Husky fans and the lack of passion people have talked about (compared to the 1990s)

[Pitchfork51]

Jesus Christ.

All teams shitty

You = less shitty

Case cloSesd

 

[huskyhooligan]

Maybe people who are passionate about husky football and live with Skagit, Snohomish, Kitsap, King, Pierce, Kititas, and Thurston Counties should actually put money where their mouth is and attend the games, show up on time, make noise on defense. It's literally 6-7 days out of the year you can plan on. Figure it out.

The late games don’t exactly help out with that.

Agreed, they don't, but the dates for this season were announced on December 4th of last year. If late games are a problem, and you want to plan ahead, book a room and wait until the week of the game to cancel it if it's not a late game. Booking a room almost always costs nothing. I know, extra costs but no one is making you stay downtown and some Air BNB rates are really fucking reasonable.

This is the night of the Ute gayme, in walking distance.

 

[Doogles]

It’s a mix of blue hairs who attend the games for an outing to see old friends and millennials who really don’t give a fuck. The passion is gone and it will stay that way until the blue hairs that remember the 80’s and 90’s are gone and a new era of Husky Football begins. Right now, there is too much of a mix.

The 90’s aren’t coming back. I accepted that a long time ago.

The early 90s were a perfect storm.

Mullets and Starter jackets were in while the QB was named Billy Joe.

Have fun replicating that formula.

 

[Swaye]

Well in defense of the kids, we kind of shuffled them off to the end zone. It’s a far different experience. I think putting them on the 50 would do wonders to make some Dawgs for life. I don’t buy the line from the AD that we can’t afford to do this.

THIS. Sports teams should be marketed like cigarette, alcohol, and meth companies. Irrational devotion, passion, and most importantly brand loyalty established at as young an age as possible. You give out free hits to the kids while they are young and poor so when your students graduate from your prestigious university they throw money at you when they have money for the rest of their lives.

UW moving the student section to the endzone was the ultimate fucktard fast strategy now benefit over slow strategy better long term benefit.

I have to admit that I supported moving the students. I thought drunk 18-22 year olds would be rabid enough as fans that it wouldn't affect them. I thought making more premium seating available to people with money would mean, well, more money but also bring a net gain in terms of fully engaged fans.

I'm a dumbfuck sometimes. Bad move.

Sometimes?

 

[RoadTrip]

It’s a mix of blue hairs who attend the games for an outing to see old friends and millennials who really don’t give a fuck. The passion is gone and it will stay that way until the blue hairs that remember the 80’s and 90’s are gone and a new era of Husky Football begins. Right now, there is too much of a mix.

The 90’s aren’t coming back. I accepted that a long time ago.

It's not the mix that's the problem. Young kids who used to play football and want to go to Husky games now play soccer and want to go to the Sounders. There's no new era out there. It's the over 40's and the millenials who played football who are carrying the crowd these days.

Not to mention the UW demographic has changed. The kids like myself who grew up 30 minutes away, grew up playing sports. Went to games as kids. Got decent grades and grow up to have businesses in the area arent the ones that are the main student body any more.
The UW decided long ago that out of state and out of country tuition brought in more money, and the local ones who can get in are the nerds who are there to play school. Those students grow up, and move away, or if they hang around, they are too busy hanging out at Starbucks on Saturday.

My kid who went to games with me since he was 5 is now in Tempe rooting for the Bitchforks.

The average male student who got a 3.2 in high school and grew up watching UW can’t get into UW anymore. I think this definitely hurts the fan base, although a lot of those kids (myself being similar) are still UW fans.

That's such bullshit that states (people paying the taxes) can do this to their in-state kids. What does it take now in-state to get into UW? If it's bad in Washington, try getting into a UC school in CA. You essentially can't. You could have the highest possible GPA, a perfect SAT, be a multi-letter athlete and do all kinds of charitable activities and still not get accepted into a UC school. It's criminal. However, and I'm not entirely sure of the details but, CA is now offering the first 2 years of JC for free and then you are guaranteed to be accepted into a state school; still not a a UC school but not an entirely terrible deal. There are probably some gotchas but there always are.

 

[1to392831weretaken]

There are three huge differences between now and the 1990s, when the stadium used to be packed:

1.) ALL games are now televised. Not only that, but games are televised on 80" 4K screens that put you closer to the action than being there live. And if you miss the game, you can DVR it or stream it on YouTube at most two days later (rewatched the first quarter last night thanks to Husky Haul). In the '90s, the only way to guarantee that you saw every game was season tickets. Maybe you could pop a VHS tape in, set it to record, and hope it worked and didn't cut out before the end. Nowadays, if you have something else you want to do at game time, you just skip the game and watch it later. Every game. In short, early-90's crappy/unreliable VHS recording of some games + other Saturday activities < live games. 2019 4K YouTube stream every week + other Saturday activities > live games for most people. There is no fix to this problem.

2.) What was the average length of a college football game in the early 90s vs. today? The game day experience isn't being ruined by flashing LCD screens and moving the students. It's being ruined by games taking four hours and most of the four hours being sitting there watching the dude on the field with the LCD countdown clock during one of the 58 commercial breaks that take five minutes. The action on the field in college football is as good as ever, yet the games are getting more and more boring, particularly live, where you're trapped there with nothing else to do and limited options for getting super drunk. Not only that, but the cost of going to a game has skyrocketed. Between tickets, overpriced concessions ($4 for a fucking bottle of water?), and souvenirs, I was out over $300 for a family of four to watch shitty Eastern. Was that the case in the early 90s?

