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Topic: "Drop in sale of season tickets"
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Alan Swank
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Posted: 8/30/2019 8:42 AM
There's an article in today's Dispatch (trying to find a link) about the decline in season ticket sales for tosu in particular and college football in general. For tosu it's 4.3%. The line in the article that stuck out to me was this: "Industry analysts have in recent years highlighted a range of reasons for the declining college football attendance, including the prevalence of televised games, affordability of big-screen TVs and varying kickoff times that make it less enticing for fans to sit in the stands instead of their living rooms."

Seems that some on this board have been saying the same thing.

https://www.buckeyextra.com/sports/20190830/season-ticket...
Last Edited: 8/30/2019 9:09:20 AM by Alan Swank
Buckeye to Bobcat
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Posted: 8/30/2019 9:00 AM
Well like we try to tell teams, I'm rooting for a recession to get prices back in order. Teams have charged too much. For any ticket at OSU it's 2900 for a pair, without anything else.
Alan Swank
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Posted: 8/30/2019 9:30 AM
Buckeye to Bobcat wrote:expand_more
Well like we try to tell teams, I'm rooting for a recession to get prices back in order. Teams have charged too much. For any ticket at OSU it's 2900 for a pair, without anything else.
$1500 of that is a "donation" to the buckeye club. I hope we don't go to that across the board. That more than anything led to the demise of the Green and White Club. By and large, people don't like being told that they have to "donate" particularly now that most people don't think that they are able to deduct that donation.
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Posted: 8/30/2019 10:10 AM
And often they are not able to direct that donation to a specific area.
Recovering Journalist
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Posted: 8/30/2019 10:22 AM
All the stuff cited here is valid, but I'd throw in increasing ambivalence about football itself as another factor. I still enjoy watching it, but as awareness of CTE, opiate addiction and other long-term consequences rises, it's hard to just sit back and pretend it's simply good fun entertainment. Especially when watching unpaid young adults.

I'm a former season ticket holder, and I will attend at least two games this season, but my interest has been waning for years. I doubt I'm alone.
Ohio69
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Posted: 8/30/2019 10:32 AM
Well, TOSU being down 4% is kind of amazing. If they are down then the MAC schools should expect to be down even more.
Can somebody hit a pull up jumper for me?.....
OhioCatFan
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Posted: 8/30/2019 11:21 AM
Ohio69 wrote:expand_more
Well, TOSU being down 4% is kind of amazing. If they are down then the MAC schools should expect to be down even more.
" . . . even more"? Not sure that's necessarily true in all cases.
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L.C.
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Posted: 8/30/2019 12:10 PM
Ohio69 wrote:expand_more
Well, TOSU being down 4% is kind of amazing. If they are down then the MAC schools should expect to be down even more.

I don't think there is a direct correlation. It depends on the reason. If the reason is increasing ambivalence towards football, as Recovering Journalist suggests, the MAC may be hit harder than OSU. If it is due to TV, as the Dispatch suggests, it could go either way, but OSU might be down more. If it's due to price, as buckeye to bobcat suggests, the effect could go the other way, as fans opt for the lower ticket prices in the MAC.

I suspect it's some of all the above reasons.
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Pataskala
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Posted: 8/30/2019 12:15 PM
Recovering Journalist wrote:expand_more
All the stuff cited here is valid, but I'd throw in increasing ambivalence about football itself as another factor. I still enjoy watching it, but as awareness of CTE, opiate addiction and other long-term consequences rises, it's hard to just sit back and pretend it's simply good fun entertainment. Especially when watching unpaid young adults.

