Sporting event attendance declining? wondering why?

[bcla]

The Washington Huskies held their spring game on April 30th. This was planned to be a big turn out with "kids activities, photobooths, games, and food trucks." But according to SI's The Spun, Attendance At Washington’s “Spring Game” Is Awful. They said only about 100 were in attendance, yes 100! Their instate rivals, the WA State Cougars, had about 5,000. Yet down I-5 in Euggene, the Oregon Ducks estimated said to have 42,000. Only attracting 100 to a free event says a lot. Is it Covid, is it their poor performance on the field or just pure apathy.

View attachment 666520

That's more than 100.

I knew someone who went to Caltech and played on their club football team. For some games, they actually rented out the Rose Bowl. Interesting who they played, including recreational teams, junior colleges, etc. I see Pasadena Police, athletic clubs, and even prison teams. Some teams from Mexican colleges too. The guy I knew told stories about the time they sat in an empty Rose Bowl waiting for Tijuana Tech to arrive as they had been delayed at the border.

https://www.gocaltech.com/information/RetiredSports/YearByYearResults.pdf

https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/caltech-students-continue-tradition-rose-bowl-4272

I've seen some weird events though. Once there was a Cal at Washington State game that simply wasn't on any broadcast or cable TV. So the athletic dept arranged for a special broadcast of the Washington State video board feed to be transmitted via a Slingbox over the internet to the screen in Memorial Stadium in Berkeley. It was bizarre, but about 3000 showed up and there were a few vendors in the stadium. But it was across two major university internet connections, which wasn't necessarily equivalent to what most home internet was like at the time.

https://www.cnet.com/culture/sling-media-scores-big-with-cal-football-fans/​

Sling Media pumped the in-house video feed from Martin Stadium in Pullman, Wash., along with a local radio broadcast, into a Slingbox. From there the images and sound were transmitted to a laptop at Memorial Stadium that was connected to the scoreboard.​

​

Initial concerns about bandwidth were quickly overcome. The images lacked any of the choppiness or stalling that can occur when pipes are too small to deliver hefty amounts of data, Buchanan said.​

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"We streamed basically at 2.5 megabits over a pipe from Washington to Cal and the images looked great," Buchanan said. Someone posted a video of the scoreboard images on YouTube.​

 

[Cogswel_Cogs]

They were teetering on too high price for ticket, parking, and food in a non covid good economy. People use to be on waiting list for years Giants tickets and they squashed that down to nothing before Covid. I am wondering when players salaries are gonna drop (IMO)they won't be able to maintain them at the rate they are now.

 

[SteveH]

@Mackenzie Click-Mickelson I agree, winning drives a lot of things and success breeds success. The Huskies do suck, but the Cougs have as well - but 100 vs 5000 is a huge difference and the population of Seattle is closer to 750k vs Pullman's 33k - so the Huskies must really really suck

(keep in mind I am an Oregon Alum so I am slightly biased)

 

[dez1978]

Prices went up, for everything. Ticket prices, service fees for the tickets; parking; souvenirs; snacks/drinks.

People are tired of making others into millionaires, while they struggle to pay rent and get gas in the car.

Frustration with policies from locations. When I was a kid, we could bring food (and a flask for dad) into Mile High Stadium; I remember eating hot dogs wrapped in foil from mom's bag. Now, it has to be a clear bag, and I had security at Everbank take my breath mints from me at the Bronco-Jags game last year.

Peoples interests change.

I'm gonna call it Mile High Stadium till I die lol. My very 1st game was at the last game at the old stadium. We've gone every year since, and now take our kids, who unfortunately are KC fans (only bc their friends are). But it has gotten ridiculously expensive. Esp by the time we fly from St louis, get a hotel etc. If it weren't for credit card points for those things, Idk that we'd continue to go even tho we love going.

