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College football attendance continues to decline each year, hitting a 14-year low in 2014. We can only speculate the exact reasons for the decline, wh
[See the full post at: College Football Attendance Continues Decline]This statement in the article amuses me…
“ACC: This league again was last among Power Five schools at 50,016”
Of course we’re last…the ACC biggest stadiums are average SEC stadiums. Wake only holds 31,500…Duke holds 33,900.
Clarksa: Nail/head. The numbers that are more telling about attendance trends are % of capacity. Granted, I have no clue where the ACC stacks up there. Probably low as well.
The ADs have no one to look at but themselves for poor attendance. The all mighty TV dollar drives game times, drags the games out longer which makes the overall in game experience worse. The ADs want more money from home games, so teams like our schedule complete patsies. Who wants to go see that? Then there’s the bombardment of advertisements within the games itself. If I’m watching ads, at least I can mute them at home. Then there’s all the conference re-alignment, which has killed a lot of rivalries, or just brought teams that conference members don’t care much about.
I didn’t attend a NC State football game in person this year for the first time in 30 years. Granted part of that was due to no longer living locally and having small kids which made travel tough. At the same time, I didn’t miss it.
A good reason for declining college attendance is the killing off of longstanding rivalry games which have been replaced by new league opponents who bring little excitement into faraway stadiums. The best examples are Syracuse, Boston College and Pittsburgh, who have replaced Big Four rivals, sometimes for nearly a decade. I couldn’t possibly care any less to pay good money to see these teams come to CF every other season, while Duke and Georgia Tech seldom visit, plus the IDIOT ACC divisions won’t allow us to ever develop a rivalry with Miami or Virginia Tech. Wasn’t that the whole point of league expansion in the first place? Tech-State would be a HUGE rivalry, but it won’t happen.
Look at the OOC games being scheduled. We need to stop playing the likes of Richmond, Old Dominion, Georgia Southern and South Florida. We need one of those every season, yes, but not FOUR! State scheduled Central Michigan and South Alabama THREE TIMES EACH during a period when, as best I can remember, Georgia Tech, Duke and UVA (as well as VT) failed to even show up on our schedule. Most all of the OOC home games the Wolfpack has scheduled in the past decade or more have been worthless in terms of program development and have generated little if any fan excitement. I’ve been to them all; I know.
Television is the other major reason attendance is in decline. Who wants to pay to watch us play Syracuse, BC, Pittsburgh or even Wake Forest at noon on a hot day when they can sit home and watch it in HD? I’ve been going to State home games for the past 20 seasons, but not next season. I’ve had it with opponents I care little to see us play Television, especially the ACC Network, has turned the games into 4-hour ordeals, especially in September, which seems to breed noon games. I couldn’t imagine sitting on the East side of the stadium and enduring the heat.
Another thing that has driven me away is the lack of October games, thanks to the State Fair, which for some reason has convinced officials not to bring a football crowd in during one of the Fair’s two weekends. Why not? It’s a business opportunity lost when you consider that most of those fans would attend the fair on game day. This October drought of home games has resulted in an overabundance of early September home games, plus way too many games in late November, when Thanksgiving wreaks havoc with late November home games. October is the best month of the year to attend a game, and it seems we now have only one home game that month. We always played UNC during October, and I think it’s stupid to play them during the coldest time of year, when the students are away from campus.
In short, the ACC needs a realignment so that the Big Four teams can again meet each other every season on the gridiron. Fans want to see us play these games. The State-Carolina game needs to be put back in its longstanding mid-October spot on the schedule, and school administrators need to take a good look at OOC games, removing many of the no-interest games on the schedule. I’d rather see State play 6 home games each season if it would result in a quality road game vs an OOC (i.e power five) opponent rather than yet another obscure small school we don’t want to buy tickets for. If we MUST play more than one, how about App State instead of Directional Louisiana or Directional Michigan?
Last but not least, Wolfpack officials need to learn how to say NO to television when asked to start football games around noon in the first half of September. This should apply ESPECIALLY to the two-bit ACC Network, which seems to do everything possible to drag out a game. I don’t like these games a bit more than the ACC Network’s 9pm weeknight basketball starts, either. Television may help pay the bills, but the fans pay much more, and the way prices continue to increase, schools like State who aren’t winning cannot afford to drive away fans.
There is nothing like watching a gamin the stadium and the atmosphere involved.
Yes 13OT, the hot side of the stadium is miserable early in the year, even for night games, but the noon games should be outlawed. But the teams have no choice – you play when TV tells you to play, no ifs ands or buts.
I almost did not buy tickets this year because of the crummy schedule and lack of marquee home games (except FSU). I am glad I did though, nothing like game day on a fall Saturday, tailgating, spending time with friends and family. Even for the road games we would get together at someone’s house and watch, maybe even eat like a tailgate and play cornhole but it is not the same as being there in the CF lots.
Oh yeah and as for the TV money, AD’s want every dollar they can get, but the TV dollars far exceed a few thousand butts in seats.
The all mighty TV dollar drives game times, drags the games out longer which makes the overall in game experience worse.
4 hour game times … for REGULATION. Maddening.
Can’t imagine a worse ooc schedule than 2015. The Troy and EK games sgould be boycotted. The guys should be able to win without the fans. We really going to ODU and SA ??? I remember playing Ohio State one year.
What 13ot said! Saw my last game last year (2013) and don’t plan to ever go to another one! To costly for the product on the field.
I haven’t held season tickets for a couple decades but I still remember those noon early season games. With all the TV coverage and my getting longer in the tooth I generally opt for the best seat – in front of my TV. Granted I give up the game day experience but I don’t have to stand in line for the bathroom or fight the traffic arriving and leaving.
You gave up your season tickets because of long lines for the bathroom and traffic? Come on Man….seriously?
You gave up your season tickets because of long lines for the bathroom and traffic? Come on Man….seriously?
Don’t forget those early season noon games we use to have 2 decades ago. Oh wait, we didn’t have all that many noon games 2 decades ago. But what the heck, if you ain’t going to the games, one damn reason is as good as another. I’m going to stop going because I’m backing a cake during the times games are played. Like I said…
because I’m backing a cake during the times games are played.
Is that related in any way to what Jason Biggs did to an apple pie?
Is that related in any way to what Jason Biggs did to an apple pie?
foose, you are sick… but funny.
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