Spring Game attendence down this year?

knapplc

knapplc

International Man of Mystery
If Spring Game ticket sales are any barometer of fan interest, 2012 could be trending downward. I called the ticket office this morning to find out how many tickets had been sold for the Spring Game. Their best estimate was the low 40,000s. To put that in perspective, we sold 40k tickets in the first day of sales in 2010, and 55k as of April 11th last year.

Our final attendance numbers in 2009 were 77,670, in 2010 we had 77,936, while we ended up with 66,784 in 2011. We won our bowl games in 2008 and 2009, but lost badly in 2010 and last year.

With fewer than ten days left before the 2012 Spring Game, will we see yet another drop in attendance? And if so, why? Are fans losing enthusiasm? After two straight seasons with disappointing conclusions, including two ugly bowl game losses, it seems possible the momentum is ebbing from the Cornhuskers. Or it could be that the announcement that the BTN will be televising the game for the first time ever could be a factor.

 
I personally ordered 10 tickets for myself and friends. I know a lot of people that wait to see what the weather is going to be like day of to see if they will attend or not. The fact that it is on tv may dissuade some as well.

I am always very sad when FB season is over. I am not much into basketball (except I do watch a little of the NCAA tourney) reg season ncaa and nba don't interest me much. I do follow college baseball pretty closely at least the huskers and MLB is getting fired up. All of these are not as big as football for me so I don't care what it is I will follow it if it is football related. I am just glad to be looking forward to something.

Hopefully people are just a little slower on the draw this year and we will have a typical huge crowd to show those recruits how big football is here!

 
My big guess is that it will now be available on tv

By the way, I bought 2

 
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They didn't announce that until after the on sale date, iirc. So it doesn't explain all of it.

 
i could see the TV thing impacting sales if it was a regular season game that wasn't normally televised - but this is the spring game. I'll probably watch it on TV, but I'd go to the game for other reasons if I was closer. The atmosphere, cheap entertainment, tailgaiting, etc. All those things are still there. Maybe a few people that would have traveled for it won't - but my guess is the TV has a minimal impact on the attendance.

 
My guess is that people are growing weary of the "we're so close" narrative. Nebraska needs to win something soon. Conference, BCS game, etc. It's been too long and I think that it's wearing on some people.

2008 - New coach, bright future.

2009 - Much improved team last year so we're on track!

2010 - We won the Big 12 last year but had the game taken from us! Huge momentum from Arizona bowl stomping. This is the year.

2011 - New conference. We're so much faster than the slow Big Ten teams.

2012 - . . . . . . who knows? I'm to the point where I expect more of the same from Pelini's team. I don't mean that as a bad thing necessarily. We'll probably win 8-10 games. I just don't expect to go further than that. That's hard for a Husker fan to take.

 
'07 drew 54k and '08 drew 80+ thousand.. We all know why... I think the honeymoon phase is ending for the casual fans, they have a feel for Bo and his program... Also I think some of your comments are correct, how much the last season weighs on this, who knows, BTN having it on TV will drop some local fans, but overall I think we are settling into a normal routine ..

To answer your question I dont think the fan base is diminished, I just think people are less keen on attending, what, in reality is an over glorified scrimmage... From what I have heard (Sipple maybe), the donation amounts broke records last year, and season ticket requests are still out stripping demand by a huge margin

 
new coach= high sping attendance

bowl win=momentum=enthusiam=hig spring attendance

bowl loss=disallusionment=apathy= lower spring attendance , multiple by the number of years this happens in row

 
The attendance might not be "the same" as the past few years but the people down in Lincoln will be the same if not more. The Spring Game has become a HUGE even down in Lincoln now, if it is nice out, it will be packed downtown.

I think people know that you don't need to rush and buy tickets so they make plans more along the lines of "Hey, want to go to the Spring Game and tailgate?" and they go from there.

 
If the weather is nice, I anticipate attendence rocketing up the last few days leading up to the game.....if there is rain in the forecast---good luck.

 
husker_hurdler said:
If the weather is nice, I anticipate attendence rocketing up the last few days leading up to the game.....if there is rain in the forecast---good luck.
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Granted, it's nine days away and a lot can change, but long-term forecasts say low 70s and sunny. Just about perfect for a Spring Game.

 
Canttakeitanymore said:
'07 drew 54k and '08 drew 80+ thousand.. We all know why... I think the honeymoon phase is ending for the casual fans, they have a feel for Bo and his program... Also I think some of your comments are correct, how much the last season weighs on this, who knows, BTN having it on TV will drop some local fans, but overall I think we are settling into a normal routine ..

To answer your question I dont think the fan base is diminished, I just think people are less keen on attending, what, in reality is an over glorified scrimmage... From what I have heard (Sipple maybe), the donation amounts broke records last year, and season ticket requests are still out stripping demand by a huge margin
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this is across the board for nearly everything though - it's a product of the market and other economic factors. some very rich people have gotten a whole lot richer in the last couple of years.

 
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