Complacency is common among students
So in the WSJ today, there was an article about Alabama winning too much.
At Alabama, Fans Are Getting a Little Bored With All the Winning
The part I wish to mention was the following paragraph.
Amid all of this prolonged dominance, there are signs that boredom, if not downright apathy, has started to creep in. The first offenders: Alabama students. The Crimson White, Alabama's school newspaper, reported in November that 30% of student tickets went unused by students last season.
"You get to the point where there's a game against Western Carolina at 11 in the morning that's not really worth waking up for," said Marc Torrence, the newspaper's sports editor, referring to a 49-0 rout last season. "You can do a whole lot of other things on a Saturday, like get a head start on your drinking or sleep in, that are a lot more interesting."
There were concerns raised about UM students not showing up early and not staying for the entire games. I wsa just showing that it is not the success of the team. It is just an issue about the fans/students.
August 27th, 2013 at 6:27 PM ^
The games are basically an hour longer now than they were 20-30 years ago. Right around three hours then, right around 4 now. That's a long slog. Plus, in the Age of Security, the lines are longer to get in, and you can't bring as much stuff in as you once could. Plus the games are more expensive to get in than they used to be, even adjusted for inflation.
And now there is great college football on crystal clear HDTV from 9 am to 2 am Sunday morning.
Going to the games live simply isn't as compelling, as measured against the alternatives, as it used to be. And the less and less collegiate the live experience has become, the less and less compelling the live experience has become.
August 28th, 2013 at 8:43 AM ^
Go Blue!
August 27th, 2013 at 6:33 PM ^
On time is late and early is on time.
I'm at the gates right when they open. Only get 7 chances a year and a spring game for Michigan Football. Come on.
Maybe I'm just insane (I know I am), but getting there to watch warmups and the band is all part of the experience. Save the partying for after the game.
August 27th, 2013 at 6:42 PM ^
football, as much as we'd like to think otherwise, is entertainment.
if the entertainment is almost guaranteed to be boring, why is it not ok to sell your tix and do something else?
August 27th, 2013 at 11:21 PM ^
I would think that the move to a majority of our games being at 3:30 would help the situation.
Getting your pre-gaming in and yourself to the stadium by 11:30 for a noon start is not something that appeals to a lot of students. But by 3:00? Please. Plenty of time.
August 28th, 2013 at 1:47 AM ^
August 27th, 2013 at 11:50 PM ^
Interesting comments here. I read something similar about a year ago regarding Duke basketball - they were having a hard time filling the stands like they used to with students. I just think there is a lot more entertainment options and probably more ways to interact with the entertainment aspect with the internet, DVRs, video games, mobile phones, etc. I can't remember if I went to every game but if not, I maybe missed 2-3 in my years there and the whole spectacle of it was fun aside from the football games. I never got there super early but we'd get there usually 25-30 minutes before kick off and tons of students were still in their frat houses or sitting on their porches not in any rush to leave as we walked toward the stadium with the masses so I imagine they filled in later too. Maybe not at half time which seems to be more common now. But in blowouts a lot of students also left early.
I do agree it sucked up your whole day because not only does it take the morning (noon games were the standard back then) through latter afternoon (by time you walked back to your house or dorm you are talking 4 PMish) - you took a nap, went to eat, and then maybe studied for an hour or two or more likely hung out before going out for the night. So Saturday is gone and you'd pay for it on Sunday. So if you watch it on these HDTVs with friends I suppose you cut out losing the whole day but it seems silly considering the stadium is like ...10 minutes away.
I don't want to get into a "back in my day" thing but I just think notwithstanding a site like this does not represent the student population as a whole (we are diehard fans) and some people - believe it or not - are not all that into sports, including some of the fairer sex who went to the games mostly as a social event (not all, just some) and I just think there was far less to do back "then" on a Saturday. You didnt get 129019221 games on the TV on the 3232420 channels either. The internet and email were just starting to grain traction and if I were born 5 years earlier even those type of things / entertainment / time suckers would not be options. Video games, while around a decade earlier, were not anywhere near as prevalent as they are now and those are massive time suckers for some people. I respect some people are fine with the uncompetitive matchups and will watch UM play AA Pioneer if they played since it is UM after all, but I also get that this does not represent a good portion of people. And yes other sports were different - I went to the UM Duke game in December during the Fab 5 and it was finals week and the only reason I remember was I had a hard time getting people to go with me that I knew since well...they were students first. But it only killed about 3 hrs whereas if it was football it again takes up the whole day by the time you get back, unwind, and try to get into some sort of state of mind to actually look at a book.
Last comment, specific to Alabama, boy that schedule does sound stinky but yes complacency does build in. You saw that here with the Red Wings. The regular season is just a warmup for the playoffs "don't bother me until they start playing real games in May"... was the ideal for 7-8 years. Until last year. Because there was a real threat the playoffs would not happen and all those games that didn't matter in the past mattered and the excitement about even making the playoff was a lot higher. I think the Pistons went through something similar towards the end of their run of like 6 straight Eastern conference championships. It is boring to be so good for so long and you take things for granted - until you suck for a while.
August 30th, 2013 at 11:02 AM ^
I was going through the Daily's archives yesterday and we came across a 1964 article about apathy across college football, including a shot of an empty stadium.