Remember when

doclee said:
Myth: The tailgating "crackdown" has ruined the game day experience (for whom? for how many? really?)
Myth: The renovation of the stadium has been detrimental to the game day experience (evidence?)
Myth: The poor music selection has ruined the game day experience. (Oh, come on)
Myth: Playing mid-major teams early in the year has ruined the Kinnick experience. (maybe for those games...)
Myth: The move of the student section to the south end of the stadium has neutralized the students' excitement. (nope)
Myth: The crowd is getting old and sitting on their hands (come on up to my section where we are and you will reconsider your thinking)

Fact: The students arrive late, leave early, buy fewer tickets, and are only "into" the game about half the time.
Fact: Go to a couple of away games and you may well see the same thing.

At times, the students can be a real force (I sit in the South Endzone and have for years, so I can watch the students and hear them loud and clear). But, that generation is changing the stadium atmosphere, and not just in Iowa City.
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I don't know about the other things but I would have to disagree with the tailgating crackdown. Every pro and college game I've been to that had tailgating going on helped build the excitement for the game. Just walking through the area and talking with the other fans gets me pumped. Of course I'm only speaking for myself. Btw, I start getting pumped up driving in the caravan when I'm going to the games so my judgement might not be entirely accurate.
 
Sorry everyone....but most people's memories/experiences as to what changed @ Kinnick are far too short.

My sophomore year was Comming's final year.

Kinnick/FB was a party event, a social event. A win was nice, but people went to lose themselves for 3 hours. FB passed the time until BB began. A BB ticket was far far more valuable and difficult to get than a FB ticket. Not even close.

Bota's were allowed in the stadium, that strange smoke you smelled wasn't a BBQ, and the NE and NW corners were grassy play areas. Frisbee's flew, beach balls bounced about, the student section was jammed full in the "J" section (appropriately named).

Kegs were allowed on the tailgate spots where the plaza and southern-most hospital structure now sit. We'd grab/pass girls up all game. You could leave the stadium and come back in. The Highlanders managed to exist two more years. Per-Mar was nowhere in sight. Nobody ever visited the Kinnick jail.

Kinnick and the surrounding areas were a friendly, welcoming, come-as-you-are, comfortable game-day experience. Excesses were tolerated as they only occurred 5-6 times a year.

Those were the cozy trade-offs for a lousy on-field product.

The innocence of it all began eroding after the 1982 Rosebowl.
 
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MNHawkeyeFreak said:
The students used to be in the NW corner when I was a student....so why would the SW corner be that different?
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Where the students sit has zero to do with why there is a decline in attendance and interest.

What's different with this generation student is the onslaught of social media....internet, tweets, smart-phones, etc.

In "our" time, a football game truly was where a lot of us students, who knew one another but didn't necessarily see one another throughout the week, met up to re-acquaint. Drink brews, tell stories, catch up on gossip, etc. We really didn't have an in-your-hand information gathering system...it had to be done in person.

In this day and age of instant news dissemination, the need to meet publicly to reconnect has passed. You can do that instantly 24/7 now-a-days.

Also, the 100% coverage of every game on HDTV has changed the landscape. Don't want to spend money to sit in the snow, cold and wind?....huddle around an HDTV somewhere and text incessantly in real time. Gone are the days of the Saturday night replay on KCRG as the only video option.

So, IMO, I think that's the biggest deficit as to the numbers and lack of interest of this generation student at major college sporting events.

Not right or wrong....just the way it is.
 
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Seth53 said:
Where the students sit has zero to do with why there is a decline in attendance and interest.

What's different with this generation student is the onslaught of social media....internet, tweets, smart-phones, etc.

In "our" time, a football game truly was where a lot of us students, who knew one another but didn't necessarily see one another throughout the week, met up to re-acquaint. Drink brews, tell stories, catch up on gossip, etc. We really didn't have an in-your-hand information gathering system...it had to be done in person.

In this day and age of instant news dissemination, the need to meet publicly to reconnect has passed. You can do that instantly 24/7 now-a-days.

Also, the 100% coverage of every game on HDTV has changed the landscape. Don't want to spend money to sit in the snow, cold and wind?....huddle around an HDTV somewhere and text incessantly in real time. Gone are the days of the Saturday night replay on KCRG as the only video option.

So, IMO, I think that's the biggest deficit as to the numbers and lack of interest of this generation student at major college sporting events.

