College FB Attendance waning

eyekwah

eyekwah

Well-Known Member
CBS sports has several interest articles on football game attendance.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefoo...0421/college-football-attendance-down-in-2014

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefoo...the-right-size-for-a-college-football-stadium

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefoo...lls-fight-to-keep-its-next-generation-of-fans

These are extensive articles and probably some of the best information put together about attendance. It is somewhat perplexing that Iowa State is adding 4500 seats to its south end-zone when their attendance numbers are not showing it is justified. According to the article their attendance is actually down 2% this season. So far Iowa's attendance is 2% better than one year ago, but still not at capacity. AD's are looking for answers to increase or recover attendance, but the market may have reached a bubble breaking point. I enjoy going to the games, but I must admit it is too easy to just stay home and watch them on TV.
 
Big Screen HD tvs with nice sound systems are great. The game day experience at the stadiums are great.

Ticket prices are not so great, gas and travel costs are high, food and drink at games are ridiculous. I think people are looking at they are spending $600-$1000 a year on their cable TV packages and then turn around and spend >$1000 for two tickets and costs to 6-7 home games and they are saying I cant afford all this.

With all the TV revenue coming in I would like to see Barta not raise ticket prices for 2015. Wont happen but I think it would be a good idea to see if they can do this to sell out.

I think Barta should also lower student ticket prices to entice students to come to the games and when tickets are available for a game put together some really affordable adult-child packages like they did with basketball.

Make a good Student ticket exchange so they can sell their tickets easily to whoever or transfer to other students.
 
Two things:

1) TV

2) Fleecing of fans

I love the Hox, but over $950 for season tix between the 40s, $750 for tix between the 20s and 40s, and $550 for tickets between the goal lines and 20s are just stupid absurd prices. Sure, that's what the market will bear when the team is coming off a 10 win or more season, but when we have a team like the one we've had bince 2011 (at least in 2010 we had hope), I think you see a 1-2% diminution in the season ticket holder base each year and not a lot of slack capacity waiting behind them. Same thing is happening at Michigan. If folks are paying that sort of money, they want to see wins and not losses to teams liek Northern Illinois, Iowa State and Utah.
 
You want to fill the seats? Make them less expensive.

You want to maximize your revenue? You will likely have some empty seats.
 
okeefe4prez said:
Two things:

1) TV

2) Fleecing of fans

I love the Hox, but over $950 for season tix between the 40s, $750 for tix between the 20s and 40s, and $550 for tickets between the goal lines and 20s are just stupid absurd prices. Sure, that's what the market will bear when the team is coming off a 10 win or more season, but when we have a team like the one we've had bince 2011 (at least in 2010 we had hope), I think you see a 1-2% diminution in the season ticket holder base each year and not a lot of slack capacity waiting behind them. Same thing is happening at Michigan. If folks are paying that sort of money, they want to see wins and not losses to teams liek Northern Illinois, Iowa State and Utah.
Click to expand...

^^ I agree and much of what I said.

An exciting offense scoring 35 points a game avg would really help also. When there are only about 5 highlight offensive plays a game it is not going to make everyone want to be there and be part of the celebration.

Time for the Ath Dept to get creative.
 
eyekwah said:
CBS sports has several interest articles on football game attendance.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefoo...0421/college-football-attendance-down-in-2014

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefoo...the-right-size-for-a-college-football-stadium

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefoo...lls-fight-to-keep-its-next-generation-of-fans

These are extensive articles and probably some of the best information put together about attendance. It is somewhat perplexing that Iowa State is adding 4500 seats to its south end-zone when their attendance numbers are not showing it is justified. According to the article their attendance is actually down 2% this season. So far Iowa's attendance is 2% better than one year ago, but still not at capacity. AD's are looking for answers to increase or recover attendance, but the market may have reached a bubble breaking point. I enjoy going to the games, but I must admit it is too easy to just stay home and watch them on TV.
Click to expand...

but, pwogwam on the rise!
 
Increased ticket prices combined with a populus that is increasingly satisfied with a digital experience over the real live analog one.

An exciting product wouldn't hurt either. Iowa football (particularly the offense) is custom made for DVR.
 
The BCS was bad for attendance, the current playoff model may be worse. The season can mean nothing too quickly for too many teams.

Want to to increase attendance? Move to smaller divisions within conferences with playoffs within the conferences and only playoff winners advance to national playoff system. Conferences could figure out how they want to run their playoffs, but only one team can emerge. Oh yeah, fix the system so there are four major conferences instead of five.
 
LG210 said:
You want to fill the seats? Make them less expensive.

