It appears the "Death Valley" experience has gotten worse in last five years. (Long)

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Having written that, keep in mind my post was not just about money. LSU football is a tradition, an experience. My observation was the experience is being reduced for the average fan. I don't mean the fan who watches on tv and never went to LSU while he wears an LSU jersey on the weekends. I mean the fan who has season tickets. He may have a tailgating group with friends. He goes to one or two road games a year when possible. He would go to the coaches show and would make a Bayou Bash or two.

Now look at it from his point of view. He goes to Walk On's. He has to sit in another room. Can't even see the coach. He goes to the Bash. He can bring some binoculars to see the coach. He and his friends tailgate on campus. Now they have to go pay fees and go through that rigamarole. Starting to see how the experience of LSU football is being reduced for him?

Now you go to the game. Traffic's a bitch. Atmosphere is more dead because well, not as many people are paying to park on campus. Goes to the game (I'll leave the search issue alone for now) and instead of listening to the band, its stupid piped in music. Instead of traditions that are unique to Tiger Stadium, Tiger Stadium now sounds more like every other stadium in the country. No more Neck. No Tiger Rag. The songs unique to LSU that make it special. Then there is the band itself. The product on the field has gone down. Just one more chip in the LSU block of tradition.

Thats for the average season ticket holding LSU fan. Now move down the ladder to the younger crowd. They might can afford tickets but they say screw it. Not worth all this hassle for something I can see on tv and drink if I want to.

What the administration has done is reduce the experience for LSU fans. Its not about who can afford what. Its more about what is the experience for the fans and how much are they going to tolerate. The empty seats are the reality. The question is what are the reasons for those empty seats and what is going to be done about it.

Its always been my hypothesis that one of the downfalls of boxing (one among several reasons) was when the sport started putting all the decent fights on pay per view. Raised alot more money but cut off access to kids. One generation of kids grew up never seeing major fights on cable or network tv as Ali used to fight and voila. No one watches boxing anymore while Ultimate Fighting is on the rise.

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