Pat Fitzgerald has dumb, bad take on NCAA attendance issues

[Michchamp]

He blames fans having smartphones.

Not ticket prices. Or any other problems with the sport... concussions, brain damage, open pay-for-play, sleazy coaches and ADs, etc. But mostly the cost for the average fan.

According to the meathead millionaire:

Stacy and I were out on a date last night. There were two groups of couples sitting next to us. I?m like, ?Oh my gosh, I?m old.? Not one of the four couples were talking to each other. They were all on their phones. It just drove me up the wall. I literally wanted to be like a dad and go, ?Give me your phone. Talk to each other. I mean this is pathetic.? It was really, really pathetic. It?s just changed. The way a lot of younger people and younger fans intake is all through technology. You watch a concert and everybody?s holding their phone up. Listen! Watch! Take it in! Create a memory. They don?t go back and watch the videos. They just want to post it on their social media, which is pathetic because it creates a society of ?Look at me! Isn?t my life great?? Even though when they go home they?re like ?I hate myself. I hate my life. Everything?s wrong.? I think it?s a big cause. I think it?s the root cause."​

I actually agree with most of that, but it has nothing to do with why fewer fans are going to games.

Indeed, the article notes attendance at Northwestern games has increased over the last 8 years, although, they are a small, private school, with wealthier alumni & fans...

But it's NOT smart phones... they have those too, but are still going to games.

 

[UMRules06]

Yeah I agree the smartphones are really becoming a major issue. They've changed how kids grow up drastically. Kids don't actually "do" stuff together with their friends as much because they can just interact together through their phones all day. I've seen it with a lot of my nieces and nephews. They aren't even that excited to get their driver's licenses because lord knows they dont ever need to go drive to see their friends like we all did.

But yes to turn it back to college football, I would agree that is not the reason for attendance issues. The product is just much more widely available at much cheaper and arguably even more enjoyable ways now simply by watching at home or elsewhere.

 

[tomdalton22]

from the article

"They’d rather have twelve TVs set up in their TV watching cave than go to the game and experience the pageantry and tailgating"

That's me. I'd much rather watch a game at home in my "man cave" than go to a game

 

[SpartyNash]

I think there’s some truth to the smartphone quotes. I think there are very few attendance issues as a result of the concussions or sleazy coaches. The clear main issue in my eyes is the price of tickets, parking, tailgating, transportation, even hotels, etc. Couple that with the fact that I can have a prime seat with crystal clear HD on my couch with friends, drink/eat all game, have access to a bathroom 10 feet away, and the upside of going to games is significantly lower for me.

 

[thewolverines24]

Conveniences at home, cost, and the length of the games are the reason more people are staying home now. A football game should not take 4 hours or more to complete. There are far too many media timeouts and it's killing the flow of the game. If it's not a media timeout, it's a review of a play that takes way too long. Reviews need to have a time limit. No more than 60 secs.

 

[jwlcosu]

from the article

"They?d rather have twelve TVs set up in their TV watching cave than go to the game and experience the pageantry and tailgating"

That's me. I'd much rather watch a game at home in my "man cave" than go to a game

Would never do season tickets but will always do at least one game a year for the game day environment.

 

[sggatecl]

Would never do season tickets but will always do at least one game a year for the game day environment.

I've even scaled back from that. I'm at about every other year. It's just much more enjoyable to watch at hope with my little boys. They're not ready to sit in the stadium for 3 straight hours but they do watch portions of the game on TV and ask questions. It's just a better experience for me.

 

[byco42]

I remember all the SRO crowds in the days of flip phones.

 

[hungry]

Football games and basketball games are the same in this to me. The time, money, and hassle of driving all the way to the game, paying more to park, walking, and the irritating aspects of being at the game just doesn't make it worth the fan points I would get for going to the game rather than watching at home.

Lately, it's irritating to watch it at home with all of the 5 minute commercial breaks, replays, injury time-outs, halftimes, breaks for analysis and life stories, etc. This year I am thinking heavily about not watching any games live, just recording them and watching them with the dvr. I probably won't do this, but it is tempting. I'm usually about 10 minutes behind anyway, because i hit pause so many times to let the dogs out, get something to eat or drink, or use the bathroom.

 

[thewolverines24]

Football games and basketball games are the same in this to me. The time, money, and hassle of driving all the way to the game, paying more to park, walking, and the irritating aspects of being at the game just doesn't make it worth the fan points I would get for going to the game rather than watching at home.

Lately, it's irritating to watch it at home with all of the 5 minute commercial breaks, replays, injury time-outs, halftimes, breaks for analysis and life stories, etc. This year I am thinking heavily about not watching any games live, just recording them and watching them with the dvr. I probably won't do this, but it is tempting. I'm usually about 10 minutes behind anyway, because i hit pause so many times to let the dogs out, get something to eat or drink, or use the bathroom.

