Quote Originally Posted by bluelightstar View Post
Worst case scenario for football is that fans stop coming and never come back, even if we are competitive again (see MSU basketball). I do not think that will happen because football is a much more popular sport. I think the AD can weather the other issues because of tv money and whatnot. Three years of fan disengagement (close to apathy!) is going to be very tough though.

Starkville is a different animal. The city has grown since the Croom days ? and like many college towns, depends on revenue from football weekends. The effect of fans tapping out hurts Starkville pretty acutely.
I don't think fans never come back, but I do think there is a risk that a lot of fans stop coming back, or more likely, stop coming back as season ticket holders. I know professional sports have other things going on like just being out of season for them and having players and ownership that have a lot of views on the US, cops, and the military that antagonize a lot of their core fans, but I think a decent part of their ratings drop is that people just didn't miss it that much when it was gone, or at least found other stuff that has so far kept their attention.

Making even five weekend treks to starkville in a football season is a lot of work if you're not within two hours, which a lot of our fan base isn't. Even if you are within two hours and can pretty reasonably drive in and out, that's still a hassle and I'd be shocked if a lot of people driving back after the game don't at least think about how nice it'd be at their house or making a ten minute drive after watching the game with friends somewhere, which granted if the condo market takes a step back because of teh football team stinking, we will be more likely to do that.

And that's before even talking about the money. You start thinking about how much work it is, and the fact that you could take one or two trips a year to starkville and still save enough money to go on a decent vacation, and I think we'll see some people just not come back as season ticket holders. That's sort of what happened to us. We had to stop going because work and kids schedule just wouldn't allow it. We've always said we'll start going again in a few years, but I'm thinking it's likely that it will be a one or two game a year deal unless and until we decide to buy a place up there.