Not unlike UConn then.
In the initial years, up through the first few games of Pasqualoni's 2nd year, we'd get into line on Silver lane by 8:00, set up tailgating, get in before the kick, and stay in the stadium for the duration of the game. For the last few years, it'd be an ordeal to make the end of the third and sometimes halftime would be more than enough.
That's also probably the case for many of the SEC and Big Ten schools, the difference is the 40,000 people who don't have tickets go home, continue tailgating, or go to a local bar and the the stadium is still 5% full.
Oh I know. My buddy dropped his Patriots season tickets because he said he just didn't have the time for them anymore. You get to the stadium 6-7am, set up, tailgate, game, breakdown - it's a 14 hour day. If that's a lot on the people who care imagine the kids that don't have a huge attachment and or money/transportation issues..
That and frankly, there's just fatigue when it comes to sports in general. In the 90s when I was in school - you had ESPN and CBS. Maybe Sports Channel, NESN or whoever would have a few games on TV, but that was it and that's where you caught games. Now I can watch UConn vs. Puke Bucket Tech which everyone knows is a blow out on my phone through a pirated streaming site and pay *zero*. No scrounging in the couch cushions for money to go, no worrying about parking, no drive off campus, none of it. Sit there, drink beer (actually scratch that, kids don't drink at college that much anymore, apparently), watch the game and talk with friends on Twitter.
Whalers' quip about younger kids is correct, too. Working in a college athletic department now, it's wild how insular their perspectives are on anything. If it doesn't immediately appeal to their self-interest, they're not interested in evening listening. MIllennials got a bad rap I thought. They can be clueless sometimes, but they're well intentioned, pretty well behaved and are open to learning. This new Gen-Z or whatever it is? The kids who really got sucked up in the social media surge? Totally helpless. They don't participate in anything on campus - leadership, extra cirriculars, partying anything... the only thing they participate in are psych visits. They all go home on the weekends to boot. It's remarkable just the difference in 10-15 years where kids then and during my time in college - it was all about finding freedom, testing independence, etc. These kids are just a non-stop conveyor belt of excuses to go home.
Now mind you, those social forces aren't killing game attendance on their own, but it's not helping it
UConn's problem was that COMBINED WITH a lot of games that were predictable and/or games no one would care about.