Student Section is a Joke | Page 7 | The Boneyard

Student Section is a Joke

whaler11 said:
I went to a few UConn graduation parties this May. Just taking the temperature of some of the grads - they do not give a flying f about the athletic department.

Some probably because the teams have been terrible - but the grads they are cranking out aren’t anything like the kids who graduated like 15 years ago.

Watch TV - this isn’t a UConn specific issue.
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I mean these 2019 grads did just endure a pretty brutal stretch for the MBB/FB programs...

I do think the rising academic prowess and the population of students that are coming to UConn today though do care a lot less about sports.

I graduated in 2017. The football games in 2013 when I was a freshman all had jam packed student sections for the first few games.
 
lange10 said:
I mean these 2019 grads did just endure a pretty brutal stretch for the MBB/FB programs...

I do think the rising academic prowess and the population of students that are coming to UConn today though do care a lot less about sports.

I graduated in 2017. The football games in 2013 when I was a freshman all had jam packed student sections for the first few games.
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maryland and michigan? thanks for your service ;)
 
Exit 4 said:
This is modeled after China's "good citizen" plan. A glimpse into the future where technology is used to perfect conformity. Available for export, call your local embassy.
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I will from Turks and Caicos
 
Irishfan said:
In college, we snuck a keg into the stadium.
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And by "snuck" you mean just walked in laughing because our buddy was taking tickets and he really didn't give sheet one way or the other.
 
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Guapo said:
Free White Claws for everyone that attends!

Kids don’t drink beer any more; kegs won’t fix the problem.
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Not going to games. Not drinking beer. It's like I have nothing in common with them.
 
freescooter said:
Yes but...the other option was not build it. It wasn’t a problem for the first 10 years. Suddenly it’s a problem. Just like basketball playing in Hartford. And Hockey Playing in Hartford. None of those thing were problems when teams are good. Just when they are bad.
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Um, another option was build it on campus, like, oh I don't know, 95% of the other football playing schools.
 
CL82 said:
Um, another option was build it on campus, like, oh I don't know, 95% of the other football playing schools.
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building it on campus was not an option. the attempt to do so got no traction in the legislature.
 
husky8273 said:
building it on campus was not an option. the attempt to do so got no traction in the legislature.
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Incorrect. Even a proposal to have the state pay for a stadium, Burton and Shenkman combo “got traction” it just didn’t have the votes to pass. If UConn went to the legislature saying we will do Burton and Shenkman from private funds if you will bond for the stadium it likely would have had the votes to pass.
 
whaler11 said:
The students came they just didn’t stay.

They don’t want to sober up so they leave. Lower the drinking age and stick kegs in the student section and they stay.
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The actionable thing here is, looser pat downs at the student gate.
 
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CL82 said:
Um, another option was build it on campus, like, oh I don't know, 95% of the other football playing schools.
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I’m, like they you know, tried to build one on campus. Don’t remember the exact dates but around 1993-94 or so. It looked like 1A football was dead until P&W offered the current site several years later. So yeah. The option was no stadium or East Hartford stadium.
 
I think student attendance is pretty much down in many places...maybe most. Lots of things contribute The fact that tv makes the in stadium experience impossible. The fact that every game is on tv. The fact that students don’t really care that much.

I also think the new post season doesn’t help. We are 3 weeks into the season and Maryland’s season is essentially over. So is Southern Cal’s There are only a handful of schools that could survive an early season loss and those aren’t any of them. The other thing is the myth that full stadiums were “normal”. That was true for maybe a few programs at the very top but for most the only time they got a full house was if A. A huge name came to town. Or B. They played a rival. Add the expanded stadiums that rarely sell out. North Carolina is a good example, and the problem is even worse. Kenan Stadium went from mid-40,000s to mid 60s. Honestly they’d have been better off without the expansion or with a much more modest one. Rutgers did a big expansion which rarely fills.

Finally the realignment didn’t help. Traditional rivalries disappeared. Regional games went away.
 
Guapo said:
Sure, all those things could definitely be factors but the most implant factors you’re leaving out are the following:

The team (and stadium) was shiny, new and GOOD (and playing in a BCS conference).

Traditions and fandom are not built overnight; so, of course, when the program and conference fell apart; people didn’t really have the same feeling of loyalty towards the football program because there was really not much loyalty to begin with.