I'm a former season ticket holder, and I will attend at least two games this season, but my interest has been waning for years. I doubt I'm alone.
There was a story the other day discussing this issue as it pertains to players. There's been something like a 9% drop in the number of kids participating in HS and youth football.
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Athens
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Posted: 8/30/2019 7:29 PM
Buckeye to Bobcat wrote:expand_more
Well like we try to tell teams, I'm rooting for a recession to get prices back in order. Teams have charged too much. For any ticket at OSU it's 2900 for a pair, without anything else.
The article says that not only did OSU drop from 53,151 season tickets to 50,868 total season tickets but also 6,000 of that lower total was for partial season tickets. That's about a 15% drop in full season tickets. Of course a lot of it is the high prices and once people get priced out they never return because they figure the prices will never go back down.
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Athens
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Posted: 8/30/2019 7:42 PM
Recovering Journalist wrote:expand_more
All the stuff cited here is valid, but I'd throw in increasing ambivalence about football itself as another factor. I still enjoy watching it, but as awareness of CTE, opiate addiction and other long-term consequences rises, it's hard to just sit back and pretend it's simply good fun entertainment. Especially when watching unpaid young adults.
Ambivalence for sure in the millennial generation. They don't read sports sections in the newspaper. Talk news stations with a political leaning older people gravitate to over ESPN. Politics has people who are 60-80 years old on TV shows while athletes even pro are all under 45. There is squeezing going on at both ends of the age bracket.
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2010 97-83 win over Georgetown in NCAA 1st round
2012 45-13 victory over ULM in the Independence Bowl
2015 34-3 drubbing of Fiami @ Peden with 25,086 fans
2023 10-7 near shutout of Iowa State @ Solich Field
2025 17-10 defeat of WVU @ Peden in front of 26,740
Athens
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Posted: 8/30/2019 8:21 PM
Imagine if Ohio could combine solid FBS opponents regularly at home like Marshall, Cincinnati, Syracuse, Iowa State with a blueblood in Peden like Florida State or LSU once in a while. Boise State has Florida State at home in 2020 and Michigan State in 2022. For it to work Peden would probably have to be pushed above 30,000 in capacity to get better contracts signed.
Most Memorable Bobcat Events Attended
2010 97-83 win over Georgetown in NCAA 1st round
2012 45-13 victory over ULM in the Independence Bowl
2015 34-3 drubbing of Fiami @ Peden with 25,086 fans
2023 10-7 near shutout of Iowa State @ Solich Field
2025 17-10 defeat of WVU @ Peden in front of 26,740
L.C.
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Posted: 8/30/2019 9:12 PM
Uncle Wes wrote:expand_more
All the stuff cited here is valid, but I'd throw in increasing ambivalence about football itself as another factor. I still enjoy watching it, but as awareness of CTE, opiate addiction and other long-term consequences rises, it's hard to just sit back and pretend it's simply good fun entertainment. Especially when watching unpaid young adults.
Ambivalence for sure in the millennial generation. They don't read sports sections in the newspaper. Talk news stations with a political leaning older people gravitate to over ESPN. Politics has people who are 60-80 years old on TV shows while athletes even pro are all under 45. There is squeezing going on at both ends of the age bracket.

I hadn't thought about this, but you are right about not reading the sports. Heck, they don't read the paper at all, and they get very little, if any, local news. When I was young, I read the sports page every day. Why? Because it was there, mostly, and because it was better to read than all the negative news.
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Buck.Cat
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Posted: 8/31/2019 8:38 AM
L.C. wrote:expand_more
I hadn't thought about this, but you are right about not reading the sports. Heck, they don't read the paper at all, and they get very little, if any, local news. When I was young, I read the sports page every day. Why? Because it was there, mostly, and because it was better to read than all the negative news.
So there are problems littered in this post (like most of your posts). It’s not entirely the fault of millennials that they aren’t reading local news because opportunities to consume local news is dwindling. Papers in low circulation/rural areas are closing or consolidating, resulting on a focus on national news. Papers in higher circulation//urban areas are cutting out circulation days while also facing consolidation and cuts in local reporting. News is also focusing more on their online product. Papers have also increased significantly in cost. I’m shocked that the Dispatch still has readers paying $5 for the Sunday edition. These factors impact all groups, not just millennials.

As far as comparing media consumption during the good old days to now, it has changed to meet the needs of consumers. It’s true that you don’t see present day Husker LCs reading physical papers. The reason (spoiler alert) is people are bringing in 100s of sources of media through phones and tablets and that is a good thing. People are still reading sports news, they just have choices. It’s a fun exercise to rip on people that didn’t experience the antiquated days of reading a physical paper and watching the evening news with the family around the black and white television. I would much prefer a world where today’s generations have choices. Contrast this with your generation of the good old days that tends to limit its scope of media choices. There is also a lot of irony in the statement about negative news. Once again, it’s your generation that contributes the most to the growth of corporatist entertainment news.
Mark Lembright '85
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Posted: 8/31/2019 8:58 AM
I think Buck.Cat needs a Snickers Bar.