Not right or wrong....just the way it is.
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A lot of truth to this. Students ... and adults now, too, are captured by technology. For the first time smartphones have outpaced the number of laptops purchased. We are connected 24/7. And to Millennials, their mindsets are different than previous generations ... meaning their focus ... their multi-tasking ... are something different than we have seen before. And so getting them to the game is only going to continue to get harder with this generation and those who follow. I think student ticket declines will continue to happen across the country. I think college and pro football have already reached their peak when it comes to attendance. Technology advances will continue to prompt people to reach for the remote in their living room versus being there in person. I look at myself ... been going to Kinnick every Saturday for 15 years ... Now ... I watch it at home in front of the big screen with my smartphone and remote in hand, smoker on the deck, and nobody walking into my living room and making me dump my bottle of vodka in the grass. :)
 
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Saturday morning cereal chapters 1 through 15. Flypaper, penny loafers, Lucky Strike Green, flat tops, sock hops, Studebaker Pepsi please. Ah, Do you remember these?
 
We used to see these signs in every stadium

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I never understood why fans give each other high 5's after a great play....think about it....just don't get it.
 
NCHawker said:
I never understood why fans give each other high 5's after a great play....think about it....just don't get it.
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It is called ''human interaction''....this used to be common back before technology took over. Soon we will build robots to handle the ''high five'' for humans.
 
doclee said:
Myth: The tailgating "crackdown" has ruined the game day experience (for whom? for how many? really?)
Myth: The renovation of the stadium has been detrimental to the game day experience (evidence?)
Myth: The poor music selection has ruined the game day experience. (Oh, come on)
Myth: Playing mid-major teams early in the year has ruined the Kinnick experience. (maybe for those games...)
Myth: The move of the student section to the south end of the stadium has neutralized the students' excitement. (nope)
Myth: The crowd is getting old and sitting on their hands (come on up to my section where we are and you will reconsider your thinking)

Fact: The students arrive late, leave early, buy fewer tickets, and are only "into" the game about half the time.
Fact: Go to a couple of away games and you may well see the same thing.

At times, the students can be a real force (I sit in the South Endzone and have for years, so I can watch the students and hear them loud and clear). But, that generation is changing the stadium atmosphere, and not just in Iowa City.
Click to expand...

HawkIPA said:
Myth- doclee knows what he is talking about.
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You're right, IPA, he doesn't.

We have a massive video board but only 50% is used for football - the rest for bleeding advertising

If i wanted to watch, look at, or listen to ads I'd stay home and watch on TV.
I effing HATE Cenex, now.
Pancheros, you're next.
And you can have the "Case IH Red Zone"

We have a student Marching Band that has to sit quietly while the sound system blares pop-music and *more* advertising.
I remember when the marching band was fun to hear from throughout the game.

Now they are on a strict schedule as not to interfere with the all-important advertising.
And even when they area ALLOWED to play the Band is barred from playing many stadium crowd-pleasers;


And the crackdown *is* a real thing. Melrose used to have a street-fair atmosphere six days a year. Now enforcement of city ordinances about tents, and selling, and open container have sucked ALL the life out of it.
And I should be allowed to smoke a damned cigar. (or cigarette if that's you're thing)


"In Heaven there is no Beer" was banned for a year. Why? Because Iowa fans and students shouldn't drink devil's-brew beer!
And it was only allowed back AFTER the game, re-titled as "Iowa Victory Polka" - getting rid of that song really inspired people to stay off the beer, didn't it? (except if you sit in the press box, I guess)

Remember when the band would get the crowd going with Clapton's "Cocaine" (used in lieu of "In Heaven" during the ban) Drug theme? Ban it.
Where is "Rock 'n Roll Part II"? Naughty words! No fun allowed. Ban it.

There are others, but this is too long as it is.
 
Exactly return in heaven there is no beer to its original words. They should add more polka in addition to that, and bring back the Scottish Highlanders. No more pop music!
 
Hawknick said:
Exactly return in heaven there is no beer to its original words. They should add more polka in addition to that, and bring back the Scottish Highlanders. No more pop music!
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Pop Muslik?


Radio, video
Boogie with a suitcase
Your livin' in a disco
Forget about the rat race
Let's do the milkshake, sellin' like a hotcake
Try some buy some fee-fi-fo-fum
 
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