re: The biggest dent to the in game atmosphere is the growth of all day on campus tailgating

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Wrong it’s called ticket prices, and the only people that can afford tickets now are the high rollers in the corporate tea crumpet crowd

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Being able to attend the game is not a God given right. Also, if you think the only people that can afford to attend the games are "high rollers" then you're just poor

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Wrong it’s called ticket prices, and the only people that can afford tickets now are the high rollers in the corporate tea crumpet crowd

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You act like LSU has a Wimbledon crowd now. If the group I sit near is any indication, it's still a healthy mix of white collar professionals and blue collar folks attending the games. I guess the days of the gas station attendant or meter reader attending every game may be gone. But its not like the 90k or so in attendance are ALL people who earn $150k per year or more.

On a side note, there have been considerably less fights in Tiger Stadium over the last 15-20 years than before. In the 80's and 90's you could pretty much guarantee that at some point during every home game the crowd around you would suddenly all stand up (seemingly for no reason) and look away from the field towards another part of the stands. It would immediately become apparent they were watching a fight somewhere. Now, I can't remember the last time that happened. Correlation with a less trashy fanbase? Or merely a coincidence? I'll let you make the call on that.

The biggest dent to the game atmosphere is television. No one HAS to go to the game now. So given the choice between watching the game in the comfort of your home, often with friends of your choosing, many feel that is a better experience. 30 years ago not every game was on TV. And even if you preferred to watch other games along with the LSU game, you only had about 4-5 (at best) to choose from. You also really didn't have TVs at the tailgates. So "staying at the tailgate to watch the game" really wasn't a great option.

But IMO, cell phones have changed things more than anything. Pre-cell phone you had to make plans BEFORE the game and you really couldn't change them. If you went out to tailgate before the game you couldn't get a call from someone else telling you there may be a better option than attending and staying through the entire game. More than that, once you were in the stadium you were pretty much isolated...unless Dan Borne made an announcement to the entire stadium asking you to go to gate C because you had a phone call.

No one was texting you during the game to leave early to go to so and so's house. Or letting you know they were going back to the tailgate. If you left the stadium early you were either going home (boring) or risking standing outside the stadium alone. So you just stayed at the game.

Today it is not uncommon at all to hear someone next to you say "Hey, I just got a text from ____, saying they were going back to the tailgate. Do you want to go?" Or, "____ just texted me. He and (5 others) are leaving to go hang out at Walk-On's, Superior, etc, etc. I'm going to meet them."

Nope. Once you were inside the stadium that was pretty much it. The outside world did not exist because you had no way to find out what was going on.