[NU Sports] Ryan Field fans ...

[Jonathan Hodges]

I know that the 11AM start hurts student attendance (although for my 5
years I was in NUMB, who has to leave at 7AM for those early starts). 
Students definitely take the opportunity to sleep in and especially
when the game is televised they have no real incentive to show up
unless the team is doing really well.  They seem to always show up for
the night games and have a good showing for the late afternoon games. 
Against Michigan they were turning people away 45 minutes before
kickoff, but against Iowa the student section only became about half
full half way through the first quarter and never filled beyond that. 
The administration has done a lot to try and boost student attendance
- including tacking on the $25 athletics fee onto tuition to allow
free attendance to all sporting events including football and
basketball.  I think that this has helped (no extra effort or cash is
needed - just show up on gameday) along with some contests and such to
get students to show up who maybe otherwise wouldn't, but many still
don't because of schoolwork or to sleep in.  The weather this past
week didn't help matters, but it wasn't that bad and was the last game
of the season.  I don't see the student attendance changing much in
the future due to the makeup and size of the student body (2/3 of the
undergrad students must show up to fill the 5,000 seat section, unlike
most Big Ten Schools where it only takes half or less of the student
body).  Hopefully with the team continuing to do so well students will
show up for some more games next season (unfortunately there will
still be games before school is in session that will drag in
attendance).

Jonathan


On 11/6/05, Michael Vance <michael.vance at att.net> wrote:
> I agree that's part of it.  Of course, the 11am starts are for TV.  The
> conference essentially sacrifices some non-diehard gate receipts for the
> ability to get every game on television, even if it's just regional.  I
> still wonder why they can't make the starts 12:00 and 3:30 CT, like they do
> for the NFL.  Is it just because the college game tends to run a little
> longer than the NFL?
>
> That raises an interesting hypothetical question, not that I think it would
> ever happen: Would it be worth it to give up/change one (or even both) of
> the two clock rules that allow NFL games to be shorter in order to change
> kickoff times?
>
> (For reference, the differences are 1) College: 25-second play clock starts
> after the ball is set; NFL: 40-second play clock starts immediately at the
> end of the previous play, 25-second clock used after an administrative stop
> (penalty, timeout, change of possession, etc.); 2) College: Clock stops to
> move the chains on first down; NFL: First down has no effect on the clock;
> it stops/continues running based on the outcome of the previous play.)
>
> There would have to be market research indicating that an hour difference
> in kickoff time would increase the gate, and of course you'd have to
> convince someone in the conferences that the theory was interesting enough
> to commission the research.  And there are big holes in the
> theory.  Michigan and dOSU fill their 100,000+ stadiums despite a huge
> chunk of their fans coming from major metropolitan areas with significant
> nightlife, although Minnesota's attendance struggles support the
> theory.  And Bloomington and Champaign can't fill ~65,000 seat stadiums
> despite being closer in demographics to Iowa City than to Chicago.
>
> Unfortunately, I think that it's a very complex combination of history;
> affinity for the program among non-alums (public universities are, well,
> just that, and people get emotionally attached to them even if they never
> went there); marketing; current performance/record; availability of the
> product on TV (why go to an NU game when you can sit on the couch or go to
> a bar and watch every Big Ten team at once?); and yes, kickoff time.  And
> I'm sure there are other factors that I've missed.  And no, I don't have an
> answer to most of them.  :-)
>
> -Michael
>
> At 11/6/2005 06:25 AM, JHCCLARK at aol.com wrote:
> >I keep saying it and saying it [usually off-list, but once a year I make
> >this contribution]...
> >
> >The 11am starts kill attendance.
> >
> >This is CHICAGO not Iowa City.  There are actually things to do on a  Friday
> >night that don't shut down at 9pm.
> >
> >Unsure what the fix to this is [having the EST games start at noon, CST
> >games at 3:30pm, making sure that there are always an even distribution of
> >EST-CST games each weekend] but this is a major attendance killer.
> >
> >Leaving early?  Fans do that everywhere, especially when you're  tired from
> >the night before and miserable from the lack of decent play.   But having
> >said
> >that, it wasn't smart on their part.
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>
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Jonathan W. Hodges
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