The end of going to games at stadiums?

[BADOLBILZ]

The bolded is the key.

 

That and what the "limited number" actually is. Ten-thousand? Twenty-thousand? Thirty-thousand? What did Schramm actually envision?

 

It's already happened to a degree that the NFL has gone to smaller stadiums and that the people in the stadiums are a smaller and more select group. Increasingly the NFL caters to their corporate partners and high-end clientele.

 

Could there be a day where the average NFL crowd is 40-thousand?

 

I doubt it but you never know. It would take a lot of things to bring the NFL to a significantly different business model.

 

Yes, it HAS already happened. We have to take into account that in the 30+ years since that statement the population of the US has increased by almost 100 million. Yet, as you pointed out, stadiums are being built to hold less fans.

 

Additionally, the NFL has vastly expanded it's international appeal including neighboring countries where fans can actually cross borders and attend games. When you really start to look at the percentage of NFL fans that actually attend the game it has decreased dramatically and yet stadiums are mostly full.

 

There has been a decline in attendance recently but from my perspective that is the result of a depressed economy.

[Chef Jim]

I kind of agree, but if no one was there it would also lose the magic on television.

 

If by the magic of television you mean to guys yammering on incessantly then yeah it magical alright. Sometimes I yell at the TV "shut the !@#$ up!!"

[Bills4]

Being a fan is feeling apart of the experience/team that you're rooting for on a regular basis. You have a sense of belonging...Hence your participation on this message board. The fans, the players, coaches, and personnel all feed off of the game day environment. The game would deminish if the filled stadiums were removed. 4th quarter in a preseason game like? A prophet? More like a gross exaggeration....I'd have season tickets if in the Buffalo area.

 

Yeah, I feel like it would make the game almost clinical in a sense.

[buffalobillsfootball]

Sitting at home watching a game is lame. It's not the same. It will never compare.

 

Your preference for your recliner and stocked fridge at home is a sign that your old and lazy.

 

[Chef Jim]

Sitting at home watching a game is lame. It's not the same. It will never compare.

 

Your preference for your recliner and stocked fridge at home is a sign that your old and lazy.

 

Frying in the sun, freezing in the snow, getting soaked in the rain with 70,000 drunk !@#$s is a sign you're young and stupid.

[Direhard Fan]

Can't beat the tail gating. The crowd in buffalo for the most part is great. They are weeding out the scum. The thing that kills me is the commercial breaks. The guy standing down the side line aways runs the game. Not the refs. They listen to him. Thats why when you switch over to the other game the same commercial is on both channels. The network rules the roost. Spoils the flow alot. And than the players stand around and look dumb. Killer.

[major]

Here is an article from CBS sports from last year that brought up Tex's predictions on future of stadiums: http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/story/19509065/nfl-in-scramble-mode-in-what-could-be-a-losing-battle-to-keep-fans-filling-its-stadiums

[PearlHowardman]

Not sure if this is relevant, but after years of watching football on TV, with it's close ups, super slo mo, etc my first live at the stadium NFL game was disappointing. It was just some guys playing football.

 

What Tex Schramm didn't envision in 1980 were ubiquitous 70" big screen televisions in Americans homes. I don't have a TV that big but but I do have a big screen TV. I invite a lot of other Bills fans over to my house where we can drink and eat to our hearts content and watch & enjoy the game.

 

We all have a great time and then my guests walk home.

 

Watching MLB games I see a lot of empty stadiums. I guarantee the reason for that is because a lot of people have big screen TVs and enjoy the games in the comfort of their own home.

[BuffaloBill]

No way unless ticket prices become prohibitive or this in combination with over commercialization of the product. The Romans long ago understood the thirst and energy of the mob.

 

Now movie theaters on the other hand are on life support.

