CFB-as-a-Business has its consequences...

[H2S]

sad to admit, but I think the author is right...bottom line is that we're all "customers/statistics" on some asshole's spreadsheet. I don't see trends reversing...do you?

This fall Michigan is in danger of breaking its string of 251-consecutive games with 100,000-plus paid attendance, which started in 1975. Treat your fans like customers long enough, and eventually they’ll start behaving that way, reducing their irrational love for their team to a cool-headed, dollars-and-cents decision to buy tickets or not, with no more emotional investment than deciding whether to go to the movies.

The real reasons why students ? and others ? are bailing on Michigan football tickets | John U. Bacon

“We know who our competitor is,” Brandon often says. “Your 60-inch, high-definition TV.”
If that’s true, maybe they shouldn’t have increased seat prices by an average of $100 each since Brandon took over. Perhaps they should stop charging six bucks for a hot dog, five bucks for popcorn, and four dollars for water. Maybe they should stop showing ads between plays on the big screens for corporate receptions at Michigan stadium, which start at $9,000. Fans can get all those things at home for less, including the ads. They can only get the marching band at the big house.

After a friend of mine took his kids to a game, he told me, “Michigan athletics used to feel like something we shared. Now it’s something they hoard. Anything of value they put a price tag on. Anything that appeals to anyone is kept locked away—literally, in some cases—and only brought out if you pay for it. And what’s been permanently banished is any sense of generosity.”

After Brandon became Michigan’s 11th athletic director in 2010, he has often repeated one of his favorite lines: “If it ain’t broke… break it!”

You have to give him credit: he has delivered on his promise.

 

[NDHoosier101]

I also think it's a consequence of them having mediocre at best football teams the past couple years, with not much expected to change this year as far as I know, and a kick ass basketball team that's competing for not only B1G championships but NCAA titles. Both tickets are expensive, and if you have to choose one I think more people than ever are choosing basketball right now.

 

[sooner78wakeboard]

I think the author is right as well. You used to be able to leave and then come back at half-time durning OU games. Since beer wasn't served inside the stadium, people would leave, walk across the street, grab a beer and talk about the game, do chants, then head back in. It was a blast and that was done for decades, til 9/11. (for security reasons, I guess I understand) Now, if you leave you can't get back in.

If you want anything, you must wait in a big ass line for a high priced watered down Coke, hotdog or gas station type nachos. Often missing part of the 3rd Quarter. The thing that really pissed me off actually was the commercials during breaks on the scoreboard. I thought that was really tacky.

 

[H2S]

I also think it's a consequence of them having mediocre at best football teams the past couple years, with not much expected to change this year as far as I know, and a kick ass basketball team that's competing for not only B1G championships but NCAA titles. Both tickets are expensive, and if you have to choose one I think more people than ever are choosing basketball right now.

No doubt several years'-worth of shitty seasons have an effect on gate (almost anywhere, OTHER than the Big House and only a few other stadiums/programs nationally...until now...maybe.) Concentrating on "gate" though - at the expense of eroded/lessened student/alumni appreciation - seems the new paradigm...and that sucks if you're old enough to remember better days.

 

[H2S]

I think the author is right as well. You used to be able to leave and then come back at half-time durning OU games. Since beer wasn't served inside the stadium, people would leave, walk across the street, grab a beer and talk about the game, do chants, then head back in. It was a blast and that was done for decades, til 9/11. (for security reasons, I guess I understand) Now, if you leave you can't get back in.

If you want anything, you must wait in a big ass line for a high priced watered down Coke, hotdog or gas station type nachos. Often missing part of the 3rd Quarter. The thing that really pissed me off actually was the commercials during breaks on the scoreboard. I thought that was really tacky.

I guess I understand too. People since 9/11 have lived in fear of each other. A whole generation has grown up horrified at the possibility that the big lump inside your coat is a bomb instead of a bottle of schnapps. Shit, for years, at the end of the National Anthem, the entire MSU student section sent thousands of champagne corks skyward...now? they scan your 'attitude' as well as your body cavities when you hand over your $150 ticket (that was an outrageous $8 ticket in my day...harrumph!)