OT: Interesting Read on FBS Attendance

[chirurgo]

https://www.cbssports.com/college-f...for-sixth-straight-year-to-lowest-since-1996/

It seems to me that despite all of these intelligent people getting together at Google to discuss the attendance decline in college football that they found only 1 obvious factor?? P5 teams need to play better OOC opponents to boost attendance.

While I think that is part of it, what about the cost of a P5 game? Pitt is dirt cheap in comparison, but if season tickets are your biggest revenue generator(one AD in the article quoted), why not rethink the price tag so you can bring more in to buy concessions?

Furthermore, there was nothing mentioned regarding the impact of conference realignment and attendance decline. There has to be a connection there. Elimination of geographic rivalries and Big Ten season ticket holders who have to watch Rutgers and Maryland every year has to play a role.

Seems like the ADs are spending too much time thinking about what to feed their spectators and how to entertain them than putting a product on the field worth watching.

 

[pittdan77]

https://www.cbssports.com/college-f...for-sixth-straight-year-to-lowest-since-1996/

It seems to me that despite all of these intelligent people getting together at Google to discuss the attendance decline in college football that they found only 1 obvious factor?? P5 teams need to play better OOC opponents to boost attendance.

While I think that is part of it, what about the cost of a P5 game? Pitt is dirt cheap in comparison, but if season tickets are your biggest revenue generator(one AD in the article quoted), why not rethink the price tag so you can bring more in to buy concessions?

Furthermore, there was nothing mentioned regarding the impact of conference realignment and attendance decline. There has to be a connection there. Elimination of geographic rivalries and Big Ten season ticket holders who have to watch Rutgers and Maryland every year has to play a role.

Seems like the ADs are spending too much time thinking about what to feed their spectators and how to entertain them than putting a product on the field worth watching.

Attendance, in general, is still way above any "break even" point. TV money is way more important than how many show up. If you're a P5 fan and can't watch your team on TV, then you probably are just stuck with crummy internet. The NFL is in the same boat. Not even close to being a problem.

 

[CJsE]

Attendance, in general, is still way above any "break even" point. TV money is way more important than how many show up. If you're a P5 fan and can't watch your team on TV, then you probably are just stuck with crummy internet. The NFL is in the same boat. Not even close to being a problem.

I wouldn't say way more important. Pitt takes in $20million+ from season tickets, and at least another $5-6million in concessions. ACC revenue share was somewhere in the $28-30million range.

 

[bwh05]

The obvious thing is the TV experience has improved so much in the last 10-15 years as well.

 

[pittdan77]

I wouldn't say way more important. Pitt takes in $20million+ from season tickets, and at least another $5-6million in concessions. ACC revenue share was somewhere in the $28-30million range.

If Pitt's average attendance dropped 5% over the next ten years, it would be safe to assume the TV revenue would trend just as far the other direction and offset the difference. Granted, that's not ideal but any attendance drop isn't moving fast enough to outpace the new money from TV.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

Pitt takes in $20million+ from season tickets

There is no way that Pitt takes in $20 million from season tickets alone. And it's not even close. To take in that much money Pitt's average season ticket price would have to be over $600 per ticket, and it is no where close to that.

Pitt might make half that much from season ticket sales. Might.

 

[CJsE]

There is no way that Pitt takes in $20 million from season tickets alone. And it's not even close. To take in that much money Pitt's average season ticket price would have to be over $600 per ticket, and it is no where close to that.

Pitt might make half that much from season ticket sales. Might.

I meant to change that to tickets after looking into past pricing, because I figured they sell at least 40-50,000 per year.

If the average season ticket is $350 after Panther Club
In 2015, Pitt sold 44,000 season tickets that's $15million
In 2016 Pitt sold 53,775 season tickets that's almost $19million
In 2018 Heather claimed that 50,000+ tickets had been sold so that's $17.5million

But I guess that I also didn't consider that 5-10k of the tickets are student and I have no idea what those sell for. They were $50 in early 2000s, so if it increased at the same rate as tuition then they'd be around $100 now.

But yeah, after thinking about the student portion, it's probably closer to $12-14million from season tickets.

 

[pittdan77]

I meant to change that to tickets after looking into past pricing, because I figured they sell at least 40-50,000 per year.

If the average season ticket is $350 after Panther Club
In 2015, Pitt sold 44,000 season tickets that's $15million
In 2016 Pitt sold 53,775 season tickets that's almost $19million
In 2018 Heather claimed that 50,000+ tickets had been sold so that's $17.5million

But I guess that I also didn't consider that 5-10k of the tickets are student and I have no idea what those sell for. They were $50 in early 2000s, so if it increased at the same rate as tuition then they'd be around $100 now.

But yeah, after thinking about the student portion, it's probably closer to $12-14million from season tickets.

It's still a decent percentage of revenue. I think it would also depend on what portion of that revenue is affected the most. But it's the change that I think matters. This may be the one case where Pitt's "smallness" deadens the impact.