The $$ cost of losing

Husker66 said:
I have often wondered how many people there are out there like me.

I never missed listening , watching or attending a game from early 70's( I was born in 1966 in Lincoln) until about 5 years ago. I used to go to bowls, travel to games, buy junk, etc. then it became more sporadic in the last 5 years. Now? I didn't even know when the game started today and when I came in at half and saw the score, it barely registered. I left in the 4th to mow when we were down by 3 cause I literally didn't care, I had other stuff that needed to be done. When I came in I saw the final,  I just didn't care.  This has to be bad for business and spell  some kind of end for the program as we have known it at least in my lifetime. that football program supports everything up there.

I used to be a core customer, entertaining clients in Lincoln, buying stuff etc. there has to be a gazillion guys and gals like me with marketing budgets or just more discretionary money as we get older who have lost interest. that has to be 10s of millions of dollars to the economy and university..I know the full payout kicks in this year and its big, but it could be way bigger. Replacing this coaching staff and AD has to pale  in comparison to the lost revenue this university is facing? We paid over $2M for 2 mid major teams to come to Lincoln and as far as I'm concerned,  2 losses. We are playing at a mid level mid Major level now. this is V 4.0 of the "rebuild" and it s a failure.  And don't tell me its hard to recruit to Lincoln ..it hasn't impacted OU, K state and clearly not places like Penn state and Michigan.

And before you come after me as a fair weather fan, at least for me, at some point  you start asking yourself if there are other things you should be doing....there is just so much time and money...and in some ways I'm not convinced the university is working as hard for the fan as the fan is working to be at the game.
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good post

 
CheeseHusker said:
My two sons have absolutely zero interest in football, especially Nebraska football. They watch their father and their grandfather go irrational, batsh*t crazy in front of the TV and just shake their heads.

I used to dream of making the trip to Lincoln and taking each one of them to their first games...  perhaps it still might happen one day, but right now I don't really feel the magic. They don't care at all. They have no concept of Nebraska being special. They've been to Lincoln but didn't wanna see a football game. I ended up going to one by myself. That was the last time I've gone and it was a few years ago now. To them Nebraska's just a big flat expanse of nothing that smells like cow poop.
 

When I was 8 years old it would have been absolutely unthinkable for Nebraska football to be a non-event to me.

The fandom is gonna have a very hard time transitioning to the next generation if things don't change.
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This is very heart breaking and sobering, but it is also completely true and accurate.

I think that hurts more than anything else, our kids won't ever get to experience the real magic of Nebraska Football like we did.  I hate to think that may be the case, but it is happening right now in front of our eyes.

 
Husker66 said:
I have often wondered how many people there are out there like me.

I never missed listening , watching or attending a game from early 70's( I was born in 1966 in Lincoln) until about 5 years ago. I used to go to bowls, travel to games, buy junk, etc. then it became more sporadic in the last 5 years. Now? I didn't even know when the game started today and when I came in at half and saw the score, it barely registered. I left in the 4th to mow when we were down by 3 cause I literally didn't care, I had other stuff that needed to be done. When I came in I saw the final,  I just didn't care.  This has to be bad for business and spell  some kind of end for the program as we have known it at least in my lifetime. that football program supports everything up there.

I used to be a core customer, entertaining clients in Lincoln, buying stuff etc. there has to be a gazillion guys and gals like me with marketing budgets or just more discretionary money as we get older who have lost interest. that has to be 10s of millions of dollars to the economy and university..I know the full payout kicks in this year and its big, but it could be way bigger. Replacing this coaching staff and AD has to pale  in comparison to the lost revenue this university is facing? We paid over $2M for 2 mid major teams to come to Lincoln and as far as I'm concerned,  2 losses. We are playing at a mid level mid Major level now. this is V 4.0 of the "rebuild" and it s a failure.  And don't tell me its hard to recruit to Lincoln ..it hasn't impacted OU, K state and clearly not places like Penn state and Michigan.

And before you come after me as a fair weather fan, at least for me, at some point  you start asking yourself if there are other things you should be doing....there is just so much time and money...and in some ways I'm not convinced the university is working as hard for the fan as the fan is working to be at the game.
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Read your post, saw you were a fellow Leawoodite and decided to post after two years of just reading message boards.  I remember losing games and having terrible attitudes during those following weeks.  I know that was not right and that I shouldnt let a game of football played by student athletes ruin my attitudes towards my family, friends and coworkers.  I did pull out of that phase realize there was more to life than football.  Part of it was I knew there wasn't hope.  Over the course of the past 10 years, there have been good games , meh games, and terrible games.  There were games that made me cringe , games that got me heated, and games that caused tears of joy.  Tonight's game against NIU was probably the first game where the hope seemed to dissipate.  I just don't care to invest my heart, time and money into a team that can't win.  It's just been so long since that feeling has occurred.  Nebraska football has slowly become the noise I listen to while mowing the lawn, rather than an activity to spend time for.