I don’t like to play this card often here (since this is a UConn football message board) but I am a Georgia football season ticket holder. You’re just going to have to trust me when I tell you I might no a little something about how fanbases and traditions are built in college sports.
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Well, that certainly explains the smugly superior attitude you're showing in this thread.
 
Husky25 said:
Timing of the above didn't help. The country was just reemerging from the Great Recession and Connecticut's recovery was slower than most anywhere else around the country.

Many incurred major life events and reassessed their disposable spending. If and when they personally recovered, the team fell on hard times and they found they could do without certain social and/or entertainment functions that they previously engaged, spectator sports among them.
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No one calls it that. Well, no self respecting person calls it that.

If and when? Don't you mean if OR when?
 
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Guapo said:
But there are enough people to fill a Double A ballpark every night? It seems like the people going to that are younger and fun! The Yard Goats market and brand very well. UConn...not so much.
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They also get their jimmies rustled if you call them out on their idiotic peanut ban. They don't like that at all.
 
I think student attendance is pretty much down in many places...maybe most. Lots of things contribute The fact that tv makes the in stadium experience impossible. The fact that every game is on tv. The fact that students don’t really care that much.

I also think the new post season doesn’t help. We are 3 weeks into the season and Maryland’s season is essentially over. So is Southern Cal’s There are only a handful of schools that could survive an early season loss and those aren’t any of them. The other thing is the myth that full stadiums were “normal”. That was true for maybe a few programs at the very top but for most the only time they got a full house was if A. A huge name came to town. Or B. They played a rival. Add the expanded stadiums at places that rarely sold out, North Carolina is a good example, and the problem is even worse.
 
I wonder how many students are from out of state and don’t necessarily care about their game attendance as they do getting an education and networking. I get out of state tuition brings in revenue but in the long term it’s actually negatively impacting CT economy as most students leave CT to work in their home state or city. This can also affect the fan perspective as well being that most out of staters aren’t as familiar with the football program as a kid that has grown up in CT their whole life supporting their flagship university. Over the years I’m sure there has been an increase in out of state student population which may reduce the passion we used to have in the 90’s and 00’s. Granted, with media making things easier to watch events and our athletics playing mediocre in comparison to previous years I understand the downfall in attendance. Surely, if conference realignment never happened, would we still be in this predicament? We have NO IDEA. It happened and we are adapting to it. I personally think it’s just how New Englanders live/act. When teams do well, fans show up. It’s a very sad and unfortunate truth being a CT native. It’s not the same in other states because the geography and social interaction is very different. Traveling to a flagship football game is a big event. Here it’s just another thing to do. CT is crammed with all kinds of distractions.
 
As I said it is a national phenomenon. Attendance has declined in 7 of the past 8 years. In 2018 the Big 10 had average lowest attendance in 25 years. Attendance was down in the SEC to the lowest level since 2004. Overall football attendance was at the lowest level since 1996. The PAC average was the lowest since the 1980s. Georgia sells out games but actual attendance is closer to 75000 than the 92000 they claim. So it isn’t a UConn problem alone by any means.

And virtually everybody is seeing big drops in student attendance. Various surveys by various schools identify the advantages of watching at home (cold beer various angles on your 70 inch tv no rest room lines cheap food) poor or no internet connection, and a bid one is early start times. Students don’t want 11:11 kicks. Or even noon. And unpredictable start times. I can look at an NFL schedule and know that in Week 8 my team will play at 1 pm on Sunday. I look at the UConn schedule and have no idea what time the games will be sometimes until the week before. Letting tv use the sport as a made for tv event has its downsides and one of those is declining attendance.
 
CL82 said:
And by "snuck" you mean just walked in laughing because our buddy was taking tickets and he really didn't give sheet one way or the other.
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Threw a rope over top row of seats and pulled it up from the parking lot below. It was almost halftime before they confiscated it.
 
Irishfan said:
Threw a rope over top row of seats and pulled it up from the parking lot below. It was almost halftime before they confiscated it.
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You mean the jacket covering everything but the tap didn't fool them? ;)
 
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CL82 said:
You mean the jacket covering everything but the tap didn't fool them? ;)
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Last row of the stadium, surrounded by about 9,000 students. By the time they figured out where it was, the keg was half empty.
 
They should remove the bleachers on both sidelines and put in chair back seats. Would enhance the experience and make the stadium appear fuller.
 
zmart said:
They should remove the bleachers on both sidelines and put in chair back seats. Would enhance the experience and make the stadium appear fuller.
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....and the $$ for this comes from....
 
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