FB attendance depression

[sparks35]

I have been sitting on the East side of the stadium for 15 years now. 2009-2013 were good crowds most of the time, everyone was riding high with the early Mullen years. Obviously 2014 was insane, all the games had an electric atmosphere. And then from 2015-2018 we had our up and down moments, depending on how the team was playing at the time.

2019 felt down at times, mostly because we just underachieved so much in year 1 of Moorhead. But even still, we had a couple of really good crowds that year. I think 2020 would have been a good attendance year because of Leach, if not for COVID.

For the last 3 years though, it has just not been the same. I sit in section 20, and I keep finding myself surrounded with more and more opposing team fans. The obvious worst was Georgia last year. That was some Vanderbilt stadium level embarrassment as far as I’m concerned. And last night I had quite a few Arizona fans sitting around me, and a lot of empty rows in other sections around us.

Has COVID just killed our attendance? Have we lost the desire to come and support our team? I understand that some people have just found other ways to spend their time and money, and everyone is entitled to make their own decisions, but it is kind of disheartening as a lifelong Bulldog. I can’t help but think this doesn’t do anything but hurt our recruiting as well. People talk about the price of tickets, and the travel money. But again, I always have quite a few opposing fans who travel from hundreds of miles to come fill up some of the seats around me.

 

[MagnoliaHunter]

Covid, NIL distaste, and the economy.

 

[TaleofTwoDogs]

Large screen TVs, couch, plentiful beer & snacks, friends & family, no travel, no heat, no traffic, no parking hassle.........welcome to the new world order

 

[BELdog]

I’ve never enjoyed sitting in the stands and watching a game very much. I watch most games. I buy plenty of MSU merchandise. I support businesses that support the Bulldog Initiative. But, going to live games just isn’t something I enjoy. I don’t like crowds. I don’t like standing in line. I prefer to watch the game through a camera that is closer to the action. I think COVID made a lot of people realize they feel the same way.

 

[BulldogBlitz]

The forced white out. People without white shirts chose not to attend.**

 

[Maroon13]

Every thing already mentioned and.... I'm afraid people have figured out the product too. We aren't winning a National Championship.

So... where's the excitement of feeling like you're pulling for something big? People like you and me, are few. Those that come for the love of the university. What it will take is beating LSU, Alabama and OM this year. A 9-10 win season with big wins would be a shot in the arm to the fan base.

On the east side and future in general, the students are showing up. State needs to go back to the old days. Give the students 16-20 faculty 21 and the remaining open to whomever (No BC requirement). North endzone can become premium seating... balconies or loge style.

 

[57stratdawg]

Hampton Inn is $1,700 for two night this weekend.

No thanks.

 

[Dawg1976]

Hampton Inn is $1,700 for two night this weekend.

No thanks.

That is total BS. I only live 90 miles away so not a factor for me. But I don't go because of the items mentioned above. Saturday I used the YT split screen feature and watched the AL game along with ours. And I'm old now and simply enjoy watching on tv.

 

[Maroon13]

watched the AL game along with ours. And I'm old now and simply enjoy watching on tv.

This is another factor. You have many people in east mississippi, less than an hour drive, more interested in Alabama.

 

[POTUS]

Hampton Inn is $1,700 for two night this weekend.

No thanks.

Imagine spending that plus tickets, concessions, parking, food, etc. for a game we will almost certainly lose ( I think we’ve beaten LSU in Starkville 2 times this millennia). No thanks.

 

[Dawg1976]

This is another factor. You have many people in east mississippi, less than an hour drive, more interested in Alabama.

I'm certainly not more interested in AL. I was watching and pulling for TX. I watch zero AL games outside of ones they may lose. But you are correct.....there are plenty of sidewalk AL fans around here.

 

[OopsICroomedmypants]

We need Artificial Covid Fans again
Or we have to go back to the old days and have no tv options. Not even Jefferson Pilot.