I have to say I did not like Pelini, and that when Riley was hired, I was excited even though I honestly had no idea who Riley was.  But after seeing him come to town and transition in the past few years I thought he was making progress.  It was just taking a while to get the right pieces from both a player and coaching standpoint.  As a Husker I still have to support him and give him the benefit of the doubt through the rest of the season, but looking at his career as a whole, his only consistency has been inconcistency.  I like Riley as a guy, but her sure isn't like any championship coach out there.

Successful coaches do take all shapes and attitudes, from Belicek, to Carroll, Osborne, Chip Kelly, Tressel, Dabo, Meyer, Saban.  One thing these coaches all seem to have that I haven't seen yet with Riley are their personal methods to light fires underneath their players.  Riley has not shown he can do this yet.  I do feel this is a unique trait that good leaders/head coaches possess.  Until I see different, I don't see our results changing. 

 
Husker66 said:
I have often wondered how many people there are out there like me.

I never missed listening , watching or attending a game from early 70's( I was born in 1966 in Lincoln) until about 5 years ago. I used to go to bowls, travel to games, buy junk, etc. then it became more sporadic in the last 5 years. Now? I didn't even know when the game started today and when I came in at half and saw the score, it barely registered. I left in the 4th to mow when we were down by 3 cause I literally didn't care, I had other stuff that needed to be done. When I came in I saw the final,  I just didn't care.  This has to be bad for business and spell  some kind of end for the program as we have known it at least in my lifetime. that football program supports everything up there.

I used to be a core customer, entertaining clients in Lincoln, buying stuff etc. there has to be a gazillion guys and gals like me with marketing budgets or just more discretionary money as we get older who have lost interest. that has to be 10s of millions of dollars to the economy and university..I know the full payout kicks in this year and its big, but it could be way bigger. Replacing this coaching staff and AD has to pale  in comparison to the lost revenue this university is facing? We paid over $2M for 2 mid major teams to come to Lincoln and as far as I'm concerned,  2 losses. We are playing at a mid level mid Major level now. this is V 4.0 of the "rebuild" and it s a failure.  And don't tell me its hard to recruit to Lincoln ..it hasn't impacted OU, K state and clearly not places like Penn state and Michigan.

And before you come after me as a fair weather fan, at least for me, at some point  you start asking yourself if there are other things you should be doing....there is just so much time and money...and in some ways I'm not convinced the university is working as hard for the fan as the fan is working to be at the game.
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Born in  67 myself . I've watched, Listened to, or attended every Husker football game, over the last 30 years . For most of those years i always had faith that a well coached competitive team would take the field for us. We destroyed lesser teams, and were always in the hunt for a championship til the end. Bad things said about my team were fighting words , and a bad lost would ruin my whole day (or weekend) lol. I couldn't watch today, but listened, and i can honestly say i haven't witnessed a worse performance by a Husker team. The thing i really hate, is that it didn't bother me, i'm almost numb to it. I will always watch my team and root for them, so don't come at me with any bad fan BS. I've see GOOD, and today was not it. I'm not a fan of nice guy Mikey or this golly gee whiz attitude, and especially NOT a fan of accepting a possible 4 win team here EVER! Heads should roll .But all i can do as a fan, is keep watching and hoping some day our spot in the top 10, and legitimate championship hopes will be restored. My house will still be adorned in Husker gear, most of my shirts will still be husker shirts, i will still attend games when possible, and drink my beer from my big a$$ Husker mug!  GBR

 
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Nebfanatic said:
K-State is the only school you named with a similar recruiting disadvantage to us. I don't even think recruiting is the problem, but you didn't help you self with those comparisons.
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Happy Valley is in the middle of nowhere by a crappy winding 2 land road etc.  There is more population in that part of the country within 400 miles but football is not a big sport either.  

I would say it is harder to recruit to Penn State than to Lincoln.  

The collapse of Husker football will hurt Lincoln big time and it has to be worth about a hundred million a year to that community.   The Ath Dept budget exceeds that probably most ticket spend more on other stuff on game days than the ticket price which is around $70 or something each.  A lot of booze, food, hotels, gas, parking, snacks, retail shopping, etc goes along with game week-ends that just the tickets and concessions.  And all the jobs and etc that will be lost as well.   

Other sports attendance will also suffer as football is the fan draw that keeps the red fever going and helps feed some of the baseball, basketball, etc.   And donations, etc will also drop big time as well.

There is also the 'ripple' or multiplier effects as well which are probably two or three times the ticket numbers as well.   Will all fans stop going?  No but if a third do, the sell outs stop and ticket prices will plummet to a third of what they are now and donations will dry up.  The sports budget will be halved or worse.  Lay-offs, supplies, coaching cuts, etc.  The legislature will have to approprirate money and will introduce all sorts of politics and restrictions, etc.  It will be disasterous.

 
Husker66 said:
I have often wondered how many people there are out there like me.

I never missed listening , watching or attending a game from early 70's( I was born in 1966 in Lincoln) until about 5 years ago. I used to go to bowls, travel to games, buy junk, etc. then it became more sporadic in the last 5 years. Now? I didn't even know when the game started today and when I came in at half and saw the score, it barely registered. I left in the 4th to mow when we were down by 3 cause I literally didn't care, I had other stuff that needed to be done. When I came in I saw the final,  I just didn't care.  This has to be bad for business and spell  some kind of end for the program as we have known it at least in my lifetime. that football program supports everything up there.

