler age and I had normal job stress with deadlines and the like, my twenty minute commute to and from work was my sanctuary. A place to get my thoughts together and organized.

Since I moved to Wisconsin in 2001 I cross the bridge into or out of Dubuque at least four times a day. Thats roughly 1,000 times a year for the last eighteen years just for work. Add weekends and my trips into Wisconsin from 2001 to 1982 when the bridge opened and I estimate I've crossed it well over 30,000 times.

If you think that's crazy you should have seen the bridge it replaced. It was one of those steel deck jobs and very narrow. Lots of bent and broken side view mirrors.

Here's a link to a web site with some history (including 68 photos) of the old Wisconsin toll bridge. I included one below.

https://bridgehunter.com/ia/dubuque/eagle-point/

 

[Northside Hawk]

Here's a link to a web site with some history (including 68 photos) of the old Wisconsin toll bridge. I included one below.

https://bridgehunter.com/ia/dubuque/eagle-point/

Not seen in this photo is the 45 degree left turn it made on the Wisconsin end.

What a hunk of shit that bridge was. The only thing it was good for was making beer runs to the taverns on the Wisconsin side of the bridge when the drinking age in that state was eighteen!

 

[okeefe4prez]

Here's a link to a web site with some history (including 68 photos) of the old Wisconsin toll bridge. I included one below.

https://bridgehunter.com/ia/dubuque/eagle-point/

That was a common style bridge back in the day. There used to be one crossing the Des Moines River between Coalville and Otho. My old man threw my sandbox (an old tractor tire) into the river next to one of those bridges back in '81 or so after a kid who lived on the other end of our trailer park took a shit in it.

 

[hawkeyebob62]

This will sound old-fashioned but I really miss the 1:00 start times in the 1980s and early 1990s when Iowa wasn't on TV. We didn't have to get up so early to get to the game and we stopped about halfway home to grab some food and were usually home by 9pm.

1:05 pm seemed like the "designated start time" for the Big 10/Big Ten. And though that seems "late", it's a lot easier to "lolligag" post-game and get home late than it is to bust-ass to make it for an 11:00 am game, then STILL get home almost as late as you do for 1:05 pm games.

I grew up in Chicago, with parents being NW alums. Some days we didn't even tailgate, we just went out to eat before games. That was totally possible with 1:05 pm starts. Then driving home we either went straight home, or stopped at a White Hen Pantry for little brother and I to score a hot dog and a soda.

When they started having 2:30 pm starts for the CBS and ABC games, it made it better for locals/students, but can make for very late nights for those driving longer distances. Night games are a different animal. Fun, and all, but a completely different "planning" goes into it from a fan perspective. And frankly, there is NOTHING worse than waiting for night games if the afternoon games are of no interest.

 

[hawkeyebob62]

I get everything you state. The other side is when you get a glorious game like Michigan or Ohio State. They were not for national titles but they were great to be there in person. Even the almost Penn State game of 2017 was great in person. So loud on that last drive. Missed it by an inch. And in terms of lesser opponents those are good ones for reduced price kid tickets as they don't care who the Hawks are playing and if parents want to take kids it makes it a little better ($25 a seat). So I think it is good to have a couple like that. But if I didn't have a kid I would not drive from Sioux City to watch those in person. I am lucky to live within a half hour. No hotels and no long hours in the car.

It isn't just income either. It is competition for one's time.

<<It isn't just income either..It is competition for one's time>>

Bingo. I had UCF season tix for several years. But...because I was going to our Hawkeye Club game watches and getting ripped, I was blowing off half the UCF games (this was before they got their own on-campus stadium, games were in the Citrus Bowl stadium). All the September and October games were at night. Beer in the stadium wasn't much of an inducement after Bloody Marys, beer, post-game shots, then "cool-down" beers with dinner.

In short, Hawks on TV>>any other team live.

 

[hawkeyebob62]

That is the thing with all games on tv that hurts physical attendance. Remember listening to Gonder and Reilly as a kid on the small AM radio.

Gonder/Reilly was my fave broadcast team.

 

[hawkeyebob62]

The best value is to Airbnb around the area.

My wife and I are doing that with another couple in Evanston for the NW game. Doing Thursday and Friday night in Chicago, Mustard's Last Stand and Bloody Mary's before the game, then more free time Saturday night and Sunday. Just have to get the details on which airport we will fly into, Midway or O'Hare. That, and which pizza joint we will be hitting. And of course, what I'll be ordering at The Berghoff and if it includes hard alcohol or just beer.

 

[okeefe4prez]

1:05 pm seemed like the "designated start time" for the Big 10/Big Ten. And though that seems "late", it's a lot easier to "lolligag" post-game and get home late than it is to bust-ass to make it for an 11:00 am game, then STILL get home almost as late as you do for 1:05 pm games.

I grew up in Chicago, with parents being NW alums. Some days we didn't even tailgate, we just went out to eat before games. That was totally possible with 1:05 pm starts. Then driving home we either went straight home, or stopped at a White Hen Pantry for little brother and I to score a hot dog and a soda.

When they started having 2:30 pm starts for the CBS and ABC games, it made it better for locals/students, but can make for very late nights for those driving longer distances. Night games are a different animal. Fun, and all, but a completely different "planning" goes into it from a fan perspective. And frankly, there is NOTHING worse than waiting for night games if the afternoon games are of no interest.

I thought when televising games was in its infancy Bo said something like "I don't care if they want to televise Michigan football games so long as they are that 1:05 to do it." He knew something bad was cooking, but at least for Michigan the games start at noon, not 11.

