How long can bowls go on with half crowds
- Thread starter garddog
- Start date
As long as ESPN keeps footing the bill.
They don’t care about crowds at the games. It’s TV ratings.
It is a bit of a downer.
The other thing I've noticed is these previews for conferences (e.g. AAC) that show amazing play highlights in their commercials with very few people in the stands. Doesn't exactly resonate with "marquee value"
Bowel owners-promoters (that’s ESPN) DNGAS about crowds.
They want television eyeballs.
People actually attending the games is gravy to them.
They want television eyeballs.
People actually attending the games is gravy to them.
If you were an Oregon fan, would you want to travel a thousand miles to watch your team play freaking Liberty? What an absolute downer. You make a NY6 bowl and you have to play a Conference USA team.
Most tickets are sold to local companies etc anyway.
The marketing aspect and the economics on this has changed so much over the years, perhaps empty seats are a non-issue
Yeah attendance doesn't really matter that much. The Bowl makes money from the sponsor, and the sponsor is essentially getting a 3 hour long commercial on national TV. Plus the social media stuff (Pop Tarts Bowl). Obviously they would prefer bigger crowds, but looks like they make plenty enough from the sponsors for it to be profitable.
31-6 at the half. Just another reason giving a G5 school an automatic spot is just a waste. It'll be even worse starting next year when this match up means win and advance.
LSU & Wisconsin actually had better attendance than MSU & Illinois. I could at least see some people in the upper decks today. When we played in Tampa, there was 0 bodies in the upper deck. 30K looks pretty measly in a 70K stadium. But yes, only tv viewers matter. I wouldn't be surprised to see ESPN start using AI to simulate full stadiums and wild crowd noise on big plays. It's coming.
The hardest ones hit are the old line games (Gator, Liberty, Sun, etc) that are not owned by ESPN and suffer from the lack of attendance at other associated events (galas, coaches lunches, etc)
Exactly. And ESPN will keep footing that bill because it gives them a lot of programming relatively cheaply.
I think the lower bowl was relatively full last year in our game. Even the lower bowl looks half full today.
ETA: Announced attendance for today’s game was 31,424. Attendance for our game last year was 35,797.
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I just turned it to prime to watch a show after lsu game. Nobody wants to watch Oregon destroy liberty and Iowa is terrible football. Both of those games were over before half time. Terrible matchups. At lsu game was close. Wouldn't have been if Daniel's played. Bowls games are about entertainment. I'm not gonna watch a football game that's a blowout that I have no vested rooting interest in.
We’ve generally considered bowl games a warm weather destination. I wonder if we’ll see them pop-up in the Chicago, Philly, etc. in the future. It was 40 degrees all last week in Chicago. I think I’d be more likely to attend a bowl game in Chicago than Charlotte.
Bull crap! I was there last year. We had as much if not more.
ESPN and the Sponsors win. The Host Cities are losing big time. One way to fix this. For the Cities to set a minimum revenue from the Bowl proceeds to counter the lost sales revenue and tax income. Corporations buying up the tickets don't put people in hotels, restaurants, and entertainment venues. So even if ESPN pays extra to the cities, the hotels, restaurants and entertainment venues still miss out on potential huge revenue days. On top of that. Now they are scheduling games between December 15 and Christmas. When all the bowls were played between December 27 and January 2, the fun host cities made hay with 4 and 5 day destination stays to be there for New Years Eve.
again, TV has ruined the bowl experience for fans and players. It is a business decision whether to play or not now and next year, the secondary bowls are going to be in even worse shape.
I'll say this though. After this year, if State goes to Birmingham, Memphis or Nashville next year we the fans need to be there in heavy numbers! We need to show that State wants to win! Our Rivals turned out in Atlanta yesterday in one of the best attended bowls so far. We have to step up next year. Season tickets, tailgating, spending, etc. I am about to start sending my grandkids inheritance to Mississippi State! I'm stopping my donations to feed the hungry and will start donating to support Primadonnas! It is where we are now!
I’d guess all the NYD games this year took a huge hit, with NYD being a Monday and everyone having to be back at work on Tuesday. Last year you had NYE / NYD both as weekend days, so just about any company that honored those holidays for employees likely gave them January 2nd off.
That’s ESPN’s fault too, because they didn’t want games going toe to toe with the NFL on Saturday / Sunday. All the big bowl games should have been on 12/29 and 12/30, including the CFP semi’s.
That’s ESPN’s fault too, because they didn’t want games going toe to toe with the NFL on Saturday / Sunday. All the big bowl games should have been on 12/29 and 12/30, including the CFP semi’s.
Next year is a leap year, so New Year's Day will be on Wednesday. Christmas Day will be the Wednesday before. No Bowl should be played before Friday December 20. Most should play on 12/27, 12/28, 12/30, 12/31, 1/1, 1/2, 1/3 and 1/4. No reason for any business other than retail and real estate to work Jan. 2 and 3, 2025.
Uh, what am I missing? This has been the case for many years.
As others have posted, other than the ones that impact the natty, these are more of a made for TV exhibition than anything. Think pre season NFL or professional rasslin'.
As others have posted, other than the ones that impact the natty, these are more of a made for TV exhibition than anything. Think pre season NFL or professional rasslin'.
Wrong. We had an announced crowd of 36,000 last year. This LSU and Wisconsin had an announced crowd of 31,700.
Announced crowds don’t mean anything. That’s just tickets sold. Doesn’t mean thats how many people are in the stadium.
Well being that Memphis was playing in it I would think the attendance would be good.
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