Soooo, college football attendance is down...

[TaleofTwoDogs]

Maybe it's more an MSU issue. Lack of an image. Discuss.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/ncaafb/college-football-world-reacts-to-sec-attendance-news/ar-AA13pzY0?cvid=46c259ab58fb4484bdb5558368dc6d95

[WhiskeyPirate]

It might be more of an inflation, fuel cost , dementia man issue

[BeardoMSU]

It might be more of an inflation, fuel cost , dementia man issue

I'm sure that's it...says person born 6th months ago***

[WhiskeyPirate]

Yea you’re right, this great economy isn’t affecting disposable income for the average family at all.

[BeardoMSU]

Yea you’re right, this great economy isn’t affecting disposable income for the average family at all.

Sure it is, lol, but sports attendance across the board has been on a downward trajectory for some time, and Covid certainly amplified it.

But sure, blame the "dementia man".

[WhiskeyPirate]

Sure it is, lol, but sports attendance across the board has been on a downward trajectory for some time, and Covid certainly amplified it.

But sure, blame the "dementia man".

He’s doing a hell of a job

[bulldawg28]

Win games and people will come. Leach ball is boring and inconsistent. They're no trick plays, big plays, or big personalities in his systems. People want to be entertained.

[Leeshouldveflanked]

It might be more of an inflation, fuel cost , dementia man issue
Cohen doesnt have dementia.

[Maroonthirteen]

There are many reasons for this in general. Lack of hotel rooms, distance to campus, it's on TV. However ...ALSO:

Losing to Alabama every year. Half of the people in close proximity to Starkville are Alabama fans.

Losing to OM twice in a row, demoralizing.

[Leroy Jenkins]

CFB attendance is down nationally 8 years in a row, and 9 of last 10. Now, MSU specifically, has played 2 home games so far vs a named opponent, Ark and aTm. Not to mention our 11:00am time slot every week and commuter fanbase.

[gtowndawg]

CFB attendance is down nationally 8 years in a row, and 9 of last 10. Now, MSU specifically, has played 2 home games so far vs a named opponent, Ark and aTm. Not to mention our 11:00am time slot every week and commuter fanbase.

And A&M and Arkansas did not bring many fans at all this year.

[PGHBulldogBG]

Outside of Vanderbilt, we probably have the smallest national fanbase of any other SEC school. Living in Pennsylvania, I can’t even count on 1 hand the number of people I have seen wearing Miss State gear in this area, and I’ve lived here my whole life except for the 5 years I spent in Starkville. I will admit I don’t really see Ole Miss or Missouri much either, but I see a good bit of all the other SEC fan bases. Kentucky the most during basketball season. Southwest PA is filled with bandwagon UK fans. We have a lot of really passionate fans in Mississippi, but I think because we don’t have the same volume as other SEC teams it causes us to have an attendance issue more so than some other schools

[Maroonthirteen]

Win games and people will come. Leach ball is boring and inconsistent. They're no trick plays, big plays, or big personalities in his systems. People want to be entertained.

28, agreed. To an extent.

Also It seems to me there isn't much energy from the football program... directed to the fans. It seems like it is "here it is, take it or leave it" with this leadership group from AD office to coaches. Mullen implored the fans to show up. However he was probably the most vocal coach we have ever had regarding attendance and showing up. Anyways, Everything seems ho-hum to me.


Oh, I'll be at all 4 NoV games.

[DawgFromOxford]

I don't understand why people get confused on this every year. Winning cures all. If you win games, you'll fill the stands regardless of drive time, kick off time, inflation, watching on tv, and whatever other excuse you want to throw out there.

All of those items aren't an issue when fans view the product on the field to be of greater value. What fans don't want to do is spend time, energy, and money and have the product on the field not deliver on their expectations. In our case, we have no clue what the product on the field is going to be from week to week so fans are hesitant to show up because the tradeoff may not be worth it. Nothing like spending hundreds of dollars and your weekend to watch your team get stomped when you could've stayed home and spent that money elsewhere.