 

[westender]

Gonder/Reilly was my fave broadcast team.

Always good when Mike would say something to get Gonder laughing and he could never easily stop.

 

[westender]

The schools only care about revenue. If 100 rich guys offered a million bucks a piece to buy out the whole stadium, these whores would take it and play the games in an empty stadium. NASCAR did the same thing 15-20 years ago and now they are lucky to get the tracks 2/3rds full (they can only do that for the biggest races like Daytona and the Southern 500) and most of the races are under 1/2 full. Many tracks also took out tens of thousands of seats.

Revenue maximization for some sports is something that will hurt them in the long run. Basically, if you price out families, you piss away your fan base a decade down the road. Which is why NASCAR now has deals that are absurd, you can get an adult ticket for $40-50 and kids under 12 are free. But it's too late. They already pissed off the fan base. Squeezing nickels out today causes a diminution in future brand equity and goodwill, but these blow dried MBAs that run these organizations don't care about the organizations in the long run, they just wanna get paid.

It only gets better for fans when attendance really falls and a revenue drop happens. Iowa is fine so long as they can tease us with a good run or have a great game like OSU every few years, but if that program has a few losing seasons in a row, it's gonna get really bad.

In the future they will just have humanoid bots in empty seats. Won't know the difference. Who is real and who isn't.

 

[westender]

<<It isn't just income either..It is competition for one's time>>

Bingo. I had UCF season tix for several years. But...because I was going to our Hawkeye Club game watches and getting ripped, I was blowing off half the UCF games (this was before they got their own on-campus stadium, games were in the Citrus Bowl stadium). All the September and October games were at night. Beer in the stadium wasn't much of an inducement after Bloody Marys, beer, post-game shots, then "cool-down" beers with dinner.

In short, Hawks on TV>>any other team live.

But Florida winter > Iowa winter

 

[revkev73]

It's too expensive for the experience that you get now that you can watch it in 720p curled up on your couch for free. With better views, no buyer's remorse if your team get's blown out, 10 steps to the bathroom, no OWI risk for those of you who drink, and all the taco dip and pickle rolls you can stuff in your fat face. And if Stanley starts playing soft toss with Penn State's DBs, you can go mow grass.

Seriously though...for a family of 4 that lives, say 2 hours away, you've got $200 in tickets minimum, $50 round trip in gas, $100 in meals, popcorn, miscellaneous stuff, and that's just the bare minimum. So you spend $350-$500 to go watch Kirk Ferentz not play Noah Fant against NW and get beat when it's 17 degrees outside with a hammered tailgater swaying into you for three hours.

If you have to hotel it one night then you're in even deeper.

The people wondering why attendance declines are also people who think every family pulls two $100K plus incomes.

High level college football doesn't cater to the working poor, or those with families, it caters to big $$$ in business, etc. And big shots, or those who think they are.

Keep that core group happy, you get "taken care of" as an AD or coach. The rest don't matter much.

It isn't that complicated.

 

[revkev73]

My wife and I are doing that with another couple in Evanston for the NW game. Doing Thursday and Friday night in Chicago, Mustard's Last Stand and Bloody Mary's before the game, then more free time Saturday night and Sunday. Just have to get the details on which airport we will fly into, Midway or O'Hare. That, and which pizza joint we will be hitting. And of course, what I'll be ordering at The Berghoff and if it includes hard alcohol or just beer.

Living the dream!

 

[uihawk82]

That was pretty much the whole 2005 season. 3 consecutive top 10s. I think before Michigan in 2005 we had a 20 some game home winning streak. That Michigan loss in '05 sucked, but it was kind of like "meh" we had to lose eventually. Then when we lost at Northwestern I think it was the most heartbreaking Iowa loss I've ever witnessed. It was horrific. 13 point lead late in the 4th. Gone. Those next couple years. Blech.

You know the lyrics "...the day the music died." Well those losses in 2005 were the 'Day the bullies of the big 10 lost their mojo." Seriously, it would be until late 2008 and 2009 before the defense was bullyish again and the hawks have never returned to that level of brutishness year in and year out since.

KF was so conservative with Tate etc thinking his defense would win games then they had a late fold against Mich which they came back from to tie (because they had to open up the defense they put in the deep freeze) and my son and I went to Evanston for that 2005 game which Iowa was outplaying jNW by 400% yet lost just like one of Fry's later teams lost in Evanston lake effect snow storm and wind after outgaining jNW 4 to 1.

 

[Seth53]

My wife and I are doing that with another couple in Evanston for the NW game. Doing Thursday and Friday night in Chicago, Mustard's Last Stand and Bloody Mary's before the game, then more free time Saturday night and Sunday. Just have to get the details on which airport we will fly into, Midway or O'Hare. That, and which pizza joint we will be hitting. And of course, what I'll be ordering at The Berghoff and if it includes hard alcohol or just beer.

I'm an Airbnb host. Been an interesting seven months doing so.

 

[hawkeyebob62]

But Florida winter > Iowa winter

Try Florida "fall" some time

 

[hawkeyebob62]

Living the dream!

Grew up in Chicago area, went to NW games as a kid with parents (alums), and one of my sisters was a pom-pom girl. We just figured if we were going to fly up from Florida and make a long weekend out of it, may as well be for a road game where we wouldn't be doing same stuff we always do back in Iowa: Amanas, shop in Williamsburg, and bitch/argue about where we would tailgate and where we would go post-game.