If people in Alabama really loved football and lived for it as much as they say they do in May there wouldn't be any empty seats in September regardless of who Bama plays, if the game is on TV or what the weather or score is. IMO don't talk the talk if you can't walk the walk. I think Miss Terry was mostly referring to the empty seats as that was right about the time Coach made his comments about them.
Half empty stadiums are no good for recruiting and the team needs that support. I could maybe make an argument that a half-empty stadium on Senior Day might have played into how flat the team looked yesterday. We didn't send them off with a rousing effort of putting our butts in the seats and a hearty RTR, that much is for sure.
I understand their frustration there but frankly I'm surprised attendance at Alabama games has remained as high as it has -- and that has nothing to do with Alabama or the Sabans. Attendance at outdoor sporting events is reeling nationwide. I wish I had the link to the story that Yahoo ran about 2 months ago on it. Basically, the gist of the story was that younger people aren't interested because they'd rather be in front of a big screen with multiple games/channels, better weather and the ability to get on Twitter, Facebook, etc. The part I found funniest was when a bunch of respondents said the 4G issue was actually the most important and if stadiums could ensure the ability to get on, they'd show up. If it were me, I'd stick so many antennas on Bryant-Denny that it would look like a Washington County 16-year-old's jacked-up Toyota hunting truck. You'd get 4G, CB, HAM, the police scanner, NASA, SiriusXM and pictures from every baby monitor within a four-block radius, all loud and clear.
The unfortunate part about going to Alabama games is, in order to pay the coaches' salary and keep up with other programs, attendance is tied to affluence. Family of four going to every home game breaks down to this, roughly:
1) Tickets/Tide Pride: About $2500 (average)
2) Parking a reasonable distance from the stadium: $200/year
3) Food ($8 entree, $6 Coke, per person per game = $56 x 7 games = $392, 2 cokes a game makes it $560)
4) Some kind of souvenir for the kids (assume 1 for each child, per year): $60
5) Gasoline: $350
Total: $3,670 per year. For a middle-class family making $60,000/year in Alabama, that's 6.2 percent of total gross income for football games. And the numbers go up if you tailgate, or go to a restaurant before/after, or stay in a hotel room. If you have to add hotel room costs to this it really goes up.
