Attendance Woes: The Student Perspective

Throughout the entire semester, the student body of Kentucky has come under fire for their low turnout for football and basketball. Many alumni and fans have expressed frustrations with the students' inability to fill the sections provided to them. UK football has historically struggled. Why are students passing up the chance to go to games more than ever? The basketball team is a title contender. Why can't the students fill the sections and provide the much-needed liveliness in Rupp? The lack of attendance by students has led many fans and writers to request a decrease in the amount of student tickets allotted, which has some merit to it. However, I am here to provide a little insight into a few reasons why attendance has dipped recently. Football To be honest, the football team was not the prettiest team to watch this year. Though they put up fights against some quality teams, the majority of the home games were pretty disheartening. Two consecutive seasons of losing to WKU and compiling only 2 wins per season are crippling to attracting students to the games. For those that were in college long ago place yourself in our situation. Would you rather sit in the cold to watch Kentucky get trounced by Tennessee, or watch all of the great college football games that day including the highly anticipated Iron Bowl in front of an HD TV in a warm living room. Try getting that sorority girl you are after to join you in the freezing cold instead of a watch party with some booze. Be sure to tell me which one works out better. Humans are inherently selfish. This Millenial generation is selfish just as much as the Baby Boomers were. However, the past decades were not able to watch games with plasma TVs and retina display mobile devices. Once a competitive team is on the field, the students will come. The excitement of being at games with a competitive football team will outweigh the comfort of watching on TV. Call the students selfish for that, but, that's just being a human. I think it is far too early in the Stoops era to decrease the student section especially with the renovated CWS in the near future. If the team is competitive in the new stadium and the students still do not show show up, it would certainly be time to decrease their ticket allotment.   Basketball Basketball is a much more tricky subject than football. We will always be competitive, and, outside of the rare years (last season), an elite team. The attendance for the home games thus far were disappointing considering the hype and desire for quality basketball after last year. Part of this is on the students, and part of this is on the situation. As much as students gripe about the lottery, it is a necessary evil to ensure the sections get filled. All of the home games to this point had student tickets distributed by students showing up to the ticket office whenever they wish. This simply isn't as effective as the lottery. The lottery allows groups of students to get seats by each other and makes students more aware that the tickets are being offered. Why the administration decided to forgo lotteries for the bulk of the early games and have the first lottery during dead week is a mystery to me. The lottery makes the tickets publicized to the casual fan, which has been a huge issue with the way the tickets were publicized to date. While the lottery is a hassle for students, the fact that it is a hassle makes the students attend the games because they want the reward for the work required to get the tickets. The lottery gives the students a skin in the game. Very few are going to endure the lottery and not attend the game because they would have wasted their time in Memorial Coliseum on a Monday night for a few hours. However, not holding a lottery does not give students a free pass out of the low attendance for basketball. Students complain about the awful placing of the student section particularly the upper level section in the corner. However, other fans fill the other awful upper level areas without a problem, and they pay much more than 5 dollars for those tickets like students do. Until the widely proclaimed new Rupp is built and the high dollar "blue hairs" can sit in the skyboxes, I would not have a problem decreasing the student section especially in the upper level if we cannot fill it. However, once the newly renovated Rupp is in place, I believe the students should have a larger presence in the lower level because Rupp is as quiet as a church for 95 percent of the game. Young people in the lower level will create a more exciting atmosphere that the players have always said is a huge help. The casual student fan would rather watch the game on TV than sit in Row Z of the upper level. This is never the case with lower level tickets.   Students have gotten a really bad wrap for not showing up to games. I cannot blame fans for being upset with them, but my goal was to try and put everyone in the shoes of a UK student. With the presence of HD TV, live streaming, and games tracked on social media and gamecasts, the situation is extremely different from the past few decades. This is not just a UK problem. It is a problem for all sports at all levels. Tweet at me your thoughts, preferably constructive and rational ones. @JayHochKSR