guarantee BETWEEN 19- 20,000 guarantee!!!
guarantee BETWEEN 19- 20,000 guarantee!!!
11,500
< 10K, easily
About this......I've been noticing a lot of near empty college stadiums this year. For instance, I was watching the Washington vs Utah game Saturday night, and Washington's stadium had a ton of empty seats, from what I could see. I noticed a similar problem in a game played at Boise St a couple of weeks ago.
So, this is not just a LA Tech problem. I think more people are preferring to stay home and watch their team on TV if they can.
I think we will have an easy time parking, but our clan will be there- hopefully others will want to see if they can get bowl eligible and come cheer them on. I think they announce 15k.
As crazy as it sounds, this will my biggest travel group. We've been at 7, we're coming with 17. If you have an unused ticket, I will take it.
Have you considered those Dogs?
It’s not so much TV, TV has been around for ever, but you could only get so many games on TV. With internet, etc now every game is on somewhere. The west coast games for example, who wants to sit in the cold for a game that is starting at 8 when you can sit inside, eat pizza, drink beer....
I don’t like the saturation point we have reached with sports, but our microwave society dictated a move that direction many years ago.
I know, “get off my lawn!”
Attendance...It is not just our problem, I have been making a conscious effort to notice the attendance at some of the different televised games, it is a widespread problem. Just because you are Miami or someone like that does not give you an automatic attendance guarantee, good product on the field or not.
1. The game day experience has became expensive, it affects those young and middle aged families who have 2-3 kids and/or grand kids, it can be expensive. We do not necessarily see those people here on the board, but they exist. Tickets, concessions, transportation, maybe hotel, etc., they add up, not everyone likes to get out there tell people they cannot afford the game, none the less, that is part of the problem.
2. We now have a number of platforms on which we can watch games, just try to think of which teams are NOT televised.
3. The home watching experience, think of how many 50-70 inch flat screen TV's there are out there now. Think about it, big screen TV, Surround sound, Man-cave for you to watch it in, comfortable seating, available food at reasonable ease of procurement. You cannot have a setup like this and then tell your wife you are driving to the game, that's how you justified it to the wife in the first place, staying home and watching saving money and being with family. Many have also payed for multiple cable-satellite game day packages and want to stay home and take advantage of them. Again, you cannot justify all the expenses to the wife if don't stay home and take advantage of it.
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4. Multiple watching sites, the next best thing to being there is being at the local bar & Grill with a bunch of other folks watching the game. Probably not as expensive, not out of town, and not a big hassle to do, why not?
5. Hunting season, not a huge factor, but a factor when you are not putting a good product on the field. Many have quite an investment in hunting also, they have to get their moneys worth at some point, especially if you can watch the game at the camp. Watching Football at the Camp between morning and evening hunt or after the evening hunt has became a big deal, a lot of people do it.
6. Boring football, even if the team is winning, most do not like to sit and watch a game that no-one gets into, just not any fun.
Every teams factors that are contributing to declining attendance are different according to geography I suppose, still, almost everyone has issues to deal with. I think number 3 plays a bigger part than we give it credit for, the new entertainment systems make it a great experience and you don't have to get out of the Lazy-Boy.
Presidents, AD's, coaches, etc. have to realize that it is more to it than "build it and they will come", not sure what the magic formula is, but most don't have it at this point. The people I really have some sympathy for are people like the hotels, restaurants, and all the other various merchants and vendors that gear up for football season and then experience a flop. A lot of the Ruston vendors would have had a banner year had La Tech football done their part.
Prediction is 12,660 and I will try and do my part and be there if my health continues doing better.