[Lv-Bills]

This is one of the dumbest arguments that I've ever heard. There is nothing like being at the game live. That goes for Football, Baseball, Hockey, Basketball, or whatever the sport. I am lucky enough to have a mancave with 5 TV's. One large, and 4 small one's in my gameroom to watch multiple games. All HD. Have every package except for the NBA (which I can't stand). There is still nothing like being at the stadium. Nothing even close. Not HD. Not replays. Not fantasy football. Nothing. 80,000 fans and the energy it creates is unreal. I don't care if you turn up your BOSE speakers to 400, you can't beat it. Oh, you have HD? Is that better than live people running around I guess? Not for most people it isn't. Seeing the whole field as opposed to some of it that is captured on TV is much better at the game. And just being around and meeting new people. Nothing like it.

 

The only reason people bring this up, and the only reason the NFL and other leagues are trying to make excuses for fans not attending, is because they are trying to deflect that the damn ticket prices are too high for the average fan and his family to attend games. That's it. There is no other reason.

 

I have Bills season tickets. There is no comparison in being there. If you want to sit here and try to tell me your HD TV is better than seeing all of the home games of two years ago in person.....you're lying. It's not even close.

 

What does suck, however, is that teams have priced out the average fan. If the average fan could afford to go, with his family, or even friends, and money wasn't an issue, this would never even come up.

 

The stadium experience isn't gone. The live game isn't deteriorating. None of that is happening. They are limiting their own paying customers because most families of four can't pay $600 a game to take their family.

 

This stuff cracks me up. The NFL floated this crap excuse that the home experience is better just to stay clear of having to admit they are pricing die hards away from attending live. And it's funny to see people buy it. Solution? The NFL is even trying to sell you more stuff at the game to make it more like home. ROFL.

 

Lower the ticket prices, and people would blindly support again........win or lose.

[San Jose Bills Fan]

This is one of the dumbest arguments that I've ever heard. There is nothing like being at the game live. That goes for Football, Baseball, Hockey, Basketball, or whatever the sport. I am lucky enough to have a mancave with 5 TV's. One large, and 4 small one's in my gameroom to watch multiple games. All HD. Have every package except for the NBA (which I can't stand). There is still nothing like being at the stadium. Nothing even close. Not HD. Not replays. Not fantasy football. Nothing. 80,000 fans and the energy it creates is unreal. I don't care if you turn up your BOSE speakers to 400, you can't beat it. Oh, you have HD? Is that better than live people running around I guess? Not for most people it isn't. Seeing the whole field as opposed to some of it that is captured on TV is much better at the game. And just being around and meeting new people. Nothing like it.

 

The only reason people bring this up, and the only reason the NFL and other leagues are trying to make excuses for fans not attending, is because they are trying to deflect that the damn ticket prices are too high for the average fan and his family to attend games. That's it. There is no other reason.

 

I have Bills season tickets. There is no comparison in being there. If you want to sit here and try to tell me your HD TV is better than seeing all of the home games of two years ago in person.....you're lying. It's not even close.

 

What does suck, however, is that teams have priced out the average fan. If the average fan could afford to go, with his family, or even friends, and money wasn't an issue, this would never even come up.

 

The stadium experience isn't gone. The live game isn't deteriorating. None of that is happening. They are limiting their own paying customers because most families of four can't pay $600 a game to take their family.

 

This stuff cracks me up. The NFL floated this crap excuse that the home experience is better just to stay clear of having to admit they are pricing die hards away from attending live. And it's funny to see people buy it. Solution? The NFL is even trying to sell you more stuff at the game to make it more like home. ROFL.

 

Lower the ticket prices, and people would blindly support again........win or lose.

 

Well your post is consistent with what I said earlier about the NFL's bias towards corporate and high-end customers.

 

And yes the NFL has a problem with catering to that segment of their market at the expense of the low-end of their market.

 

Their solution to the high price of attending games is to provide more accoutrements as you point out, not scaling back ticket prices and increasing seating capacities. More wi-fi, more hi-def jumbotrons, etc.