You want to maximize your revenue? You will likely have some empty seats.
Click to expand...

This. It's econ 101. There's a market clearing price that will ebb and flow creating small shortages and surpluses of available tickets. If you consistently have shortages, your price is too low. And vice versa for the most part.
 
hawkfan340 said:
This. It's econ 101. There's a market clearing price that will ebb and flow creating small shortages and surpluses of available tickets. If you consistently have shortages, your price is too low. And vice versa for the most part.
Click to expand...

Capitalism is a wonderful thing when it is allowed to work.
 
Iowa isn't going to give up the 40,000 seats they get $200+ donations for (on top of ticket prices), to sell 3,000 regular priced tickets a game.
 
Upgrade the fiber optics, spend the money so the kiddies and those with the disposal incomes can do whatever it is that they want to do.


Appeal to the GenXers, the 30 and 40 somethings with young families make the experience worth their while. Other than that all the money coming in is dependent on TV revenue....The genie is out the bottle now, there is no turning back.
 
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I love the experience of Kinnick and went to every home game when I was at school there from 00-04 but now days the cost and hassle is too much.

Every year I get to one game solo and come back the same day, which means I only buy one ticket and spend 8 hours that day driving to watch a 3 hour game. I hit the road at 5am and get home around 7 or 8. Even that ends up costing me $200 for all things considered.

One of these years Ill say enough and just stay home and watch on tv, see every play clearly and avoid the hassle
 
There has been a lot of good feedback in this thread alone. My question is, "Who is responsible to gather concerns and criticisms and do something about it?" Is it the AD? or Is it it the ticket management unit?

Obviously the product on the field sways some folks. Iowa overall has avoided the problems we see at Purdue and Illinois even though Iowa has not been as good as ardent fans desire. The new facilities can't hurt recruiting, only help. The point is that Iowa is in a better position for the future than where it was five years ago.

Staying competitive is vitally important to maintaining the fan base. Iowa fans remain some of the most loyal in all of college sports, but the new generation of fans may not be as loyal. For those of us following the Hawkeyes since our childhood in the 50's there has been some really bad periods and some good ones. The final year of the Fry era and the first two of Ferentz's are about the longest streak of losing seasons Iowa has experienced in the last 35 years. If you are younger than 45 you cannot understand how much it meant to see Iowa finally go to the Rose Bowl after a 20+ year absence and end the streak of losing seasons in Fry's third year. Attendance ran around 40K for a game before Fry.

The older Iowa crowd is going to show up pretty much in time of thick or thin, so the athletic department needs to really tune into Gen X, Gen Y and the Millennial generations. Make it affordable for them to attend, quit answering to TV and answer first to the fans that show up for the games, and add more value to the ticket. Nothing says you can't have a party inside Kinnick stadium after a game where students and alumni could share a beverage, some entertainment, and what appeals to the younger audience. You could turn Kinnick into a outdoor sports saloon using the video boards to show other games.
 
I'll add this. Before the season even starts, ESPN has already told the world how things should shake out. Reputations and expectations are cemented. Then it is very hard to change those established thoughts.

One might conclude - At Iowa (or 100 other places) , there is nothing really to look forward to because there are only 8 teams who have a chance to get to the 4 team playoffs. That's all that is said to be important. And getting to a conference championship is another goal but only few teams have a realistic shot at that too.

The rest of the teams are just wall paper and the bowls are relatively less interesting now and not as somethign to aspire to but more like a consolation prize.

some of this is true for sure.
 
B1G and other conferences brag about massive TV deals then lament the fact that people stay home to watch the game.

It's pretty funny if you ask me.
 
I agree that the playoff setup is going to hurt attendance...as indicated the media has already determined that a huge swath of America, from the rockies to NYC...need not even bother to pay attention, because the Big Ten is already out of the PLAYOFFS!....it is killing the excitement for many for the league race. ...especially the young who are all about NFL playoff scenarios.

If they do not tweak this playoff system, it will hurt interest, in the Big Ten especially. They must tweak it so that the Power 5 league winners are all in the playoff....do a playin game between seed #4 and #5..at #4's home field on Dec 20.

Otherwise, this is going to kill college football, as I expected.
 
I believe there is a consensus emerging that fans would rather have a 6-game home schedule with 6 decent games instead of 7 home games with 2 or 3 crappy games. The bigten should move to 10 conference games, then have 2 other games against 2 other decent teams.

Plus 2 bye weeks in the month of october when the weather is ideal for football is nuts. Iowa has 1 home game in october. They should have at least 1 bye week in November when its darker and weather is more hit and miss.
 
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