This is why David Boren/Joe Castiglione are not pushing expansion with the new renovations coming up. They want to continue to have a strong demand for the tickets and are focused on improving the fan experience at the game in addition to the amenities planned for the players. This is also affecting basketball and other collegiate sports as well. I don't think younger people today have as strong a feeling for collegiate sports that many of us grew up with. It will be interesting if the tide of declining attendance can be reversed or even slowed down.
If the schools would quit trying to suck every last dollar out of those that attend it might help.
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If God wanted Men to look women in the eyes, He wouldnt have gave em Boobs !
Pretty much why I don't go to games now...I have my grandkids on home
games so their parents can go and nearly every game is on tv somewhere...
there is no line at my bathroom or my fridge so no biggie....one thing on
my bucket list, though, is one more game in Norman.....
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If God wanted Men to look women in the eyes, He wouldnt have gave em Boobs !
It's really interesting how differently the schools do it. At WV, we were allowed to bring in bottled water and soft drinks, as long as they were in plastic and unopened, as well as unopened candy and other pre-packaged foods. They also sell beer in the stadium. It was damn nice not having to wait in that line and spend the crazy prices on concessions, although I'm not sure how the beer thing's going to work out. Seems like a lot of potential for more and bigger fights. We didn't see any problems, though.
When the plan was announced, I was happy to hear that the stadium would not be expanding capacity. I really believe Castiglione and Boren understand the current dynamics at work, and why keeping the capacity the same and enhancing the fan experience was so important.
I don't think the younger generation is less interested in collegiate sports, I think it's become much easier to view without actually (physically) attending. I use my 15 year old son as an example; he was born in Colorado and outside of my influence has no reason to ever go to a Sooner game. He's a bigger college sports fan than I ever was at his age (and a die hard Sooner to boot), and while he loves the trips to the actual games, he has so many options available now that attending a game isn't always the best option.
I don't know what the numbers sat for all sports, but I believe every sport is probably dealing with the same issue. I've been a Denver Bronco season ticket holder for almost 15 years, and I don't make it to every home game. 10 years ago, if I wasn't going to a game, I had a list of people that would always take my tickets and go. That list has dwindled over the past decade. It's not uncommon for me to offer a ticket to someone and have them say "I don't know, I may just watch it at home".
The one equation that almost always prove true is that winning=attendance. But even that doesn't guarantee a full stadium. It will be very interesting to see what the stadium upgrade involves, because it sounds like they really want to enhance the game day environment for the fans that do attend.
OU can outlaw everything because they know fans will still come. It sucks, but I suppose it's a small price to pay for having a great program.
Do you (or anyone on the board) know what the policy is like in Stillwater? I'd also like to know what the policies are at places like KU and ISU, where getting fans to the games is a more difficult task.
I love going to games, but you always sacrifice getting to watch all the other games. Yeah I know I can dvr them, but I'm going to check the scores and once I know that, watching the games isn't always as high of a priority. Before the game - value of staying at home is high, but after not so much. I'd like to see more stuff for fans either in or around the stadium. Put some screens up with the rest of the games on. Hell, give people a place to watch and let em order a drink. Now that would be hard to beat.
The enduring image of Oklahoma was that ridiculous double–middle finger of a game-icing kick. It was probably an accident, which somehow made it more, not less, insulting. It was as though Stoops had partied so hard on the corpse of the SEC that he woke up with an unplanned tattoo.
Speaking of fan experience, Id rather watch fans kick extra points and get a free meal at chic-fil-a than suffer through what the pride offered as entertainment. Good god what was that?
Last edited by birddog; 10/1/2014 at 10:11 PM.
Anyone else remember back in 70s er so being able to bring in an Ice chest? Been a long time but it seems a friend and I did and we sat in what is Now the student section.
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If God wanted Men to look women in the eyes, He wouldnt have gave em Boobs !
Game times are as much an issue as anything. The number of night games makes me shrug and just watch at home vs getting a motel room or driving home at dark-thirty.
Excellent point. I was just discussing with my wife whether to make the Vols trip next fall, and it's close enough that making a night game from my house is fine, but noon or 3:30 I couldn't. So I have to get a hotel for 2 nights, but if it's a night game on Saturday, we'll be hanging out all day waiting for the game. Since we won't know until a few weeks before the game which it is, we'll have to book both nights to be sure.
At least college football is getting off their high horse and admitting they have a problem. NFL will charge its exorbitant seat license fees and demand publicly funded billion dollar stadiums for years while still denying every problem fans have with the league.
Maybe it's because college teams can't threaten to move to Los Angeles every time taxpayers and fans balk