I used to be a core customer, entertaining clients in Lincoln, buying stuff etc. there has to be a gazillion guys and gals like me with marketing budgets or just more discretionary money as we get older who have lost interest. that has to be 10s of millions of dollars to the economy and university..I know the full payout kicks in this year and its big, but it could be way bigger. Replacing this coaching staff and AD has to pale  in comparison to the lost revenue this university is facing? We paid over $2M for 2 mid major teams to come to Lincoln and as far as I'm concerned,  2 losses. We are playing at a mid level mid Major level now. this is V 4.0 of the "rebuild" and it s a failure.  And don't tell me its hard to recruit to Lincoln ..it hasn't impacted OU, K state and clearly not places like Penn state and Michigan.

And before you come after me as a fair weather fan, at least for me, at some point  you start asking yourself if there are other things you should be doing....there is just so much time and money...and in some ways I'm not convinced the university is working as hard for the fan as the fan is working to be at the game.
Click to expand...
Worth a second read. Apathy is setting in.

 
Big Red 40 said:
Born in  67 myself . I've watched, Listened to, or attended every Husker football game, over the last 30 years . For most of those years i always had faith that a well coached competitive team would take the field for us. We destroyed lesser teams, and were always in the hunt for a championship til the end. Bad things said about my team were fighting words , and a bad lost would ruin my whole day (or weekend) lol. I couldn't watch today, but listened, and i can honestly say i haven't witnessed a worse performance by a Husker team. The thing i really hate, is that it didn't bother me, i'm almost numb to it. I will always watch my team and root for them, so don't come at me with any bad fan BS. I've see GOOD, and today was not it. I'm not a fan of nice guy Mikey or this golly gee whiz attitude, and especially NOT a fan of accepting a possible 4 win team here EVER! Heads should roll .But all i can do as a fan, is keep watching and hoping some day our spot in the top 10, and legitimate championship hopes will be restored. My house will still be adorned in Husker gear, most of my shirts will still be husker shirts, i will still attend games when possible, and drink my beer from my big a$$ Husker mug!  GBR
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It's really disheartening watching Husker football in it's current state after growing up and watching it played at the highest level.  We had to suffer through beat downs from Oklahama and many disappointing bowl losses before TO got his NCs but we were usually competitive in every game and never recall players giving up in a game.  Younger fans probably have a different perspective but I don't see the current product as something to draw the attention of anyone.  For us it is obvious the coaching staff needs to be replaced and until that happens I'm better off not watching the games.

 
Nebraska brought this on themselves and before you pass judgement, hear me out...

I grew up with the Huskers.  I remember opening up the paper every Saturday morning looking for that cartoon Harry Husker predicting how bad Nebraska was going to destroy those losers from Missouri or Kansas.  Every year another bunch of memorable players...Tagge, Glover,  Rogers...everybody wanted to play for the Huskers.

Then I grew up and found myself playing against the Huskers.  Yes, Cy has stood on your beloved turf and watched the back of Irving Fryar moving away from me at roughly the speed of light after running by my weak attempts at outside containment our kick coverage unit.  Honestly, most of us were a little bit in awe of Nebraska and (if you tell anybody I said this I'll have to kill you) perversely proud of those teams that beat the crap out of us once every year.  I know at the end of our year, Nebraska would be out there representing for all us other little guys in the conference...showing the rest of the country how real men play football out here on the prairie.

After college, I kept following the Huskers (In those days the only way you could follow Iowa State was to live in Ames) through thick and thin.  Always checking the scores and stats to make sure all was well with the world...but then, Nebraska jumped the conference, leaving behind tradition and legend to chase the almighty buck.  I tried to keep up some enthusiasm for the team but it was a pretty quick ride to apathy...After all the decades of Husker fans laughing at the inferior and wimpy style of football the Big 10 puts on the field and then watching the same people turn around and tell me how much better the Big 10 is, you kind of lose respect for the people involved.

Long story short...a lot of people I know who were Husker fans until the conference jump...are actually happy to see the fall from grace.  While the Big 12 seemed to be coming apart, we heard from more than a few people on this board that there was no place in any Big 5 Conference for a pathetic school like Iowa State and maybe we should move to the MAC...lots of places that were former Husker strongholds are now cheering for whoever plays against you.  You are becoming Iowa State but without the lovable loser image.  Accept what you have become, learn from your mistakes and start rebuilding.  

AND...I just spilled Canadian Club all over my dog....

 
Do not feel like a lesser fan for letting apathy set in. Some people may berate you or feel like you're quitting on the team, but it's not that black and white. We're all fans with varying degrees of what we can and can't take. It's incredibly difficult to get emotionally invested in something and then be routinely disappointed in that thing.

It's not up to any of us to make the team good or competitive. That's up to the people put in place to make those decisions and direct the program. The administration, coaching and talent have not been on the same page here for some time. That is not any of our fault and you should not feel guilty for being disappointed.

 
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