 

[PBDog]

i can’t remember the last home game i attended. i used to never miss a game. traveled to stillwater, oregon, gainesville, etc.

for a family of 4 - gen admin tix lower bowl - - how much am i looking at for lsu game?

here’s what i’m estimating:

- tix 75 ea
- parking 40
- concessions 50
- gas from coast - 100
- 2 night hotel 800
- restaurants 500

is that about right? >1500$

 

[Coast_Dawg]

Take your pick
Heat
Cost
Distance/time to travel
Lodging arrangements
Quality seating options

all of the above make my couch in the AC watching plenty of other games while waiting for State on a nice big TV a much better option to me

 

[Ddog]

We were long time football season ticket holders but decided a few years ago it was time to stop going...not stop supporting but stop going. The parking seemed to get harder and harder and I could never get a parking pass despite requesting one numerous times. So we walked the walk that would be quite long at times. Seating was very uncomfortable, concessions were bad, bathrooms even worse. Basically it just became a hassle to us not worth tolerating. Going to football games whether at MSU or Bama or wherever takes a commitment of time, energy, and money. We now think we can spend out time, energy, and money in a much better way.

 

[57stratdawg]

Imagine spending that plus tickets, concessions, parking, food, etc. for a game we will almost certainly lose ( I think we’ve beaten LSU in Starkville 2 times this millennia). No thanks.

No doubt. I could easily sink $10K - $15K into MSU football each fall.

There’s just better ways to spend that money.

 

[SteelCurtain74]

For me it's just stage of life. Between my kids soccer and baseball tournaments a lot of weekends and taking care of aging parents, if I have a free weekend I don't have any desire traveling when I can watch it at home. If that makes me a bad fan so be it.

 

[Requiem For A Dawg]

I have been sitting on the East side of the stadium for 15 years now. 2009-2013 were good crowds most of the time, everyone was riding high with the early Mullen years. Obviously 2014 was insane, all the games had an electric atmosphere. And then from 2015-2018 we had our up and down moments, depending on how the team was playing at the time.

2019 felt down at times, mostly because we just underachieved so much in year 1 of Moorhead. But even still, we had a couple of really good crowds that year. I think 2020 would have been a good attendance year because of Leach, if not for COVID.

For the last 3 years though, it has just not been the same. I sit in section 20, and I keep finding myself surrounded with more and more opposing team fans. The obvious worst was Georgia last year. That was some Vanderbilt stadium level embarrassment as far as I’m concerned. And last night I had quite a few Arizona fans sitting around me, and a lot of empty rows in other sections around us.

Has COVID just killed our attendance? Have we lost the desire to come and support our team? I understand that some people have just found other ways to spend their time and money, and everyone is entitled to make their own decisions, but it is kind of disheartening as a lifelong Bulldog. I can’t help but think this doesn’t do anything but hurt our recruiting as well. People talk about the price of tickets, and the travel money. But again, I always have quite a few opposing fans who travel from hundreds of miles to come fill up some of the seats around me.

Are we gonna do several of these threads after every game this year?

 

[Maroon Eagle]

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: What it comes down to Fan Experience.

And people’s experiences are different.

I’ve not felt like coming back to sporting events since friends divorced and moved away from Starkville.

And since then I’ve rarely considered Starkville to be a fun trip.

 

[Colonel Kang]

Lack of exciting offensive play and it’s been 9 years since we’ve had a special season

Mullen left before the big uptick year in 2018 and Leach passed before this year’s uptick year.

fans latch onto big season and exciting offense. We’ve had neither, mostly due to extremely flawed QB play, for 9 years now. That makes the causal fan stay home

We’re a tough watch. Nothing about the Air Raid or what we saw vs AZ is going to draw a single fan. Boring football that everyone knows won’t work vs good teams

 

[Maroon Eagle]

Are we gonna do several of these threads after every game this year?

At least these threads are topical.

 

[Requiem For A Dawg]

At least these threads are topical.

It has been beat to death for the last few years.

