It’s disturbing and increasingly the new normal nationwide.
That is awful. Students are becoming increasingly apathetic about school spirit and support of athletics around the country. I am not really sure what the cause is, but it is a troubling and unsustainable trend.
Apparently the only reason to do anything anymore is to take a selfie for facebook. Nothing has any other intrinsic value. It is pathetic.
I think you are right. It is a very “me” centered generation. I can see it in the 13 year olds that I teach, and it seems to have permeated popular culture. I miss the 90s.
clt predicts stadium contraction for many schools.
Almost every game is viewable on TV or online now so going to the game in person is not s big of a deal as it used to be.
Its a combo of many things - online and tv viewing options, the fact that conference realignments have impacted long time rivals and finally college athletics have let it be known $$$ is the king and students are responding to tv and ESPN thinking they can control it all
Troubling in what regard?
Well this is good - our student base is already there. We were just ahead of the curve…
Its a combo of many things - online and tv viewing options, the fact that conference realignments have impacted long time rivals and finally college athletics have let it be known $$$ is the king and students are responding to tv and ESPN thinking they can control it all[/quote]
That hits more on the chord with students. Realignment is killing college sports.
Charlottes lacking student sprit (which has gotten tremendously better with just one season of football) is a couple factors.
The big ones being, no football, no big instate rivals (half the student fanbase doesn’t know we are rivals with Davidson), lack of big time success.
We fixed one, the other two are hopefully not going to be problems much longer.
For students to come out in masses and to grow those diehards, athletic events have to be an event. They have to be exciting. My generation has so many options for entertainment, going out in 95 degree weather and watching your team get blown out is not a good time.
Troubling in what regard?[/quote]
Troubling in the regard that we may see the death of many college athletic programs over the next few decades. Very few are profitable as is, and the lack of a very basic level of support will lead many schools to determine that these programs are no longer worth having. We may be many years from seeing this at the D-I level, but I believe that college athletics could dramatically change in our lifetimes.
Troubling in what regard?[/quote]
Troubling in the regard that we may see the death of many college athletic programs over the next few decades. Very few are profitable as is, and the lack of a very basic level of support will lead many schools to determine that these programs are no longer worth having. We may be many years from seeing this at the D-I level, but I believe that college athletics could dramatically change in our lifetimes.[/quote]
I think we’ll just see scaling things back to a more reasonable manner, which is a good thing.
Some of this has to due with recent success as well. Illinois is not good at football. They have really never been good at football. So the kids don’t want to go. An Illinois basketball game tends to be very well attended, but there is a history of success with basketball that the football team does not share. People like to be associated with winners. Win and people come, lose and they don’t come.
But it has to be more than just once in a while. The Michigan win was great for our B-ball, but we have to keep winning, be ranked for a while, and be on ESPN for a bit. It has to reach the point where the avg. guy in Charlotte goes “Huh, I keep seeing them on TV. Maybe I should check them out.” Just one great win every so often is going to be seen more as a “What a great win for them. Such an upset. Wish I had seen that game” this implies they do not want to see others just the historic ones. Which involve winning and playing socially relevant programs. And there is a social aspect to college sports that we have to take into account when considering the state of the sport. Due to the social networking affect every thing you do, can be instantly compared to what everyone else is doing. So while we here on this board would consider UNCA vs. Charlotte a good use of time, kids are going to go “How will it look if I go to the game versus a house party in relation to my peers.” Sadly house parties will win a fair amount of these. We also have to consider the social confirmation one gets when attending an event. If you go to a bar and there are 100 people there, while it will suck to get a beer, a small part of you will feel like you are in the middle of the action and that this place must be popular. Whereas a Charlotte game may have 3,000 but at a 9,000 seat stadium it feels empty. That subliminally sends a message that this place is not as desirable as the packed bar/house party.
Solution? Win, Win often, Win against teams other people care and know about, Win when you should and when you shouldn’t, Win the easy way, Win the hard way, but above all else WIN. Go Niners!
This is also a problem throughout the SEC, which has been well chronicled. Illinois is just a very dramatic example. Winning isn’t necessarily the solution and as others have suggested may represent a generational change in cultural attitudes towards attending sporting events.
Its a combo of many things - online and tv viewing options, the fact that conference realignments have impacted long time rivals and finally college athletics have let it be known $$$ is the king and students are responding to tv and ESPN thinking they can control it all[/quote]
That hits more on the chord with students. Realignment is killing college sports.
Charlottes lacking student sprit (which has gotten tremendously better with just one season of football) is a couple factors.
The big ones being, no football, no big instate rivals (half the student fanbase doesn’t know we are rivals with Davidson), lack of big time success.
We fixed one, the other two are hopefully not going to be problems much longer.
For students to come out in masses and to grow those diehards, athletic events have to be an event. They have to be exciting. My generation has so many options for entertainment, going out in 95 degree weather and watching your team get blown out is not a good time.[/quote]
[size=4]Realignment is killing college sports.[/size]…I agree with this! We all were excited when we went into C-USA that we would have ECU as an instate rival… now their fans get to travel hundreds of miles to see an away game. True rivalries need to be there for the health of college athletics… Charlotte is in a good place since we havent over built our facilities… We just need to land in a conference that allows our fans an opportunity to relate… It’s good that our basketball team is doing well… it may help us when the deck shuffles again.
I would argue the cost of college is another factor. Increased costs of college have created an environment where a larger amount of students are working while also being students. Many of those hours are going to be on the weekends.
I agree more regional opponents helps, but the subject game of this thread was Northwestern (which is in Chicago) against Illinois for the Land of Lincoln Trophy.
I find some peoples’ reactions to this strange and comically over the top. “Disturbing,” “awful,” “pathetic.” If people don’t want to go to sports, they aren’t going to go to sports. We don’t go to jousting tournaments anymore either, is that a bad thing? Baseball isn’t as popular as it used to be, is there something wrong about that? NASCAR attendance is down too, is that bad? Things change, trends change, the world changes - this case is only bad if you are the organization going in the red because you now can’t afford your program’s cost or a fan worried about losing some element of something YOU enjoy. An actually “disturbing,” “awful,” and “pathetic” trend is this knockout game bullshit. That’s something to get worried about if it grows further.
And as a minor counterpoint, I have no figures to back this up, but when I watch college bball I feel like I still see good fan attendance. I suppose I wouldn’t see the difference in how full the upper parts of arenas are.
“Me generation?” You are more old and out of touch than right on this. This generation is a whole hell of a lot less “me” than the 80s. It’s amazing to me how hyper-defensively people (mis)interpret social media.
There is no denying that the enlargement of entertainment and viewing options has had a general impact on declining attendance. But the large event to event swings and the general attitude towards everything (sports included) is becoming increasingly narcissistic and techology is the enabler.
Selfies for facebook. Thats all too many of these kids care about. Its all about trying to prove how much awesomer your life is than the next clone’s.And yes it is pathetic.
It’s disturbing to me because of how heavily leveraged university’s are and how dependent they are on student fees. It’s a growing cost/usage dynamic. To be honest bust, your post seemed awfully defensive.