 

[MillauFr]

The Washington Huskies held their spring game on April 30th. This was planned to be a big turn out with "kids activities, photobooths, games, and food trucks." But according to SI's The Spun, Attendance At Washington’s “Spring Game” Is Awful. They said only about 100 were in attendance, yes 100! Their instate rivals, the WA State Cougars, had about 5,000. Yet down I-5 in Euggene, the Oregon Ducks estimated said to have 42,000. Only attracting 100 to a free event says a lot. Is it Covid, is it their poor performance on the field or just pure apathy.

View attachment 666520

What else is there to do in Pullman or Eugene

 

[Cogswel_Cogs]

The one thing sports has going for it is the new gambling sites/locations/states. But I have a feeling there will be a couple of college scandals eventually and it might be readdressed.

 

[SteveH]

What else is there to do in Pullman or Eugene

Pullman not much, lots more in Eugene though (but glad I don't live there anymore).

 

[NotUrsula]

I don't follow college hockey of course, but I do remember some references to a Cal club team. I think they still exist, but probably play in Oakland now at the place the Sharks operate. They have a full NHL size rink. But before that, they played at Berkeley Iceland, which was an old-time facility with an art deco look and an ammonia refrigeration system that they whole neighborhood was worried about if it ever leaked. But that was a 200x100 rink. It had hosted a few national figure skating championships at a time when a recreational rink would do. Apparently for ice shows and big events, they brought in temporary seating.

Iceland was a legendary rink for figure skaters; so many of the great legends of American skating trained there. It was one of the very few Olympic-sized rinks on the west coast, and for elite-level freestyle skaters, that's an important draw, not because they design programs to take advantage of the extra ice (generally they do not), but because skaters can get in more practice hours at lower cost, because a larger rink can safely accomodate more skaters for club ice, giving them enough room to practice jumping runs without hitting other skaters. Most hockey-sized rinks will cap high-skills training ice session capacity at 20 for safety; an Olympic rink can accomodate at least 10 more skaters.

As to why the NHL wants a hockey team in a location where it doesn't draw many spectators, the answer usually is development. I just checked, and that club runs 9 youth teams. Hockey needs a very large pipeline to keep the skill level in the NHL high enough to compete with the Canadians.

 

[bcla]

Iceland was a legendary rink for figure skaters; so many of the great legends of American skating trained there. It was one of the very few Olympic-sized rinks on the west coast, and for elite-level freestyle skaters, that's an important draw, not because they design programs to take advantage of the extra ice (generally they do not), but because skaters can get in more practice hours at lower cost, because a larger rink can safely accomodate more skaters for club ice, giving them enough room to practice jumping runs without hitting other skaters. Most hockey-sized rinks will cap high-skills training ice session capacity at 20 for safety; an Olympic rink can accomodate at least 10 more skaters.

As to why the NHL wants a hockey team in a location where it doesn't draw many spectators, the answer usually is development. I just checked, and that club runs 9 youth teams. Hockey needs a very large pipeline to keep the skill level in the NHL high enough to compete with the Canadians.

Sure. I'd been there a few times. A high school classmate actually worked there as a monitor, and he was there once when I went skating. But it did seem kind of old and in need of a little TLC. Still - they proudly had pictures of those who had trained there including Peggy Fleming, Brian Boitano, and Kristi Yamaguchi. They also had broomball, which seemed rather dangerous to me.

The place is a sporting goods store now.

The Coyotes just seem like they're in this weird situation where they're clearly not a very popular attraction. I do remember that little weirdness when one of their emergency goalies was called in, who was a club player at Arizona State.

 

[tcufrog]

I have no desire to go to a spring college football game. When I think of football I think of fall.

 

[EACarlson]

The Coyotes just seem like they're in this weird situation where they're clearly not a very popular attraction. I do remember that little weirdness when one of their emergency goalies was called in, who was a club player at Arizona State.

Every EBUG has a weird story. The Ducks just had to call in the Dallas EBUG last week, he's one of the radio guys for the Stars.
200x100 would be a perfectly acceptable size for NCAA Hockey, there are still a number of rinks that size in use. Including Mariucci in Minneapolis.