 

As I pointed out earlier, stadiums already have gotten smaller as more seats have been devoted to high-end customers by way of luxury seating so we've moved incrementally towards Schramm's vision.

 

One of the unspoken subtexts of all of this is the NFL's concern about fan behavior and how that problem correlates with ticket prices.

 

I think the stadium experience will move a few more degrees towards Schramm's futuristic vision but it'll never get to stadiums with a total capacity of less than 50,000 in my opinion.

 

There is a synergism about live sporting events where the televised product is dependent upon the intensity of the paid attendees. The televised product would suffer if the critical mass of howling fans dipped below a certain level.

[Prickly Pete]

If large amounts of people stopped going to games, they would lower the prices, or even make the games free. That's how important a large audience is to the games, and the televised product.

[CodeMonkey]

Sitting at home watching a game is lame. It's not the same. It will never compare.

 

Your preference for your recliner and stocked fridge at home is a sign that your old and lazy.

I disagree. I also prefer to be at home. That way I can enjoy the game with my family. No way would I bring my young kids to a Bills game, other than the kids day preseason game when most of the drunken idiots don't go. Way to damn expensive, and also just not something I want to expose the kids to.

 

Instead I have PC software setup to record the game and afterward automatically strip out the commercials. We then watch the game in it's entirety in about an hour while we are eating dinner (works perfectly for the 1pm games) on the 55" LED TV..

 

So old and lazy, no. Older and wiser, perhaps. And watching at home "not the same", absolutely my point ... I find it to be considerably better.

Edited May 5, 2013 by CodeMonkey

[uncle flap]

Instead I have PC software setup to record the game and afterward automatically strip out the commercials.

 

Please let me know how you do this. PM if you want, although I bet others would also like to know.

 

I dont have cable, so no DVR. I usually download a torrent of the games I go to, so that I can get the TV perspective afterward. But sometimes I can't find one, or if I do, it's a couple days later.

 

I love everything about going to the games, but sometimes I miss stuff and don't even realize it until I watch a recording of the game.

Edited May 5, 2013 by uncle flap

[Stealth]

Since the onset of human civiliziations we have enjoyed gathering in large crowds to watch/talk about/enjoy sporting events. I don't see that changing ever. At it's core it's what people enjoy doing. Being entertained. Whether it's a concert/movie/sports etc etc. It gives us something to talk about be emotional about live and breathe for

[papazoid]

better watching on TV = your getting old

[HOUSE]

Well, the beer in my refrig IS CHEAPER ???

 

[Mr. WEO]

Ticket prices and frozen wages alone will create a smaller venue catering more towards the press and people with real money. The TV money is already leveling off, which was foreseen years ago. Hence, the attempt to lock out the players and get some profit back. You add that to the black hole of debt that all revenues ultimately come from and you have a sport that will cut costs not because of greed, but because they have to. New stadiums are cost prohibitive and represent massive debt, while the trend towards renovations is a necessary and more palatable attempt to try and make money. In the end only so many teams can have franchise QBs and make the playoffs. That leaves most fans in a dilemma, do I keep paying to support a billion dollar loser when I could watch it at home? Technology will bring the game day experience to peoples living rooms in a far more cost effective manor than bringing them into a massive real estate venture in hopes that they'll keep coming back to be price gouged at the concessions. Only time will tell, but the NFL has serious financial challenges ahead that simply cannot be avoided. The future of new stadiums is one of them.

The TV money is leveling off??

 

Link?

[ganesh]

They may price a lot of people out of going in a few years.

 

May be they will build a secondary stadium (next to the primary stadium) and show the game on a big HD screen and charge a lot lesser; the same noise would be heard in the primary stadium keeping the players happy. win-win situation. And the beer would cost $3 bucks. Hey some one told me that I need to think outside the box!

Edited May 6, 2013 by ganesh

[Storm Front]

I could see this happening after a few more terrorist attacks at sporting events.