Businesses are doing great, student affinity at all time high!

#1
The Dude

The Dude

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#1
Student: 'Just skip' Vols football games | ajc.com

Tennessee student Kristin Childrey just assumed she and her friends would attend every home football game last season.

That’s not the case this year.

“It’s not a priority anymore,” said the 19-year-old sophomore who’s been to two of three home games. “If you’ve got something else to do, you just skip it.”

"It’s almost like a boycott,” said Evan Baddour, a 21-year-old senior who skipped Saturday night’s game against Northern Illinois because of a prior engagement. “At first, it was kind of rebelling against having to pay for tickets, but within my group of friends, (coach Phillip) Fulmer is really the source of what people see as the problem.”
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Concessions have taken a slight hit so far this season — not enough for Hamilton to be concerned but something that could hurt the athletic department if the trend continues.

Fans’ attitudes also have taken a toll on local businesses who depend on strong sales during football season to survive when students are away during the summer.

Katie Campbell, an assistant manager of McAlister’s Deli near the campus, said sales at the restaurant were down about $1,000 the day the Vols beat Northern Illinois.

“Normally on a game day, we’re busy all day long,” she said. “We actually ended up closing early on Saturday because the place was empty.”

Baddour noticed it too when he went out on the town after the game with friends. The crowds at the bars were much thinner than usual after a night win. He thinks students have lost interest in Fulmer and the Vols after seeing the excitement and success in Tennessee’s basketball program under energetic coach Bruce Pearl.
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This isn't going to help Fulmer's cause, if Cumberland businesses can't make money.
 
#2
#2
from Saturday's game, right before kickoff:
 

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#3
#3
Sodexho already pays UT on concessions I believe so that isn't a concern for them.
 
#9
#9
JZVOL said:
Sodexho already pays UT on concessions I believe so that isn't a concern for them.
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but there contract is based on having sales from 107,000 on game day. You take 27,000 people at an average of $15 per person and your talking about losing $405,000. Thats a big hit.
 
#11
#11
Students should have free tickets to UT home games. It is their University and their team, afterall.
 
#13
#13
There's no reason to pay for this product, plain and simple.

And for some reason I still do.
 
#14
#14
Probably a lot of folks outside waiting for desperate scalpers to give away their tickets at gametime.
 
#17
#17
dimera23 said:
Students should have free tickets to UT home games. It is their University and their team, afterall.
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I think that was a very lousy decision to charge students for their tickets and hope for sure that is stopped next season or Hamilton is gone, preferably both.

Godfatha said:
Probably a lot of folks outside waiting for desperate scalpers to give away their tickets at gametime.
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#18
#18
Godfatha said:
Probably a lot of folks outside waiting for desperate scalpers to give away their tickets at gametime.
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We had 2 get two tickets for someone else before the game, but didn't want to pay more than $5 for them. We couldn't find anyone selling tickets for less than $20 and waited until about 20 min. before kickoff. We ended up paying $10 a piece for them. It seemed like there were more people wanting tickets than selling them. I think a lot of people that normally wouldn't get a chance to go to a game thought they could go to this one and get really cheap, if not free, tickets and that's the reason so many people were wanting tickets. They may have been a lot cheaper had we waited right up until kickoff or after, but don't know.
 
#19
#19
"The student section is responsible for 70 percent of the drop so far, with poor turnout for the UAB and Northern Illinois games."

Meaning....the bigger spending, non-student fans were still mostly there. When you consider all the factors with the current economy, this is not a substantial number.
 
#20
#20
gsvol said:
I think that was a very lousy decision to charge students for their tickets and hope for sure that is stopped next season or Hamilton is gone, preferably both.



I don't see students ever getting free tickets again. UT, and one other SEC school were the only ones not charging students for tickets, so this was something that I'm surprised hadn't happened already. If the product on the field was better, and we had a winning record I don't think students would be complaining about having to pay for tickets.
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