Watching overhead shot of Neyland against FL got me thinking…

#1
brockytop

brockytop

Junior Member
Joined
Jan 25, 2005
Messages
1,175
Likes
2,751
#1
one of the biggest changes in college football over the last decade or two is the sharp decline in traveling road fans. i bet there wasn’t a third of Gator fans at Saturday’s game versus,say, 1998.

I know there are exceptions to this on occasion (our game at LSU may be one of them), but the traveling fan base seems to be a thing of the past across the country.

Cost? HDTV? Lack of time? Other interesTS? What do you find to be the major reasons for this trend?
 
#6
#6
CAVPUT said:
Recession, inflation, obscene gas prices, price gouging by the local rental market during football season...should I go on or is this ample reason?
Click to expand...
Yeah, that’s definitely reasons for it being like that this year, but there were a lot of good economic years were travel fanbases didn’t show like they used to. It’s a trend, not a one year deal.
 
  • Like
Reactions: J C Higgins
#7
#7
brockytop said:
Yeah, that’s definitely reasons for it being like that this year, but there were a lot of good economic years were travel fanbases didn’t show like they used to. It’s a trend, not a one year deal.
Click to expand...
Cost of tickets, gas to drive 8+ hours, cost of hotels (especially Knoxville area hotels during football season), cost of concessions, having to deal with gameday traffic...makes it a lot less appealing when one can sit on their couch, watch a 65" HD TV, and run to the fridge whenever they want. I'd say for games like UT-FL, it costs well over $1,000 bucks and a lot of driving for less than a 1 day experience.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 99grad, savannahfan, Volwonder1 and 4 others
#8
#8
brockytop said:
one of the biggest changes in college football over the last decade or two is the sharp decline in traveling road fans. i bet there wasn’t a third of Gator fans at Saturday’s game versus,say, 1998.

I know there are exceptions to this on occasion (our game at LSU may be one of them), but the traveling fan base seems to be a thing of the past across the country.

Cost? HDTV? Lack of time? Other interesTS? What do you find to be the major reasons for this trend?
Click to expand...
Weird since we travel so well still. 😂
 
#15
#15
brockytop said:
one of the biggest changes in college football over the last decade or two is the sharp decline in traveling road fans. i bet there wasn’t a third of Gator fans at Saturday’s game versus,say, 1998.

I know there are exceptions to this on occasion (our game at LSU may be one of them), but the traveling fan base seems to be a thing of the past across the country.

Cost? HDTV? Lack of time? Other interesTS? What do you find to be the major reasons for this trend?
Click to expand...
It's because they aren't good. In 2018 they had a lot. In 2016 they had a lot. We had a bunch at Pitt. Probably will at LSU.

Everyone kept saying we needed to make Neyland 100% chairbacks and reduce the capacity and here we are with 3 sellouts in the same season and possibly more. Just win.
 
  • Like
Reactions: crazyguy and Woodlawn VOL
#16
#16
Florida is not all in on the Napier experiment. They barely /luckily beat an overrated Utah team. Lost to Kentucky. Barely/luckily beat USF. So, I wouldn't travel to a game I am probably not going to win either if I am them.
 
  • Like
Reactions: feathersax
#17
#17
brockytop said:
one of the biggest changes in college football over the last decade or two is the sharp decline in traveling road fans. i bet there wasn’t a third of Gator fans at Saturday’s game versus,say, 1998.

I know there are exceptions to this on occasion (our game at LSU may be one of them), but the traveling fan base seems to be a thing of the past across the country.

Cost? HDTV? Lack of time? Other interesTS? What do you find to be the major reasons for this trend?
Click to expand...
Florida sucks and the fans know it. That's why they didn't travel.
 
  • Like
Reactions: feathersax and Stephen Gray
#18
#18
volfan_28 said:
The economy sucks. Pickwick Lake on Memorial Day was DEAD. We saw maybe 10% of the number of boats we used to see. Was the same on July 4th. Economy is much worse than we are being told on the news
Click to expand...

But, but, but Inflation has been eliminated! Heard it from the horses mouth last month!
 
  • Like
Reactions: SonOfGodVolforlife, Kdbnab1, posivol and 1 other person
#19
#19
brockytop said:
one of the biggest changes in college football over the last decade or two is the sharp decline in traveling road fans. i bet there wasn’t a third of Gator fans at Saturday’s game versus,say, 1998.

I know there are exceptions to this on occasion (our game at LSU may be one of them), but the traveling fan base seems to be a thing of the past across the country.

Cost? HDTV? Lack of time? Other interesTS? What do you find to be the major reasons for this trend?
Click to expand...
Less Gator bastards is one of the few things I like better about modern Neyland
 
#20
#20
brockytop said:
Yeah, that’s definitely reasons for it being like that this year, but there were a lot of good economic years were travel fanbases didn’t show like they used to. It’s a trend, not a one year deal.
Click to expand...
You also have other factors like a having a team that just flat sucked. After so many years of being a punchline, some folks decided spending all that money on seats in the terrace, travel, being raped by the Marriott or said rental community just wasn't worth it anymore so they decided to not be so "invested" anymore.
 
#21
#21
volfan_28 said:
The economy sucks. Pickwick Lake on Memorial Day was DEAD. We saw maybe 10% of the number of boats we used to see. Was the same on July 4th. Economy is much worse than we are being told on the news
Click to expand...
July 4th was probably due to no fireworks.
 
#22
#22
For UT, it's ROI...or ROE...return on enjoyment and pent up demand. We're likely to take over Bryce/Williams when we play SC...unless something improves down there.
 
#23
#23
Tickets in our section were $500-1950/piece on Vivid. Hotels downtown were $600-900/night with two night minimums. Gas was still over $3/gallon and flights crazy, even with Allegiant. I checked on going to Baton Rouge and the cheapest ticket I could find was $950 round trip.

Not many people have that kind of expendable income right now. It's just the way it is.
 
  • Like
Reactions: toeflood and LadyVolette
#24
#24
A prediction: Florida's turnround this year is going to be bigger than last year but in the opposite direction! And they will all get on board the Napier bandwagon!
 
#25
#25
Godfatha said:
Cost of tickets, gas to drive 8+ hours, cost of hotels (especially Knoxville area hotels during football season), cost of concessions, having to deal with gameday traffic...makes it a lot less appealing when one can sit on their couch, watch a 65" HD TV, and run to the fridge whenever they want. I'd say for games like UT-FL, it costs well over $1,000 bucks and a lot of driving for less than a 1 day experience.
Click to expand...

Big issues here. With the cost of everything going up much faster than the paycheck, this becomes a BIG issue. Another thing for me is: These traveling fans are getting older as a group I think. The younger bunch are paying school debt on top of everything else and they as a group don't seem to be as passionate about football as those folks just a little older. They have many things other than football they have grown up with to spend the little extra money they can afford. Most of these things don't require as many hours of heavy traffic, dull boring travel time most endure to "go footballing".
 
New posts
You must log in or register to reply here.

VN Store



Back
Top