The Northeast is not interested in football, and other myths

[upstater]

The New England area broke records for watching NFL football this season. Multiple times this year, over 60% of the TVs in Massachusetts were tuned into NFL football.

New York is crazy for the Giants, and Pennsylvania loves the Eagles and Steelers. Maryland too is bonkers for the Ravens.

Let's face it: the Northeast of the country loves pro sports. Now, before we consider this a cultural anomaly, I'd venture that the real reason for the domination of pro football is that the northeast has older cities and generally richer cities than those down south, which means they've had moneybags owning pro football teams for awhile. The Patriots, Jets and Steelers are over 50 years old, while the Giants and Eagles are much older. Fans have been watching these teams for generations.

Whereas the southern college football hotbeds give us Carolina and Jacksonville and Tampa Bay and Tennessee, and even the New Orleans Saints were not very well supported until recently. Simply put, the tradition isn't there. The money wasn't there until recently.

So, the differences are not only cultural, but they are literally accidents of history. It also has much to do with the dominance of private colleges in the northeast versus the land grant schools to the south, whose main job for many years was to educate the graduates of a school system that was far below the standards of the rest of the country. College football is strongest in these regions.

 

[BlueDogs]

We're about to be "an accident of history" if the folks in Storrs don't remove their heads from their collective a$$es.

 

[uconNYC]

How about the B1G schools? Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio State are doing fine despite having NFL and other pro sports teams in their backyards.

 

[whaler11]

Yeah no one ever questioned the Northeast and pro sports. If UConn joins the NFC East they are all set.

Whoever got their first with football had the advantage. Fascinating.

 

[dsturdy5]

How about the B1G schools? Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio State are doing fine despite having NFL and other pro sports teams in their backyards.

This speaks to the land grant institution vs proliferation of private colleges part of Upstater's argument

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

Upstater is probably right about the northeast and pro sports teams.

But the fact remains that people up here (PSU aside) just don't give a fack about college football.

 

[Adios]

College football was the national pastime before baseball was ever declared the national pastime. The game has it's roots in the northeast, especially New England (Harvard and Yale). The NFL has it's roots in the midwest (Great Lakes region). The midwest has taken what was created here and gone nuts with it, the northeast has taken what was created in the midwest and has gone nuts with it.

Either way, if the B1G can permeate it's culture into the northeast, it is very possible for college football to be very popular here once again.

I had an acquaintance who's great-uncle was on the first year Giants in 1925. He had season tickets until the Giants built their new stadium and demanded fans pay for PSLs. He's become so disenfranchised with the NFL that he pretty much disappeared from the pro football historians "circle".

 

[upstater]

I'm not contesting the part about college football not being big. But a lot of times you hear that the sport of football isn't popular up here.

 

[Adios]

I'm not contesting the part about college football not being big. But a lot of times you hear that the sport of football isn't popular up here.

People who say that are short-sighted. Look how well we support UConn football. We want it to skyrocket.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I'm not contesting the part about college football not being big. But a lot of times you hear that the sport of football isn't popular up here.

Football itself is huge. But the NFL also designed it that way. Games start at 1:00 on Sunday, conveniently after Mass for the heavily Catholic northeast. Then consider the blue laws, which made it certain that everyone in the northeast was home with nothing to do on Sundays. It became part of our cultural fabric.

Yet northeastern high schools play football on Saturday, removing a huge number of likely football fans from the college football experience. In the south and Midwest, high school ball is on Friday nights. The northeast also has a higher soccer participation rate, and it has an overlapping season with frequent Saturday games. The first rule in putting big numbers in the stands is to make sure your target audience isn't otherwise occupied. In the hotbeds of college football they do a very good job of that. In New England they make no attempt at all.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

 

[upstater]

Football itself is huge. But the NFL also designed it that way. Games start at 1:00 on Sunday, conveniently after Mass for the heavily Catholic northeast. Then consider the blue laws, which made it certain that everyone in the northeast was home with nothing to do on Sundays. It became part of our cultural fabric.

Yet northeastern high schools play football on Saturday, removing a huge number of likely football fans from the college football experience. In the south and Midwest, high school ball is on Friday nights. The northeast also has a higher soccer participation rate, and it has an overlapping season with frequent Saturday games. The first rule in putting big numbers in the stands is to make sure your target audience isn't otherwise occupied. In the hotbeds of college football they do a very good job of that. In New England they make no attempt at all.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

Have things changed in Connecticut since the 1980s? The vast majority of high school football games were on Friday nights.

I don't think Connecticut differs much from the midwest, actually. And the truth is you see just as many players coming out of the NFL in Ct., per capita, as the midwest.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

In the state of Alabama, youth leagues arrange their fall sports schedules around home games for Bama and Auburn. The difference in the level of interest between there and here is not small.

 

[upstater]

This link shows that most games are on Friday nights, but a good many more than I remember are on Saturday now.

http://ciacsports.com/site/?page_id=952

 

[upstater]

In Texas, young kids are held back to start kindergarten at age 6 or 7.

 

[RS9999X]

Agrarian blue collar jock who became a builder or shop foreman was the South.

The Ivy League. MIT, media schools law schools -- that was North. Jock culture was kept in check in the North. Winters meant inside sports. CYO ball for normal students. Schools weren't for jocks. That was for the South where the guys named Bubba were all. Related






Sent from my Lumia 920 via Windows 8. Now bite me Apple Droids.

 

[BlueDogs]

Occum's Razor - this simplest answer is usually correct. Attendance and interest are down because we are losing.

 

[Dann]

culture can be changed or atleast built onto when a leader has a vision and a passion. thats what uconn needs and extremely lacks.

 

[ZooCougar]

Upstater is probably right about the northeast and pro sports teams.

But the fact remains that people up here (PSU aside) just don't give a fack about college football.

I hear the Patriots have tons of fans in New England. Everything makes sense now.