 

[goofy4prez]

I posted on this thread earlier, but I'll post again. The real reason why I don't go to professional sporting events anymore or why I seldom watch them anymore has nothing to do with the cost of the ticket. If I'm honest here, I spend thousands of dollars every year at Disney ( That may also be something of the past), and I'm grateful my hard work over the years has produced a comfortable lifestyle as I look at retirement in the next decade.

But when I watch a sporting event on TV or in person, I don't want to be constantly slapped in the face by political hot buttons from the left or the right. I don't want to be woke or unwoke. I don't want to hear about environmental or social issues. All I want to watch is a player throwing the ball, catching the ball, running with the ball, hitting the ball, shooting the ball, hitting the puck, tagging out a player, tackling a player, scoring a TD, hitting a home run, scoring a goal, making left-hand turns on a track at 200 mph and etc. If they want to make a statement or make a comment on their beliefs or causes off the field then fine, that is their right in this free country... Or at least right now it's still free. (We'll see about that in the future as well). I am not entitled to speak my mind or my causes at work. My customers don't want to hear about it. All they are interested in is the product or services I have to offer them for their hard-earned cash in return. Their work is the football field, soccer field, diamond, rink, court, or the racetrack. Do your job, earn your pay, finish the game, take your shower, change your clothes and then go out and say whatever you want to say. But not on the job and certainly not while I am paying to watch you do that job.

Oh, I was serious though about being a Cleveland sports fan. That in and of itself does make it hard to want to go to or watch them play.

 

[RedAngie]

What else is there to do in Pullman or Eugene

In Pullman you could always drive to the nearby metropolis of Moscow, Idaho.

 

[bcla]

Every EBUG has a weird story. The Ducks just had to call in the Dallas EBUG last week, he's one of the radio guys for the Stars.
200x100 would be a perfectly acceptable size for NCAA Hockey, there are still a number of rinks that size in use. Including Mariucci in Minneapolis.

Got curious and looked up the NCAA rules, which suggest a 200’x85’ size but I guess doesn’t mandate it given the practical nature of there being some that are bigger or smaller.

I do remember going to a figure skating competition where I bought a program. It had ads, including one for a coach who had her own rink. That rink was specified as bein 185’x85’ and thus meeting minimum international requirements. However, the rink at the competition was 200’x85’ and many were complaining that it wasn’t the 200’x100’ ice that they were used to skating on. I think that or a close metric equivalent is what hockey outside the US and Canada typically uses.

 

[NotUrsula]

Indoor ice sheets are hellishly expensive to build and maintain; even just a few square feet more might mean needing a higher capacity chiller, which is why you sometimes see rinks in odd sizes that are like 3-4 feet short of standard. One of the single-sheet public rinks here is currently on the bubble because their chiller is failing; the town council is seriously considering giving up and turning it into an indoor soccer facility. (Not a rink my kid uses very often, and I had to explain to her that if it goes, the loss will still affect her ice time, because all the skaters, hockey teams and curling teams that normally use that ice are going to have to move somewhere else--somewhere where she WILL be competing with them for time.)

The future is multi-sheet rinks; they are the only facilities that can generate enough traffic to pay for the infrastructure. The complexes are getting larger and larger; less than 10 years ago 3 sheets was enough; then it went to four, and the newest facilities being opened almost all have 5, though very often the 5th sheet is a mini used only for skills training. None of them can stay in business without youth programs; high-capacity programs let the kids use the premium-fee weekend and late-afternoon ice, and that's what keeps the lights on.

The newest rink complex here was completed 3 years ago with 4 NHL-size sheets (one of them outdoors under cover, and convertible in summer to a concert venue); the NHL Blues are the major corporate partner, and in that capacity they get reserved prime-time use of the main rink and one other for players' practice ice, which they often open to members of the public to watch at no charge. (It's a 30-yr public-private partnership, the municipality will take ownership when the term expires.) It's located about 22 miles away from the arena ice where they play home games. The facility also carries a naming sponsorship from another locally-based corporation, Centene. The construction cost was $78M.)

