Clearly I was saying only one time I haven't been seen the lack of fans willing to go at the drop of a hat. That's the only way what I said makes any sense.
Bama students will get rewarded for staying until 4th qtr
- Thread starter BamaNation
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1) No it wasn’t clear because your sentence didn’t make any sense whatsoever as to what you were implying . I honestly didn’t know if you were saying “ there has only been one time I wasn’t able to go to a game at the drop of a hat” or “ I’ve only been to one game to which I didn’t see loads of Alabama fans willing to go into the game at the drop of a hat”. Hence why I asked the question in the first place. No need to act like I’m stupid for not understanding you. But I digress
2) I’ve worked every home game on Bryant Drive for a vendor, and gone into pretty much every home game since 2014. I can tell you with 100% certainty that I’ve only seen 99k to 100k actual butts in seats 3 times (14 Auburn, 15 Ole Miss, and 15 LSU) since then. Most actual attendance is 95-98k for big games. Smaller SEC games are a little worse, and don’t get me started on directional schools. Scalpers basically offering a handful of tickets to an Iron Bowl for 10-20 bucks to Auburn and Tennessee an hour to 2hrs before gametime is very normal. So where are all these Alabama fans waiting around BDS to go to a ball game at the drop of a hat??? On a lazy boy in front of a great TV.
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I do not think that OOS students is the problem at all. You still have as many in state students as you always have to fill the stadium. IMO the answer is simply a combination of the various aspects of greater TV coverage/technology, the ever increasing battle for our discretionary spending and the fact that people are much busier than they used to be. In other words, games like this eat up a day or more of our time to attend, and that costs us time and money, in direct competition with other things which also cost us time and money.
The world used to be a much more simple place. Our options were far more limited. Our children's options were far more limited. The entire landscape is shifting, and football faces competition from places that it never imagined.
The world used to be a much more simple place. Our options were far more limited. Our children's options were far more limited. The entire landscape is shifting, and football faces competition from places that it never imagined.
Gotcha, not what I would have expected, . You're there and I'm hundreds of miles away, so I'll rely on your (anecdotal) data, which is far more informed than my guessing.
To add what DP posted, students that don't have tickets can sign up to get a ticket donated by a student that is not going to the game.
When I was at UA, students that did this actually didn't have to pay for the donated ticket. Not sure if that is still the case or not.
I went to a large HS in Suburban Chicago (Hinsdale Central). For some reason we had (have) a pipeline to Alabama...Every year we send 5-10 kids to Alabama. There is literally a counselor in Tuscaloosa that works on my HS. I know that's a very small number, but it's one school...in ILLINOIS. That was in 1984. The OOS student "recruiting" has been going on for a long time...and I for one am incredibly grateful that it is!!! Roll Tide!!!
You know yesterday I kinda drove by and gave one reason but this topic has listed some that I would agree are more significant. I think the in-state/out-of-state balance is a factor but it is far FAR below television availability and an historically dominant program that maybe only a dozen teams in the nation can give a 60-minute game.
I've seen a game against winless Duke in Bryant-Denny keep most of the stadium in their seats for 60 minutes - though I don't think it was ever at capacity even at kickoff - on the account that Mike Shula's Crimson Tide could never really put them away in a decisive fashion.
I've seen a game against winless Duke in Bryant-Denny keep most of the stadium in their seats for 60 minutes - though I don't think it was ever at capacity even at kickoff - on the account that Mike Shula's Crimson Tide could never really put them away in a decisive fashion.
I was there 2 years ago and it was free. The biggest issue is that most are too lazy to donate. You lose about 2 points for not going and get 4 points for the year to lose before you can’t renew. So basically the people in the 3 game package ( HC and LSU/Auburn game) can just skip the directional school game without worrying about donating to keep their penalties low.
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^^^this^^^ And on a related note, why was Hemphill batting in the FOURTH inning last night against UAB? If the subs aren't playing in a 15-1 game, then when are they going to play?
You wouldn't have made it through the Whitworth years. As I did, with an Aubie Dad taking me to their 1957* games, attempting to get me to switch.
Bama couldn't score, much less win. Shut out eleven times! In three years! Bama has been shut out only eleven times in the sixty one seasons since 1957.
Told my Dad, "thanks, but no thanks, Bama is getting a new coach and is going to be good again."
They get a discount because it is a university event and they are students of that university. Students pay plenty to be where they are. This is college football and should continue to be more about the students and the atmosphere. However, if students decide they no longer want to attend or stay until the end, I can understand the university shrinking the student section. It is still hard for me to imagine that. When I was at UA, we had around 16,000 students, and there was plenty of demand for tickets. Now there are around 36,000 students the last I checked, so I can't imagine the demand has declined. I'm assuming this is just about students only caring about the big games and/or having other things they prefer doing. I just can't imagine being in school at Bama and not wanting to be at every possible game. I guess I'm getting old.
I'm old, and I understand only some of today's logic. But I can tell you for a stone-cold fact: The empty student seats for all but the most prominent games would say that demand has in fact decreased. Even for LSU, Auburn or Tennessee, there are often empty seats, just not as many.
There are several contributors, but I think the main driver is the array of more comfortable alternatives, and that isn't going away. It's a problem all schools are dealing with to one degree or another. We're a bit insulated because of the current product on the field. But our time is coming.
It's a different world from the one we grew up in.
It's not like the schools are losing out on revenue. They are making more than ever on football because those alternatives bring in boatloads of money - far more than ticket sales ever dreamed of bringing in.
One thing needs to be pointed out about empty seats. Empty seats are not created because a ticket wasn't sold, usually they were created because a ticket was sold and the seat was not occupied. This is actually a plan to address part of that issue, because in some cases a seat that was occupied in the first or second quarter is not necessarily occupied in the third or fourth. So to argue that empty seats=less demand is to overlook the point that the demand is sufficient to sell the ticket.
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