I do find myself reading newspapers less and less. In fact, I’m about ready to end my subscription to the Plain Dealer as I really only the Sports pages in it (plus, it seems the only college in Ohio the PD covers extensively is OSU). True, I too scour the ‘Net for news; I think more people are reading but are doing it online. Unfortunately I think most people believe what they read on the Internet; myself, not so much.
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Posted: 8/31/2019 9:13 AM
I had a discussion with one of my sons about reasons for declining interest in football, and given that he doesn't care about football, I thought it would be interesting to get his opinion, even though it's just a sample size of one. I offered some plausible reasons:
1. Concern about CTE, and injuries
2. Price
3. Ease and comfort of watching at home rather than on TV
4. Kids grow up today playing video games more than playing sports
5. Not being constantly exposed to news about it growing up

He discounted #1 immediately with the comment "it's always been that way, and people didn't care". His other comment was that he just doesn't enjoy it, and that he played a lot of baseball growing up because he enjoyed it, so he follows baseball. He also believes prices are a factor. He also discounted reason 5 because we did have the paper most of the time he was growing up.

In the end that leaves me with price as a factor, and with the theory that with video games as an option, kids today are more selective about what sports they play, and thus, which ones they will like and follow as they grow.
“We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.” ― Epictetus
Alan Swank
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Posted: 8/31/2019 10:31 AM
At the end of the day, it might be as simple as this - society has changed, there are more things to do today, and we aren't going back to the days of our youth whatever decade that might have been. Church attendance is a similar discussion. States used to have blue laws where stores weren't open on Sunday. Not the case any more. And as far as youth Sunday School goes, hundreds of thousands of kids across the country are playing youth sports on Sunday mornings. This is why it's so important for sports franchises whether it be college or pro to treat their loyal customers with respect. Once you lose those loyal customers, it's just a matter of time before you go belly up or need to make significant changes.
Athens
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Posted: 8/31/2019 11:00 AM
As much as society has changed small market newspapers continue to be an effective way to stay on top of all the events in a community. Its different living in a bedroom community of a major city. It has 160,000 people but as far as thing to do only 5% of what the region offers. When I'm looking for something to do for a weekend I have to hunt through 10 online sites none of which even have half of what is going on. Today I have a preset plan to go to a winery somewhere but I might be missing something better in my backyard. Small market papers also are very good for alerting you to new businesses and coupons. I spend 95% of my money in other communities than my own which makes sense in a metro of 10 million so there is no point in subscribing to a local paper.
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2012 45-13 victory over ULM in the Independence Bowl
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2025 17-10 defeat of WVU @ Peden in front of 26,740
ytownbobcat
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Posted: 9/1/2019 12:47 AM
We just lost our daily newspaper in Youngstown after about 150 years of publication. I agree that people have many choices in entertainment.
How does that translate to interest in college athletics? I am not sure but I think lots of things at colleges like Ohio University will change. It simply is not sustainable with declining birth rates and competing models of education which don't include brick and mortar.
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Posted: 9/1/2019 4:31 AM
Recovering Journalist wrote:expand_more
All the stuff cited here is valid, but I'd throw in increasing ambivalence about football itself as another factor. I still enjoy watching it, but as awareness of CTE, opiate addiction and other long-term consequences rises, it's hard to just sit back and pretend it's simply good fun entertainment. Especially when watching unpaid young adults.

I'm a former season ticket holder, and I will attend at least two games this season, but my interest has been waning for years. I doubt I'm alone.
Same. Gave up my 4 Tower Club seats this year due primarily to cost. I’ll still end up at 2-3 games.

