I’m sure this will get spun as a sign of hope for college football’s future, but it’s hard to get excited about it.
Home attendance at major college football games declined for the fifth straight year, though the rate at which crowds decreased has slowed.
Football Bowl Subdivision attendance for home games averaged 43,288 fans per game, down less than 1 percent from 43,483 in 2014, according to a CBS Sports analysis of NCAA attendance data. Crowds declined by 4 percent in 2014.
This year may offer some hope of stabilization for the industry, which in recent years has seen fans stay home due to ticket prices, inconvenience and the comfort of watching on high-definition televisions.
Still, this year’s average was again the lowest since the FBS drew 42,631 per game in 2000. Attendance stayed below 46,000 for the seventh straight season since it peaked at 46,456 in 2008.
A lot has happened in the last fifteen years – conference realignment, massive television contracts and the attendant conference networks, scheduling more attuned to a broadcast audience, etc. – the gist of which has been to favor cash flow to athletic departments and to work against live attendance. I don’t see better Wifi and louder piped in music doing much to stop the bleeding.
Which leads to this depressing thought: at what point do schools say fuck it, and go all in on television? By that, I don’t mean they close the stadium gates, but rather, simply focus all their marketing decisions on what maximizes broadcast revenues. And, believe me, if you think that’s bad now, there’s a lot more they could do if they chose to.
As a kicker, when it happens, they’ll blame it on us for not supporting the sport the way it needed.
Get The Picture 
“And, believe me, if you think that’s bad now, there’s a lot more they could do if they chose to.” Wait, it could get worse? I’m almost afraid to ask, but how?
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More TV timeouts to generate revenue. Worse for the tv audience and gamed experience.
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How much does the increasing number of lesser schools (Sun Belt and otherwise) affect these numbers?
Let’s say we normalized the numbers to compare attendance from 2008 to 2014 by removing any teams that weren’t in the FBS in 2008. What do the numbers look like then?
I ask because you’re talking about teams in this category like Georgia State and its 10,000-person crowds. That has to affect the numbers somewhat. It may be that the numbers are equalized by some other, better attended colleges moving up (perhaps Georgia Southern?), but it would be good to compare apples to apples.
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Georgia Southern only holds 25,000, so they would be a drag on the stat as well. The same is probably true of most of the newer fbs schools.
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I was thinking the same thing. In 2000 there were 116 FBS programs. There were 118 in 2008 and there are 128 in 2015. There will be 130 next year when UAB comes back and Coastal Carolina moves up.
Off the top of my head, I cannot think of a program that joined the FBS within the last 15 years that would be drawing big crowds.
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A working man can hardly afford to go to one game a year as it is.
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HDTV and the economy deserve the lions share of blame, though certainly network stations (with their ubiquitous commercials leading to 4 hour games) and college football as a whole certainly have played a major role as well.
The proposed NFL stadium(s) in L.A. offer a glimpse as to what is to come in the future, with a huge % of premium seating and other accouterments which, naturally, will command premium pricing. The days of 80k+ stadiums with mostly your typical bucket seating and not much else (other than a jumbotron) are quickly becoming a thing of the past.
I don’t live in Atlanta anymore, but from what I understand the new Braves stadium will follow a similar approach, in which the stadium itself will seat something like 10k fewer fans but will feature more premium amenities for the relatively well-heeled and above spectator. Translating to CFB, I won’t be surprised in the least to see, say, 85k stadiums eventually be reduced to 65-70k with larger/better seating, more club/corporate seating, etc.
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Personally, unless it is a big rivalry game, I don’t care to sit for that many hours waiting for them to come back from commercial. I won’t even do that at home. I DVR the game and after about an hour I will start watching. I am usually up to real time by the end of the 3rd quarter at the latest.
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^This. And to avoid any unwanted notifications or surprises, turn the cell phone off and walk outside and fire up the grill and knock back a few cold ones to kill the time.
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Same here. Especially on beautiful fall afternoons, there’s just no way I’m going to sit through 11 erectile dysfunction and 17 draft kings commercials, among many others. I also start watching 1-2 hours in and always catch up before the game is over. For lessor games, I either don’t watch much at all anymore or DVR and watch later in the evening (for 3:30 pm and earlier games).
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I waiting for my kids to ask me what erectile dysfunction is. Nothing is safe to watch any more. If I see another Draft Kings commercial, I might just shoot the TV.
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I wonder how many people do this. I know in my own family my sisters and I do it, but my Dad goes real time.
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It used to kill me to miss the start of the game on TV. Now, I prefer it for much the same reason everyone else here states. I just have to avoid my friends texting me during the game.
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Change Of Subject? I am also tired of all the Talking Heads. particularly
during the Halftime. If everybody is watching on TV, Show the Band
and the Halftime Show. I do not watch / listen to what they do now.
Show me what I am missing by not being at the Game.
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Regardless of the stats and addition of smaller schools to FBS one can just look around the stadiums if you are at the game or on TV and see empty seats, especially in student sections. The numbers reported likely represent tickets sold. Lots of people who actually show up for the games arrive late and leave early as well. Today’s young adults just aren’t going to sit through 7 home and 5 road 4 hour games come hell or high water like I do. Lots of reasons but they also won’t be able to afford the donation and tickets.
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I’m waiting for games to be played in a studio setting with no crowd at all. I don’t know if it’ll ever come to that, but it certainly could … hmmm … GT vs. Boston College at the joke by the Coke … maybe it already has.
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It’s already happening. Look at the Popeye’s Fried Chicken Bowl last year, played in Bermuda on a cricket/soccer field. The only people there were the families. Plus, I think it was one of those off-hour games as well.
This will happen more and more, especially if Texas can play in Dubai, or ND plays in Ireland. It’s not about the fans, it’s about creating “must see TV”.
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What does CFB selling out to the networks look like? It seems like they already control everything from the start time to the schedule.
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Some people already blame losses on the fans.
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I think the decline is related to the saturation of College FB on TV and WatchESPN. If it’s too hot, too cold, or raining, why go to a game nowadays?
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I wonder how much of the decline is student related? Kids can’t be bothered but for 1 or 2 games a year at many schools.
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The main student section is usually full. The ones who arrive late are in the end zone section. We get there when the gates open I enjoy the pregame. I have never understood arriving late and leaving early. We drive over two hours each way. I would not leave any other event early why leave a football game? The fans feed their energy to the team and it is a privilege to support the team. I can’t wait until the next game. GO DAWGS!!
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For the cost of 2 season tickets, you can get a 50+” HDTV, a grill, and a mini fridge stocked with your favorite adult beverage, all within a few steps of a clean and uncrowded bathroom. Add to that not fighting traffic both ways and it’s a no-brained why many diehard fans only come out for the big games now.
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Yep
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