I could provide you a ton of links here that demonstrate why college football attendance hit an all-time low in 2019..
College games have been live on TV for years. What made 2019 attendance different? and why, exactly, is live TV to blame?
The cost of attending a football game versus watching it on High Def TV in the comfort of home has played out in most every sports lover's living room. Including my own. I didn't even make it to Detroit last year to watch Ty Johnson play.more.
The cost of attending a local high school football game is minimal. Not sure I understand how the going to Detroit example applies.
At least at the college level, they are being compensated massively for their lost ticket sales.
College programs with a national TV following and with international TV sponsorship vs. local high school programs with few local sponsors in a declining town which is economically suffering in a major way. I’ve been broadcasting (and streaming) local high school games funded on only by the sponsorships we sell, for over 30 years. No offense, but I am sure that you do know how difficult it can be, and has been, to get enough sponsors to make a season work. Couple that with time, equipment and labor costs. I have not missed getting a game on the air in those 30+ years and I’ll continue to make it happen.
My proof would be first hand with a 75 year old mother who was a cheerleader and graduated from FH. She goes to games every chance she can -- which usually means when it is not raining and not freezing cold. If she could watch the game live, her attendance levels would dip even further. And it is no secret the aging population in Cumberland is what's left. She and her friends have told me many times on Friday nights they just wish the game were on TV live. That also means less money for the kids.
this is a big one- I think you just made Bob Kirk’ point. It seems that she wasn’t going to every game (due to weather) regardless if it was on TV or not. And as you said, we have an aging population doing the same thing. It is not “less money for the kids because of TV” if she, or they, were not going to the game anyway.
This is not 20 years ago.
Truth
But since I was in high school in the early to mid-80s, Cumberland high school football games have always been on TV on a delay basis. I love that it was and still is on TV. But with money so tight, there is no way I would consider a move to make it live. I'm all about making sure kids get the finances they need to continue playing sports. We will all start to see that stop now due to COVID and the lack of funding that is about to happen on top of already being pretty close to broke.
Can you help me understand how most high schools throughout the country, with no media coverage, and many with few fans in attendance, keep their programs funded and moving forward?
ON THE FLIP SIDE - if someone were capable of offering a fee to watch games live while sharing the revenue with the school then I would be all for it. This is absolutely a money issue. Nothing more.
So you advocate charging $ to view the games live? We can do that. I doubt that it would yield the income that you may be envisioning...,,.. also I believe that you said that “live” would hurt the concessions.........
So what have we done to try and help, you might ask?
Media fees, revenue sharing, etc. are peanuts in a small town like Cumberland. As owner of Commercial Video, with an interest in helping the stadium thrive. I helped form the Greenway Avenue Stadium Capital Improvement Fund. Donating money, my time and my media resources and pulling in local radio and the newspaper to promote our mission. . Our group has been able to raise and coordinate funding sources in the millions of dollars to improve the stadium. Ask Mark Manges, Greg Hare, Paul Green or any other member of our committee about what we are doing. I mention this because it’s important that people understand that we are helping to maintain the health of our local sports community, and on a level greater than token fees of percentages.
But there is proof that if you bring good games to the stadium people will come out. FH made almost $6000 from the Erie game and that's not even counting concessions. They had the same numbers for the Melbourne game (not counting concessions). Home and home against Catoctin or Dunbar would be huge.
Thank you for bringing this up. Yes, it is proven that people will show up for a real contest. Think of high school football as an entertainment product in an outdoor venue. The quality of the entertainment dictates the interest of fans to attend. The weather can influence the decision, but if the entertainment is good enough, people will show up. Better games can equal better attendance. Someone will ask, if the 2 games that you referenced were broadcast and streamed live, would it have hurt the gate? Erie streamed the game live. Catoctin streamed the semifinal with FH last year live with a full house. The perceived quality of the entertainment is what puts butts in the seats. And let’s face it, how difficult is it, really, to go to a local high school game at Greenway if you are motivated to go? It easy and cheaper than going to the movies.