 

[Maroon Eagle]

It has been beat to death for the last few years.

That sentence could have also described Mississippi State football when I was an undergrad.

#TechandTen

 

[Lettucexxxx]

It’s an 8-9 hour round trip for me and usually around 4-600 bucks a weekend….on a low roar. I won’t be on campus until the spring, if im lucky. I do miss it, dearly..I’d love to live back up in north Ms

 

[TrueMaroonGrind]

Lodging is probably the biggest issue for me. If we want to go we have to make it a day trip from Memphis. It’s doable but not pleasant especially because we will getup and go to church the next day.

Also all my friends who we used to go with have little kids so they aren’t going. We aim to get to one game a year now. I love going it’s just insanely hard at this point in life.

 

[Puppers]

I wish we could play more in mid day. I know CBS has their exclusive window but driving 3+ hours for 11 am games and coming back from night games is hard with young kids.

 

[STATEgrad04]

I posted this the other day, and I feel with all the other things mentions, absolutely plays a part...

I'm about to say something that will likely be unpopular, but for fans that truly have to travel more than 3 hours one direction ultimately matters.

I think at least one factor into low attendance is the fact that we ultimately know we arent playing for anything of significance...I consider our fanbase as logical/realists when it comes to evaluating/analyzing what we have on the field, and when we look at the changing landscape of college football, we realistically know that we arent likely making it into the playoffs. Thus leaving us with a ho-hum attitude to the season overall. Yes, there will be better odds of it happening next year with the number increasing, but with the addition of Texas and Oklahoma, our path does not get easier. And so we are left to get ourselves excited about a mid-tier bowl that ultimately means nothing. That causes our realist fanbase to say "I will always support State in everything they do, but in order of significance, football is not topping that list".

 

[cristilmethod]

It has been beat to death for the last few years.

I don't get the issue with the discussion. It's fairly easy to not click the thread title if it's something you aren't interested in reading about anymore. Personally, I enjoy hearing the different perspectives on why people still come or don't come anymore. I think it's part of identifying the problem and determining the solution.

I am still of the opinion that Selmon and company are going to have to drastically rethink not just the stadium layout but the entire fan experience. As someone else said above, you're competing against the couch and the comforts of home to entice people to come to town for games. There isn't much they can do about Hampton Inn charging $1,700 for a weekend (is that seriously correct? that's insane, if true), but they can control everything you experience from the time you pull of 12 onto campus until the time you leave.

 

[Birddawg11]

When was the last time any of y’all actually got pumped up and had fun watching one of our games. They are all torture and either put you to sleep or frustrate you. This goes back many seasons. Even when we win it’s like this past Saturday. Just frustrating and dull.

 

[Clay Lyle]

We haven’t had an entertaining product on the field since 2018. Even if we win, were we entertained? The exciting big plays on offense are few and far between. It’s the Will Rogers effect. No matter what offense he’s in, it’s like watching paint dry. I would completely blame the Leach hire, but Costello made some big, exciting throws in that LSU game. Shame he was a bust after that, or we may be in a very different situation.

 

[Maroon13]

I think at least one factor into low attendance is the fact that we ultimately know we arent playing for anything of significance...I consider our fanbase as logical/realists when it comes to evaluating/analyzing what we have on the field, and when we look at the changing landscape of college football, we realistically know that we arent likely making it into the playoffs. Thus leaving us with a ho-hum attitude to the season overall.

I think you nailed it.

But every fan base has the obstacles to attend of expenses, travel to campus, kids travel ball, wife plans, etc etc.

We simply did NOT capitalize on the Dan/Dak era or the 2018 team. We didn't finish the deal in 2014, that was a bucket of cold water. Then in 2015 we lose to OM at home. 2017, another bucket of cold water to end the season. Then 2018 losing to Mullen was a kick in the nuts.

State has to finish one of these seasons and have a transcending star to build this fan base with casual fans and get people off the couch.

