[NU Sports] NU Attendance et al

[Tom Maycock]

> Can't deny there have been thrilling finishes over the
> years.  Can't deny a small fan base is part of the
> attendance problem.  But the economy?  Seen the
> stands at Ohio State and Penn State lately?  Seems to
> me that NU grads are among the least affected by an economic
> downturn.

We've been debating the "is it the economy" question in the stands all year, wondering if other venues/teams were seeing similar declines. From what Stephen said, it sounds like that is the case.

OSU, PSU, Nebraska, and places like that are probably not a useful comparison. Those teams have massive fan bases, who *highly* value their tickets. For tens of thousands of fans at those schools, football tickets would be among the last things they would give up as a result of economic hardship. 

Obviously, we don't have anything like that kind of fan base, built over generations of hard-core loyalty. 

I have no doubt that the lack of consistent winning is a big factor. It seems like every time we're about to get the ball really rolling, we have an off year. Bates gets hurt in '97 and things get weird in '98, all of the issues that impacted the 2001 team, and so on. 

That's the "big picture" problem, which consistent winning should take care of. 

But I don't think any of that explains why turnouts have been so unusually poor this year, coming off a very strong year. 

I have to guess the economic situation is having some impact. Not with the hard-core fans perhaps, but we have, what, maybe 10K to 12K season ticket holders?. 

Rather, I would guess it's the casual fan who is staying home. And given that almost every game is available on TV at no charge, it's understandable. 

For a valid comparison, you'd want to look at other teams (college or otherwise) who generally operate at less than capacity in an average year--are those teams down this year, regardless of their on-field potential or performance? 

>From Stephen's comments and a few other bits of evidence I've heard (re. NFL blackouts, for example), it sounds like that is the case.

Tom