As a taxpayer, I personally tend to prefer big arenas that have extra ice sheets in the same facility; those work much better for tournament use, as tournaments bring in a lot of tourism dollars. We don't have a facility like that locally, and it makes this city a poor choice for tournaments, because teams have to travel a minimum of 8 miles from the competition arena for their practice ice, which adds greatly to their transportation costs. (The Centene facility only has 4500 spectator seats for the main rink; too few for big tournament needs.)

 

[RedAngie]

I haven’t been paying close attention but what has happened to Buffalo and Ottawa NHL attendance?

 

[EACarlson]

Got curious and looked up the NCAA rules, which suggest a 200’x85’ size but I guess doesn’t mandate it given the practical nature of there being some that are bigger or smaller.

I do remember going to a figure skating competition where I bought a program. It had ads, including one for a coach who had her own rink. That rink was specified as bein 185’x85’ and thus meeting minimum international requirements. However, the rink at the competition was 200’x85’ and many were complaining that it wasn’t the 200’x100’ ice that they were used to skating on. I think that or a close metric equivalent is what hockey outside the US and Canada typically uses.

200x85 is the NHL sized sheet that is most common in North America. There are a number of weird ice sizes in NCAA due to either choosing to use the International size of 200x100 like at Minnesota or building constraints like the old rink in Duluth or just plain stupidity like Notre Dame building a new rink that is 200x90 with the benches on opposite sides of the rink.

I haven’t been paying close attention but what has happened to Buffalo and Ottawa NHL attendance?

View attachment 666915

I would guess at least part of that is the governmental regulations in NY state and Ottawa. No way either of those organizations would be below 50% capacity otherwise. Same with Winnipeg and Toronto, both of those would be at 98%+ normally.

 

[bcla]

Indoor ice sheets are hellishly expensive to build and maintain; even just a few square feet more might mean needing a higher capacity chiller, which is why you sometimes see rinks in odd sizes that are like 3-4 feet short of standard. One of the single-sheet public rinks here is currently on the bubble because their chiller is failing; the town council is seriously considering giving up and turning it into an indoor soccer facility. (Not a rink my kid uses very often, and I had to explain to her that if it goes, the loss will still affect her ice time, because all the skaters, hockey teams and curling teams that normally use that ice are going to have to move somewhere else--somewhere where she WILL be competing with them for time.)

Berkeley Iceland had their issue with their way outdated (and potentially dangerous) ammonia refrigeration system. However, converting to a more modern system was supposedly cost prohibitive to the point where they probably couldn't afford it. Ammonia is cheap and a better refrigerant than HCFCs and CFCs. But it's extremely toxic and potentially flammable.

https://www.sfgate.com/health/article/BERKELEY-City-orders-ice-rink-to-get-rid-of-2651847.php
https://berkeleydailyplanet.com/iss...re-After-Promises-of-Upgrades-By-MATTHEW-ARTZ

 

[GreatLakes]

When professional sports got cancelled due to the pandemic I really didn't miss them. I lost a lot of interest in the games and didn't even watch the Super Bowl this year. I generally go to a few pro games a year but the only professional games I've been to since the end of the pandemic was for a bachelor party and with a vendor that had a lodge so I went more to socialize than watch the game.

 

[NotUrsula]

Berkeley Iceland had their issue with their way outdated (and potentially dangerous) ammonia refrigeration system. However, converting to a more modern system was supposedly cost prohibitive to the point where they probably couldn't afford it. Ammonia is cheap and a better refrigerant than HCFCs and CFCs. But it's extremely toxic and potentially flammable.

https://www.sfgate.com/health/article/BERKELEY-City-orders-ice-rink-to-get-rid-of-2651847.php
https://berkeleydailyplanet.com/iss...re-After-Promises-of-Upgrades-By-MATTHEW-ARTZ

Ammonia isn't gone, not by a long shot; new NH3/CaCl2 systems are replacing R-22 (freon) in a lot of retrofits. The new version uses a LOT less chemical under a lot less pressure, though, so it's much safer. Honeywell is also having a moment with a mix they call R-407F, which is supposedly much more environmentally-friendly. (It's certainly friendly to Honeywell's bottom line.)