Basketball takes half the time of a football game. The seats are nicer and you can actually go to the bathroom without having to stand in line for so long you miss a bunch of plays.

You also don't get bent over a barrel on hotel prices for basketball games.

 

[Michchamp]

Conveniences at home, cost, and the length of the games are the reason more people are staying home now. A football game should not take 4 hours or more to complete. There are far too many media timeouts and it's killing the flow of the game. If it's not a media timeout, it's a review of a play that takes way too long. Reviews need to have a time limit. No more than 60 secs.

We need more commercial breaks to ensure we can pay assistant linebacker coaches and video quality control analysts $250,000/year salaries, and give local developers $60MM to build clubhouses for the players.

Don't you care about those things? If we don't do them, we can't win football games.

 

[Michchamp]

But I agree... the length of games and (moreso) the number of stoppages and commercial breaks really sucks. I feel ridiculous spending so much time on a game. Pat Fitzgerald won't critcise that though... it pays his salary.

just like he threw his former players under the bus when they tried to unionize.

it's getting to be that the games are the least fun part of the whole experience... being on campus, seeing friends, tailgating, etc. ... I think those guys that stay at the tailgate and watch on TV have the right idea.

 

[thewolverines24]

But I agree... the length of games and (moreso) the number of stoppages and commercial breaks really sucks. I feel ridiculous spending so much time on a game. Pat Fitzgerald won't critcise that though... it pays his salary.

just like he threw his former players under the bus when they tried to unionize.

it's getting to be that the games are the least fun part of the whole experience... being on campus, seeing friends, tailgating, etc. ... I think those guys that stay at the tailgate and watch on TV have the right idea.

I've noticed more and more groups that do this now. They come with a huge group of friends to tailgate, grill, have drinks, play some games, and then settle into their seats to watch a flat screen in the back of someone's truck. Seems like a great time to me.

 

[tinselwolverine]

Long commercial breaks don’t bother me when I’m watching the game on television at home.

It just gives me more time to fuck around on my iPhone.

 

[Michchamp]

I've noticed more and more groups that do this now. They come with a huge group of friends to tailgate, grill, have drinks, play some games, and then settle into their seats to watch a flat screen in the back of someone's truck. Seems like a great time to me.

Pat Fitzgerald is going to complain about guys who tailgate, but don't buy tickets at his next press conference.

 

[hungry]

Basketball takes half the time of a football game. The seats are nicer and you can actually go to the bathroom without having to stand in line for so long you miss a bunch of plays.

You also don't get bent over a barrel on hotel prices for basketball games.

Basketball pisses me off. Have to pay to park. Have to walk 20-30 minutes to the stadium. The weather is usually horrible. Seats are expensive. Games are late at night during the middle of the week. Lower bowl seats are empty, but you have to stay in the upper bowl the entire game.

It is a different experience than football, but still has a lot of negatives.

 

[thewolverines24]

Basketball pisses me off. Have to pay to park. Have to walk 20-30 minutes to the stadium. The weather is usually horrible. Seats are expensive. Games are late at night during the middle of the week. Lower bowl seats are empty, but you have to stay in the upper bowl the entire game.

It is a different experience than football, but still has a lot of negatives.

Football tix are more expensive and you still have to pay (more) to park.

We usually just Uber from our hotel to whichever bar/restaurant where we want to hang out and then Uber to Crisler from there. I think the Uber is usually about $8.

 

[tomdalton22]

basketball is way worse in person than on TV (maybe not if you have great seats). Typical seats, you can't see what's going on. On TV they have great camera angles and good replays.

Last college basketball game I went to I sat in upper seats kind of in a corner. Tickets were $80 and from the angle looking down at the court you could barely tell if the ball was going in or not (on the end closest to us). It was a terrible experience.

 

[thewolverines24]

basketball is way worse in person than on TV (maybe not if you have great seats). Typical seats, you can't see what's going on. On TV they have great camera angles and good replays.

Last college basketball game I went to I sat in upper seats kind of in a corner. Tickets were $80 and from the angle looking down at the court you could barely tell if the ball was going in or not (on the end closest to us). It was a terrible experience.

I have never had trouble getting good seats for a good price in Crisler. Maybe my wife and I have just been lucky.

The same can be said about football games. Tough to see the exactly what happened on the other side of the field if you're in endzone seats or even high up in the corners.

 

[tomdalton22]

I have never had trouble getting good seats for a good price in Crisler. Maybe my wife and I have just been lucky.

The same can be said about football games. Tough to see the exactly what happened on the other side of the field if you're in endzone seats or even high up in the corners.

I went to the Big 10 championship game a few years ago at Lucas Oil. We had seats in the highest deck but only a few rows back. We were in the corner of the end zone. They were actually great. We could see everything really well. The problem with B-ball is the actual backboard is in the way for a lot of the action when you are behind it.