I also think Major Universities in relatively small towns have taken a step down from the past because populations are migrating to more major city centers. OU used to be the major game in town but since the Thunder came in they are now the big ticket in a relatively smallish city. OKC is actually growing as a city but those are gonna be people migrating from other areas and will be more prone to going to a thunder game rather than OU. Nebraska is in a declining area within a small town, they were always gonna decline. Arkansas is also in a fairly sparsely populated area thatās hard to get to.
That being said we also have to be aware of entertainment options in areas and understand that the massive crowds that college sports used to draw were always unsustainable, especially in places where there used to be not a lot going on. I live in Yorkshire, England. Football (soccer) is king here. Leeds has almost a million people and Leeds United fans are rabid. Their stadium is only around 30k. My town is around 150k and I recently went to a local match (Harrogate Town), tickets are basically nothing and attendance was a little over 2k and they were pretty happy with that. American sports have always been bigger on attendance but in these small areas you are asking literally everyone to be invested and attend when there are a ton of other options for entertainment and frankly TV coverage is so much better these days, might as well watch from home.
Yeah I liked college sports when the players who made everyone else rich got nothing for their efforts. That created a fire inside me. Now that they are being fairly compensated, I just canāt bring myself to watch it. I think I will go watch Youth Flag Football; 9 year olds will literally play for after game snacks. Now that is dedication!!
I just spent the weekend at Disney, Magic Kingdom and Epcot and Daytona 500. I could watch a video posted online of people going to Disney and riding the rides, I could have watched Daytona 500 from the comfort of my living room. Yes the lines were long and it rained at Daytona and it was expensive, but to experience it live is not like TV.
We do also have 1 advantage being close to UH in that as costs rise , there is no need for a hotel for late games. If you attend a rural game chances are you donāt live there and prob need a hotel.
I still have the original photo of this infamous Coog trio. It was in a filing cabinet at the Daily Cougar when I started working at the paper.
Great memories
I would absolutely prefer to see that one to be at home, rather than with a crowd of thousands of others live. To each their own, though, Iām not here to kink-shame.
This looks to be the third consecutive year of declining attendance at Fertitta Center, and this year is the lowest since 2019-2020.
Itās not like a huge drop, but averaging almost 400 less than our peak year isnāt nothing. With the reported capacity being 7100. Given the high demand for season tickets, maybe weāre doing something different with holdbacks?
A lack of support for any team will get back to performance; wins and losses. Who wants to spend time and money on mediocre or bad teams. With respect to the college game not being about the schools, every senior on the Houston squad will receive or has already received their degrees. Anyone who says that the experience is better on tv has never been to a game in Fertitta. The place is full, students line up around the block to get in. Refreshments are expensive but that is the case at every public event whether college, pro, or other live performance. Attendance at Houston menās basketball is not a problem because we have a really good team and have had for several years. Letās be happy about that and let others worry about their respective lack of support.
I dont thin NIL is a driver, I hate this NIL era, has hurt college athletics long term but to me its the pandemic which got everyone used to streaming games from home and the current inflastion crunch hitting so many.
when you are used to watching from home from the pandemic and can do it for the cost of a couple of games tickets, why wouldnt you and you get a better view streaming most of the time. college and espn is all in on streaming but it has hurt attendance.
i know i streamed saint louis cardinals when albert puljos went for the homerin record couple of years ago, streamed many games for less than the price of going to one game
Explains the posts in the Coogfans game threads.