Empty feeling at college football stadiums after bond boom

[DarthGrumpy]

There is a fun factor and a money factor at work here. People simply don't want to invest the time and money to go if they don't feel they are getting a return on that. The football has to be good as very few people are just going to blindly show up for a bad product. You also need a good fan experience in terms of tailgating and stadium amenities. The latter is a lot easier to get, but even that wears out when your team is losing more than winning. At the end of the day it is really comes down to winning football equals fan interest.

And there are demographic issues. For example, the folks who seem to have been most excited about UConn football where those around the team when the upgrade to I-A began in 1999 and capped with the Fiesta Bowl bid in 2011. Those fans are now in the late 30's and 40's and have careers and families to juggle. This is especially true for folks who have school-age kids whose own athletic activities (football, soccer, fall baseball, basketball, etc.) consume a huge chunk of each person's fall weekend. Even more so for those who no longer live within an hour of Hartford. With work and traffic, Thursday night games are out and one has to take a half-day off of work to make Friday night games due to the joy that Friday afternoon traffic is in Connecticut. Saturday afternoon games run right into Junior's games and while hopefully UConn football will be around for a long time in some version, our kids will not be playing poo warner QB forever. So, its Saturday night games or bust and those are few and far between. Now, throw in a team that has been not playing well for a couple of years now going-up against other colleges that to be frank most of us don't care about and the issue is clear. Watching other games across the country, it's not just a UConn problem either.

 

[upstater]

The most interesting part of this isn't that there are fewer fans, but that the bonds are becoming expensive. Schools like Michigan owe over $350m and they spend $20m a year servicing those bonds. This is why the AD provides $13m to the school annually. Other schools are in even worse shape. It will be interesting to see how schools address the money crunch.