By: Tyler B

Tyler B — Fri, 25 May 2012 16:30:31 +0000

I agree with your point, but in certain cases I “packaged” teams because it’s nearly impossible to make it perfect. You can make a case for 80 teams so the Duke’s of the world can hang on, but when it’s all about tv eyeballs the Durham market is more than covered already. I just want someone to take charge of this because it’s a great example of the inmates running the prison.

By: JRsec

JRsec — Fri, 25 May 2012 15:06:42 +0000

As crazy as some will think this is I have already done a similar schematic. The reason you will be proven correct about an eventual similar arrangement has nothing to do with football. The geographic alignment will have everything to do with the economy, having reached peak oil with the resultant fuel prices, and the effort to keep fan bases energized as many of them have to make tough choices about their remaining discretionary income.

With high def televisions, air conditioning, clean bathrooms, and a well stocked kitchen where every item is not costing me $5 my 40 plus years of season tickets could well come to an end if those marketing the stadium experience don’t soon make some changes.

I go for the game and for the social experience. I like to keep up with other games while I’m there. I like to talk to the people I’ve known for those 40 years who sit around me and catch up on their kids and grandkids during halftime and before kickoff. In the last decade that has become impossible. I can’t shout loudly enough into the ear of my friend seated right next to me to be heard over the constantly blairing music coming from the loudspeakers of the stadium. Who are the morons who think that silence before a game is a bad thing. Don’t they know that older people, who pay the #$%@ bills like to talk to their buddies and that it would be far easier for us to avoid the drunks, avoid the traffic, keep up with other games, and relax on Saturday, if we didn’t want to talk to old friends at the stadium. The reasons for staying home now outnumber those of going to the game 10-1.

My suggestions: If the school needs revenue sell me a parking place along with my tickets. Keep the #$%@ vendors from standing in front of me because they want to see the important play that I paid well over $300 bucks to see (counting the contributions I make averaged out per game with ticket prices.) Let me talk to my friends!!! In the concessions area have a wall of flatscreens showing the other games in progress so that I can go to the men’s room, buy a $5 coke and a $5 dollar hotdog, stand out of the sun while I eat them, and see what the hell is going on everywhere else before I return to my seat.

Finally, if you continue to tick off the old folks, who were blessed to earn a decent wage in a better America than the ones these poor kids are inheriting, and peak oil makes it too expensive for all of those kids with lousy paying jobs to be able to afford to buy tickets and drive to their teams games, who the heck is going to fill our stadiums outside of the super wealthy, the locals, and the students. All of your average attendance will be below 30,000 then.

Solution: Take what you’ve started with, regional play, outside of old conference alignments. Add to that socially friendly environements with some of the amenities of home, graduated ticket prices so that the young can get tickets (even in the end zones and upper decks cheaper than $75 per, and the old who can afford them pay $100-150 per to sit under the eaves on the lower deck, with premium for yardline locations, and all available upon their annual contribution to the fund and we might just be getting somewhere. Our world problems won’t go away. Our self imposed thoughtless ones could. Innovation to the social side of the events can help to save the game day experience. I’ve nothing agains tailgating, the crud starts inside the stadium. That we can fix.

By: GSpillsNC

GSpillsNC — Fri, 25 May 2012 14:39:45 +0000

Or North Carolina for that matter?

By: AllTideUp

AllTideUp — Fri, 25 May 2012 03:12:54 +0000

I could see how a lot of this could happen, but there is no way that current schools in the big 4 conferences will get kicked out because of attendance below 30K. If the ACC breaks up then I think it’s very possible that Duke and Wake Forest get left out, but if we are talking about a surviving league then all their current members will be intact. It will end up coming down more to TV audience and market access for the deciding leagues than attendance.

The big 4 leagues will still have a lot of discretion over who gets in and who is left out because there will not be one body over everything who gets to move the pieces around.

By: Puzzled

Puzzled — Fri, 25 May 2012 01:04:11 +0000

“These new FCS schools realign in a shocking fashion… by sitting down at a table and looking at a map.”

What map has Kentucky in the South, but Tennessee not?

Comments on: Tyler’s Take: The Road To 72

By: Tyler B

By: JRsec

By: GSpillsNC

By: AllTideUp

By: Puzzled