Agree with that. And it's a problem the NFL is dealing with too right now. I don't even think it's necessarily the ticket prices alone though that's driving fans away.
It's the fact that every game is on TV, and you've got a 50 inch flat screen with HD at home, and you've got all the commentary to go with it.
About the only thing the in-game experience has that watching at home doesn't is the "feel" of being there in person and the energy of the stadium, but when you're weighing that against the drive, the cost of possible hotels, the ticket prices, all those other things, it can be easy just to watch on TV.
As attention spans get shorter with each generation, this is going to become an even bigger issue. Most schools will just sacrifice crowds and settle for negotiating the best possible deals for TV contracts. That's essentially what the NFL has done. They try to amp up the in-game content. I know our athletic department has done some benchmarking work to ramp up in-game content too, but you can only do so much.
I've never been to an NFL game and said "Hey, this kind of sucks." I've been to 4 different stadiums, and they pretty much all have had a less-is-more-attitude with fan involvement. Sure, go WAAAAAY over the top with endorsement after endorsement before and after the game and maybe even a little during halftime (if you're not one of the 90% who run to get beer the entire half), but I've never been annoyed at an NFL game.
And for those who are actually a fan of the NFL, I'm willing to bet it's a staggering majority who would rather be at the game than at home. The guys who claim it's too expensive to buy cheap seats and spend $50 on refreshments aren't the type of people NFL teams want at games anyhow, so if you can leave those people at home and still make money off them giving you TV ratings... Boom.
TV isn't hurting the NFL. If anything it's growing it and has basically given them the ability to print money. The JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS haven't had a blacked out game in 2 seasons... Which means the worst franchise in North American professional sports is about to enter its 3rd season of selling out of tickets.
Colleges, not just MSU (although a lot of people will insist it's mostly us just because it's who they're move familiar with), don't have the ability to command people's attention outside the game (Coors Light - the official beer of Mississippi State football!) so they take the only time they have a sitting audience and blast in your ear 1,000 times over. And unfortunately a lot of times it's local or regional businesses with ****** quality ads that aren't tested in 50 focus groups before being aired. I blame the Alabama's for setting some kind of precedent that college teams need all this money... Having money is important, but was it really necessary to sell the backstop behind home plate for however much we sold it for? What's the end result? Is that extra $10k going to make us relevant? Colleges seem to just do this stuff to do it because it's there.
I don't buy the whole "TV is fantastic" argument. What kind of person would rather be at home than at a game, all things be the same? Variable X here is a ****** experience. NFL is having little to no problems selling tickets and building billion dollar stadiums.