Mike Leach is the equivalent of Ben Howland for our football team. Wins a game or 2 that people get excited about, and then absolutely crap the bed in a winnable game and kill all momentum of fan support.

[WhiskeyPirate]

That’s what kept me coming back for Dans games, exciting offense and all those trick plays.

[Coach34]

That’s what kept me coming back for Dans games, exciting offense and all those trick plays.

Yep. Miss those days.

[WSOPdawg]

That’s what kept me coming back for Dans games, exciting offense and all those trick plays.

Definitely agree. And to "sploogee" 12 times a game when Hollway up the middle was called... man, those were great times. Oh for the glory days.

[WhiskeyPirate]

Definitely agree. And to "sploogee" 12 times a game when Hollway up the middle was called... man, those were great times. Oh for the glory days.

Only offensive masterminds can truly understand how “entertaining” those glory days were

[PikeDawg15]

I don't understand why people get confused on this every year. Winning cures all. If you win games, you'll fill the stands regardless of drive time, kick off time, inflation, watching on tv, and whatever other excuse you want to throw out there.

All of those items aren't an issue when fans view the product on the field to be of greater value. What fans don't want to do is spend time, energy, and money and have the product on the field not deliver on their expectations. In our case, we have no clue what the product on the field is going to be from week to week so fans are hesitant to show up because the tradeoff may not be worth it. Nothing like spending hundreds of dollars and your weekend to watch your team get stomped when you could've stayed home and spent that money elsewhere.

Mike Leach is the equivalent of Ben Howland for our football team. Wins a game or 2 that people get excited about, and then absolutely crap the bed in a winnable game and kill all momentum of fan support.



That is scary accurate. But We will see what Leach is made of in the next 4 games, 3 at home.

Georgia is a sell out.

Their fans usually travel well and we are a team they dont play often in starkville.

I myself am apart of the problem I guess, I come to atleast 1 game every year. I came to arkansas this year.

I will come to multiple if we are good but I try to make sure I come to a game we win, I dont want to spend all the gas money to drive 4 hours there and 4 hours back to watch us get killed when I couldve spent that money on anything else.

Dont mind the fact that a family of 5 , the estimated cost for good tickets for a marquee game are somewhere between 100-150 per person, food is expensive, gas etc etc to watch your team get smoked.

It doesnt help that MSU doesnt have many sidewalk alum, you need sidewalk alum and the local surrounding area to help fill the seats and winning cures that, you guys remember the 2014 Auburn game atmosphere?? I sure do.

Alabama and LSU always have massive crowds because?? They have massive amounts of fans who never took a single class at the school coming to the games knowing they are going to win the game and have a good time.

[WhiskeyPirate]

Definitely agree. And to "sploogee" 12 times a game when Hollway up the middle was called... man, those were great times. Oh for the glory days.

33-39 sec record during that era also built up a lot of momentum for the fan base.

[Coach34]

33-39 sec record during that era also built up a lot of momentum for the fan base.

Damn sure did. Best SEC record we have had since the 1940's

[msu15]

Yep. Miss those days.

Not me. Ol shrivel nuts always shrank in November.

[Coach34]

Definitely agree. And to "sploogee" 12 times a game when Hollway up the middle was called... man, those were great times. Oh for the glory days.

Interesting as I remember Dak being exciting becoming a top 5 all-time is SEC TD's and Fitz breaking long runs to become the SEC's all-time leading rusher at QB as we top half of the SEC in offense 8 out of 9 years under Mullen. The trick plays of throwbacks to Dak off jets sweeps and all kinds of screens to RB's. Double passes.

The 3 years of checkdown passes to the RB's is "Holloway up the middle"

[WSOPdawg]

Not me. Ol shrivel nuts always shrank in November.

Definitely agree about Ol shrivel nuts, but there is a lot (LOT) of sarkasterisks in these statements.

