re: College football must innovate as FBS attendance dips for sixth straight year

Stop putting so many big non-conference games at neutral sites.
Stop playing 2-3 complete cupcake games every year.
Stop price gouging for EVERYTHING (tickets, concessions, parking, merchandise, etc.)

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I made the list before, but it's been a while

1. Prices (ticket and concessions)
2. Parking
3. Weather.
4. Obnoxious fans
5. Prices

But most of all, TV.

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Spot on, but especially about weather, which isn't talked about enough as a factor.

The last year my wife and I had season tickets was 2013. The Hogs had 5 games in Fayetteville that year, and the weather was as follows:

Game 1: hot as HELLLLLLL
Game 2: hot as hell
Game 3: rainy
Game 4: didn't go
Game 5: cold as frick

One top of it, the team was arse (still are). That was when we threw up our hands and were like "nope, we're out." We've been to probably 2 or 3 home games since, but haven't once regretted giving up our season tickets.

Every TV is better/ cheaper than its ever been.

Every ticket is more expensive than its ever been.

Every game is televised.

Not a lot of rocket science here.

To me, just lower the cost of attendance and that will help immensely

Spot on. When you're at home you control that entire list.

1. Embrace tailgating rather than shun it. While tailgating can strain parking resources by bringing a lit of people to campuses who aren’t attending games, it also convinces a lot of people to go to games who otherwise wouldn’t show up at all.

2. Cheaper, faster concessions. This is huge, especially for families. If beers are 5 or 6 dollars a piece, and it doesn’t take too long to get one, I’ll likely get 2 or 3. If beers are $9/piece ad take forever to get one, I’m likely buying zero. This applies to food as well.

3. Better ooc matchups. People are sick of watching FCS teams play FBS. People are sick of watching low tier Sunbelt, MAC, CUSA, and Mountain West teams get clobbered. It makes half the home games seem like a waste of time and money for fans of big name programs.

4. More interactive environment in stadium. College programs have to create an environment worth paying the premium to visit. They need a unique experience. I think they need to lean on what makes college football different from the NFL with more marching band music and less piped in music. More cheers directed by the band and cheerleaders. In addition, the stadiums need to show more replays on the screens. It often feels like the fan sitting in the stadium actually gets the worst view of the action. More highlights of other games in progress could help as well.

5. Fewer commercial breaks. Score, commercial, pat, commercial, kickoff, commercial is f$&king criminal.

6. Less nickel and diming of customers. To go to games, there’s the face value, tradition fund, mandatory donations, parking passes (because free parking has largely been eliminated), seat back fees, tailgating fees, etc. it’s too much. Give people all-in pricing that’s reasonable for a middle class family to afford to bring their kids.

7. Less corporations owned tickets. The first people to stop showing up are the people who aren’t fans but are clients of businesses that own seats and give them away as promotions. Stop selling prime seats to people who don’t sit in them!

8. Fewer marquee neutral site games that aren’t traditional rivalries. This robs fans of getting to see the opposing teams fans and stadiums as well as further serves to devalue season tickets.

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To me, just lower the cost of attendance and that will help immensely

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And therein lies the rub. The expenses are ever growing (coaching salaries, recruiting budgets, facilities arms race etc) and demand to win from fans doesn't diminish even though they aren't showing up to watch. Basically the fans are saying spare no expense to win big...but don't charge ME for it.

What is total attendance (average attendance x average number of games) YoY? The movement to a 12-game schedule has proven to be a shite idea in my opinion. I can't imagine that total attendance is less than in the late 90's or whenever when most teams were still playing 11 game schedules.

Drop the 12th buy game against Bum Frick State, stick to 7 or 8 game conference schedules, schedule interesting OOC games, and stick to campus venues.

The cumulative effect of universal conference championship games + a playoff has somewhat diminished the importance of the regular season as well, but that horse is out of the barn.

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VOLS have been complete shite for two decades and tickets are somehow the most expensive they’ve ever been

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opposing fanbases keeping them high.

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That was when we threw up our hands and were like "nope, we're out." We've been to probably 2 or 3 home games since, but haven't once regretted giving up our season tickets.

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This is one of their biggest problems. Once folks stop going they are going to be hard to win back. You realize it's actually more enjoyable to watch from home, DVR, etc and still have a full day to do whatever else you want.

Not sure how it is at other places but Razorback Stadium game day experience sucks. Aside from the poor play, the games are too long, too many commercial breaks and the Petti Jean meats/ KNWA weather updates completely kill the environemnt.

It's going to be interesting to see the proposed Cajun Field redesign if we can ever secure funding (not looking good). But I remember they sent out a long fan questionnaire where the main focus was way decreased capacity with nice amenities.

One of their concepts was actually turning the entire away (east) side of the stadium into a 'tailgating within the stadium' concept.