 

[MStateDawg]

From the members of our tailgate group that no longer come to every game, it's the insane expense of lodging in Starkville on gameday weekends. The hotels & AirBnbs are gouging the crap out of people. A large percentage of our fans travel from 2-4 hours away from Starkville to attend our games. If they're having to make single day round trip drives to avoid spending $1k+ on lodging, then they're just not going to do that more than a couple times per year.

 

[thatsbaseball]

I posted this the other day, and I feel with all the other things mentions, absolutely plays a part...

I'm about to say something that will likely be unpopular, but for fans that truly have to travel more than 3 hours one direction ultimately matters.

I think at least one factor into low attendance is the fact that we ultimately know we arent playing for anything of significance...I consider our fanbase as logical/realists when it comes to evaluating/analyzing what we have on the field, and when we look at the changing landscape of college football, we realistically know that we arent likely making it into the playoffs. Thus leaving us with a ho-hum attitude to the season overall. Yes, there will be better odds of it happening next year with the number increasing, but with the addition of Texas and Oklahoma, our path does not get easier. And so we are left to get ourselves excited about a mid-tier bowl that ultimately means nothing. That causes our realist fanbase to say "I will always support State in everything they do, but in order of significance, football is not topping that list".

Being a State fan is kinda like being a bad golfer who keeps playing (like many of us) . You aren't worth a damn at the game and KNOW you're never gonna be great but if you can hit it "sweet" just a dozen or so shots per round....that's what you remember and you'll always hold out hope for the next round.

 

[sparks35]

Are we gonna do several of these threads after every game this year?

Ah, there it is. The smartass.

 

[Maroon Eagle]

Are we gonna do several of these threads after every game this year?

Ah, there it is. The smartass.

 

[retire the banner]

The biggest lie State fans tell themselves is it’s a “CFB problem”. No it’s really not. It’s a Mississippi State problem. Our fan base is as fair weather as it gets. These threads are pretty discouraging.

 

[Podgy]

I live too far away and I have large TV in an air conditioned room and a nearby bathroom, kitchen and fridge that doesn't come with a long line. Going to a few games would cost as much as a trip to Europe. I can watch games on TV. I can't walk down the Champs Elysees with my wife on TV.

 

[Chesusdog]

From the members of our tailgate group that no longer come to every game, it's the insane expense of lodging in Starkville on gameday weekends. The hotels & AirBnbs are gouging the crap out of people. A large percentage of our fans travel from 2-4 hours away from Starkville to attend our games. If they're having to make single day round trip drives to avoid spending $1k+ on lodging, then they're just not going to do that more than a couple times per year.

Coming from Baton Rouge is 5 hours if you drive the speed limit. Also, we opt to stay in Columbus and it shaves a healthy bit off the room price. Even still, that's once or twice a year because that's about all I can muster, and I'm not doing it for a game like Bama or LSU.

 

[Bulldog45]

The kid activities is a relevant one. Not only is more stuff scheduled on Saturday’s the cost of participation in a lot of that stuff has gone up. Also, I’m about 2 hours away. That’s within reason to me but it took an hour to get out of the parking lot and on the road so that turned it into a 3 hour drive home. I’m considering scrapping the parking pass and going out to the vet school to park it’s so bad getting off campus.

The tv times don’t help either. To me a kickoff between 2:00 - 5:00 is ideal. Of course that’s my personal preference based on my commute time.

 

[The Cooterpoot]

It's the 17ing faculty tickets. They don't go to the games and sell their damn tickets. It's past time the school shuts that **** down. AZ had very few fans. Crowd was good minus the damn faculty and opponent sections. AZ sent back most of their ticket allotment. Then, you've got the damn Junction monkeys. They choose to sit out there and watch a tv and get drunk instead of going in. Junction has about another 1000 or two out there every game. The rest is what others mentioned-costs, Covid, & tv. We've got a weak *** fan base no doubt. But similar things are happening at most schools now.