[Maroonthirteen]

I'm cool with you guys wanting to be 100% behind Leach and support every thing he does. But bringing Mullen up every single time, is just ridiculous. Mullen, bottom line, end of day, was our most successful era ever in all categories.

You want to win arguments and get people behind Leach, talk about Leach's accomplishments.

[WhiskeyPirate]

I'm cool with you guys wanting to be 100% behind Leach and support every thing he does. But bringing Mullen up every single time, is just ridiculous. Mullen, bottom line, end of day, was our most successful era ever in all categories.

You want to win arguments and get people behind Leach, talk about Leach's accomplishments.
3-5,4-4,,2-6,4-4,3-5 record in the sec the first five years with Dan, that’s the most successful era ever.

Ok

4-4 last year must have been pretty damn good

[Goldendawg]

Yearly Maroon colored glasses, pre-season high expectations constantly followed not only by losing to teams we should beat, but not even being competitive in many of the losses is a contant issue. This has caused lack of interest and apathy even in my Bulldog family, (Hardcore season ticket holders for over 50 years). I never know until the week of the game, who wants to go or would rather do other things. Has already fallen back to my son and I go, and 6 tickets to attempt to sell for a couple of games. Only very dedicated fans care about a ETS type game that hurts average attendance also. Game Day experience has also suffered badly under our on the job training AD the last few years. Covid also showed many people watching at hope could be enjoyable without the in-person ha$$les. I still enjoy the in person experience greatly. Hail State!

[Maroonthirteen]

3-5,4-4,,2-6,4-4,3-5 record in the sec the first five years with Dan, that’s the most successful era ever.

Ok

4-4 last year must have been pretty damn good

So ridiculous..... You left off 2014 (6-2) and 2017 (4-4).

Mullen: 46% SEC, 31 consecutive sell-outs. 9 or 10 games in Davis Wade top ten with Mullen.
Leach 3-7, 4-4, 2-3 (39%) Zero sell outs. Zero top 10 attended games.

[PGHBulldogBG]

At the end of year 3 Mullen was 9-15 in SEC play. To date, Leach is 9-14. I expect Leach to win at least 1 more SEC game this year to put him at 10-16. That is a pretty equal percentage. It’s a fair comparison too because both coaches inherited a messy situation. Mullen gets more praise though because in year 4 he started to elevate things more and was our coach for 8 years. The 2014 season will never be forgotten and Mullen made State fans believe that we can have a great season like that. It had been 15 year since we had a season like that. If Leach can have a 10-2 season then his imagine will be viewed differently. Also I think Leach turns people off because of his personality, although I happen to like his personality better than Mullen because he isn’t fake. We were also so bad at football before Mullen came that it was a breath of fresh air to finally at least be competitive. Leach didn’t really have that luxury because thankfully Cohen was smart enough to get rid of Moorhead before it got too bad. Another factor is Ole Miss. When Mullen came in Ole Miss was awful and we were beating them consistently the first few years before Freeze came in and took over. I believe those are the main reasons during season 3 of Mullen he was viewed in a better light than Leach at this point. Mullen also had a nice Gator Bowl win over a name brand program in Michigan.

[Extendedcab]

OK, first off, I am not arguing with any post in this thread. I just think there is more to it than the X's and Os and what play do you call in a particular situation.

Just like posters here on ED, we go into some games, like Alabama and Kentucky, Arkansas and OM, with the attitude that we are going to lose? Now the odds may be favorable to us losing a game but if you go into the game not sure you can win (losing is on your mind), you have already lost. it is a mental battle first! I do not think, from my playing days experience, if you approach a game that you do not have a chance in winning, then your play will reflect your attitude. Your performance will suck, or you will be tentative, unsure of what to do, or play too tight or play with not enough of effort, play with your head up you butt (dumb mental mistakes), etc.

I do not think we are over that hump, either at the fan level, coaches level nor the players level. If attitude has nothing to do with it, then how in the world does Appalachian State beat TA&M or some other minor sports team beat a so-called powerhouse?

it is not supposed to happen as the talent level difference is supposed to be too great!