I would cite instant replay and the extended length of games as other items that may be unappealing for fans.
Athens
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Posted: 9/1/2019 10:27 AM
Buckeye to Bobcat wrote:expand_more
Well like we try to tell teams, I'm rooting for a recession to get prices back in order. Teams have charged too much. For any ticket at OSU it's 2900 for a pair, without anything else.
2900 for a pair sounds fine when a team is regularly in the Top 5. Fans put their financial neck out in those conditions but pull back when its obvious the run is over. Athletic departments to compensate the loss of season ticket base then start to nickle and dime for other things like Ohio is doing with $400 to reserve a space in Tailgreat Park. Having easy access to Tailgreat Park is what brought the enthusiasm to the stadium in the first place.
Most Memorable Bobcat Events Attended
2010 97-83 win over Georgetown in NCAA 1st round
2012 45-13 victory over ULM in the Independence Bowl
2015 34-3 drubbing of Fiami @ Peden with 25,086 fans
2023 10-7 near shutout of Iowa State @ Solich Field
2025 17-10 defeat of WVU @ Peden in front of 26,740
Athens
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Posted: 9/1/2019 11:08 AM
ytownbobcat wrote:expand_more
We just lost our daily newspaper in Youngstown after about 150 years of publication. I agree that people have many choices in entertainment.
How does that translate to interest in college athletics? I am not sure but I think lots of things at colleges like Ohio University will change. It simply is not sustainable with declining birth rates and competing models of education which don't include brick and mortar.
I'd say OU has probably seen its peak enrollment already because of some of those factors. The pop in FB attendance from a growing alumni base that I predicted probably already happened 2012-2017. Peden though is in the midst of a long stretch without any big football games. Homecoming against Miami in 2015 might be the last one. Kansas in 2017 maybe. The key to developing a season ticket base is to get fans in the door for a big game and then they'll decide to pick up season tickets in the future. Imagine the crowd if it was Pitt in Peden instead of Rhode Island. Fans who are buying tickets to see a game in Pittsburgh would be doing it instead in Athens.
Most Memorable Bobcat Events Attended
2010 97-83 win over Georgetown in NCAA 1st round
2012 45-13 victory over ULM in the Independence Bowl
2015 34-3 drubbing of Fiami @ Peden with 25,086 fans
2023 10-7 near shutout of Iowa State @ Solich Field
2025 17-10 defeat of WVU @ Peden in front of 26,740
Buck.Cat
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Posted: 9/1/2019 11:44 AM
Alan Swank wrote:expand_more
At the end of the day, it might be as simple as this - society has changed, there are more things to do today, and we aren't going back to the days of our youth whatever decade that might have been. Church attendance is a similar discussion. States used to have blue laws where stores weren't open on Sunday. Not the case any more. And as far as youth Sunday School goes, hundreds of thousands of kids across the country are playing youth sports on Sunday mornings. This is why it's so important for sports franchises whether it be college or pro to treat their loyal customers with respect. Once you lose those loyal customers, it's just a matter of time before you go belly up or need to make significant changes.
Church attendance and people identifying themselves as religious has steadily declined for awhile. I suppose it's up to the individual if this is a good or bad thing.
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Posted: 9/2/2019 10:39 AM
Alan Swank wrote:expand_more
Well like we try to tell teams, I'm rooting for a recession to get prices back in order. Teams have charged too much. For any ticket at OSU it's 2900 for a pair, without anything else.
$1500 of that is a "donation" to the buckeye club. I hope we don't go to that across the board. That more than anything led to the demise of the Green and White Club. By and large, people don't like being told that they have to "donate" particularly now that most people don't think that they are able to deduct that donation.
My tickets do not require a donation and are still $1400 with MAC style and bad games being priced so high it’s hard to get money back, much less make a profit.
BillyTheCat
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Posted: 9/2/2019 10:42 AM
Uncle Wes wrote:expand_more
Imagine if Ohio could combine solid FBS opponents regularly at home like Marshall, Cincinnati, Syracuse, Iowa State with a blueblood in Peden like Florida State or LSU once in a while. Boise State has Florida State at home in 2020 and Michigan State in 2022. For it to work Peden would probably have to be pushed above 30,000 in capacity to get better contracts signed.
I agree, we should look at building that upper deck onto the Student side of Peden. This would make us valued venue to lure big programs.
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