The last time Nebraska didn’t sell out a football game, John F. Kennedy was living in the White House, and “Stranger on the Shore” by Acker Bilk was the top song in the land.
It’s been 347 games, most of which have come with the Cornhuskers in national contention for something. It’s 347 games that will probably extend, but the fact that there’s a possibility that it won’t is astounding.
Whether your think attendance streaks and things of this nature are sacred, there’s no question that the thirst to be “in person” anymore doesn’t match the rising popularity of the sport.
Last season, for the fifth straight year, attendance declined since peaking in 2008. Now, it was down less than 1 percent from the previous season, when it dipped by 4 percent, but it’s still notable.
What’s even more jarring is that a large percentage of even the top attendance getters are seeing increases at a smaller rate (44 percent versus 75 percent in 2014).
So what gives? What’s making places like Nebraska scramble at times to fill seats?
From a CBSSports.com article:
In May, a Nebraska fundraiser told the Associated Press the streak almost ended last year on three different occasions. Jack Pierce said he had to call “friends of the program” to buy up tickets that had been returned by the opponent.
The factors are all over the place, and here are a few potential reasons:
- Games are to easily accessible on a national level, so why go and miss out on everything going on in the world of college football?
This one is a technology issue. People love to trumpet the benefits of advanced tech (even though you’re hard pressed to get a working cell phone in larger stadiums in the stands), but much like with anything, advanced tech means laziness and less emphasis placed on the experience and interpersonal relationships.
This may be the old man in me talking, but how often do you see people not taking something amazing in rather than pulling out their cell phones so they can capture it and upload it to Facebook? Moreover, though, no matter who you root for, you’re probably able to find them on a television.
When you go to a game, yes, you get the experience, but if you’re interested in the holistic happenings of college football on a Saturday, going in-person pretty much forces you to go dark on everything else going on around the nation.
- Cost effectiveness
It’s no secret that going to a game is psycho expensive, both in the wallet and on your invaluable time. Lousy parking arrangements, traffic jams in and out of games, ticket prices, and unless you’re a snake, probably a meal or two mean that games are burning holes in your pockets and your watches when it’s a lot easier to sink onto the couch, open the windows, and get a cooler full of your favorite cold ones.
There’s not much that can be done from a “game experience” format that will ever change that. There’s a generational divide that has so much access to so many things at their fingertips, “the experience” really doesn’t get anyone jazzed up as much as lounging in one’s own atmosphere.
- Conference realignment
This one is hard to quantify, really, but it’s difficult to ignore the fact that conference realignment has coincided with attendance decline. The collateral damage of college football’s version of globalism is that once-can’t-miss rivalries are lost and put out to pasture for forced “let’s try to get jazzed up about this new tradition” which is a lot like trying to sell kids on being excited about coal being in your Christmas stockings versus actual toys.
“Listen, Johnny, I know you always wanted WVU versus Pitt and got it, but seriously, try some Iowa State! I swear it’s just as fun!”
“I’m going agnostic.” – Johnny
So what to make of all this, and aside from optics, does it really matter at all? To be blunt, yes, which is why you see more stadiums looking at alcohol sales within the stadium, which has proven to be a boon financially.
But in an era where it’s much easier and cost effective to sit at home, with a better seat, cheaper grub and brew, and access to all the teams you’re worried about, the attendance problem won’t stop anytime soon. At some point, it will bottom out to the point where it won’t get lower.
We’re near that point, as evidenced by flimsier drops in attendance these days. The game’s popularity is still high, it’s just that the shrinking world of college football means easier access to all, for all. Even as the empty seat pics pile up, that’s probably more a good thing than a bad one.
Don’t believe any negative hype about the importance of shrinking numbers at the gate. There may be a time when yes, even Nebraska doesn’t sell out. But that’s a sign of the times we live in and the people living in it more than the thirst for the sport.