3.) I disagree that late kickoffs ruin attendance. Every single high school game I ever played in kicked off at 7:30, and the stands were reliably packed in my small town. Sure, there are out-of-towners who are put off by it, but I would think this would be more than offset by the crowd with kids who have sports on Saturday and can only show up if the game is late. I'm in the latter crowd. I coach a team. Games are on Saturdays. I would have been in attendance Saturday if the kickoff was at 7:00. I don't think it's the late kicks that are putting off crowds but rather the unpredictable[/i] kickoff times. If every kickoff time was known at the start of the season, I think you'd see an uptick in attendance.

All that being said, I think some here are arguing with the wrong terminology. The problem is attendance[/i], not sales. UW averages a near sell-out in sales, so, to them, price of tickets and size of stadium are just about right. There is no need to lower prices (maybe slightly if they want to bump average sales from 69K to 72K...) or give tickets away (there are very few tickets TO give away from the ticket office's perspective). If we want to fill seats by giving tickets away, this needs to be taken on by season ticketholders themselves.

Maybe that's the campaign that the AD needs to embrace: Spend some money for some flashy ads. Play them on the big screen three times per game: "Season ticketholders, Pay It Forward. We want you here at every game, being loud and rabid for your Dwags. But if you can't make it, don't let that seat stay empty. Pay it forward. If you can't or don't want to sell your seat, the UW AD has set up the Pay It Forward service, where you can donate your tickets, and we'll see to it that they find their way to rabid Dwag fans in need. Local youth football teams. Boys and Girls clubs. Childrens Hospital. Veterans groups. VD clinics. Etc."

 

[YellowSnow]

There are three huge differences between now and the 1990s, when the stadium used to be packed:

1.) ALL games are now televised. Not only that, but games are televised on 80" 4K screens that put you closer to the action than being there live. And if you miss the game, you can DVR it or stream it on YouTube at most two days later (rewatched the first quarter last night thanks to Husky Haul). In the '90s, the only way to guarantee that you saw every game was season tickets. Maybe you could pop a VHS tape in, set it to record, and hope it worked and didn't cut out before the end. Nowadays, if you have something else you want to do at game time, you just skip the game and watch it later. Every game. In short, early-90's crappy/unreliable VHS recording of some games + other Saturday activities < live games. 2019 4K YouTube stream every week + other Saturday activities > live games for most people. There is no fix to this problem.

2.) What was the average length of a college football game in the early 90s vs. today? The game day experience isn't being ruined by flashing LCD screens and moving the students. It's being ruined by games taking four hours and most of the four hours being sitting there watching the dude on the field with the LCD countdown clock during one of the 58 commercial breaks that take five minutes. The action on the field in college football is as good as ever, yet the games are getting more and more boring, particularly live, where you're trapped there with nothing else to do and limited options for getting super drunk. Not only that, but the cost of going to a game has skyrocketed. Between tickets, overpriced concessions ($4 for a fucking bottle of water?), and souvenirs, I was out over $300 for a family of four to watch shitty Eastern. Was that the case in the early 90s?

3.) I disagree that late kickoffs ruin attendance. Every single high school game I ever played in kicked off at 7:30, and the stands were reliably packed in my small town. Sure, there are out-of-towners who are put off by it, but I would think this would be more than offset by the crowd with kids who have sports on Saturday and can only show up if the game is late. I'm in the latter crowd. I coach a team. Games are on Saturdays. I would have been in attendance Saturday if the kickoff was at 7:00. I don't think it's the late kicks that are putting off crowds but rather the unpredictable[/i] kickoff times. If every kickoff time was known at the start of the season, I think you'd see an uptick in attendance.

All that being said, I think some here are arguing with the wrong terminology. The problem is attendance[/i], not sales. UW averages a near sell-out in sales, so, to them, price of tickets and size of stadium are just about right. There is no need to lower prices (maybe slightly if they want to bump average sales from 69K to 72K...) or give tickets away (there are very few tickets TO give away from the ticket office's perspective). If we want to fill seats by giving tickets away, this needs to be taken on by season ticketholders themselves.

Maybe that's the campaign that the AD needs to embrace: Spend some money for some flashy ads. Play them on the big screen three times per game: "Season ticketholders, Pay It Forward. We want you here at every game, being loud and rabid for your Dwags. But if you can't make it, don't let that seat stay empty. Pay it forward. If you can't or don't want to sell your seat, the UW AD has set up the Pay It Forward service, where you can donate your tickets, and we'll see to it that they find their way to rabid Dwag fans in need. Local youth football teams. Boys and Girls clubs. Childrens Hospital. Veterans groups. VD clinics. Etc."

Absolutely correct on attendance[/i] vs sales[/i] . From a fiscal standpoint we're Back in Black (shout out to @dflea ). But the Husky Stadium atmosphere and culture needs so much work.

 

[BleachedAnusDawg]

Maybe people who are passionate about husky football and live with Skagit, Snohomish, Kitsap, King, Pierce, Kititas, and Thurston Counties should actually put money where their mouth is and attend the games, show up on time, make noise on defense. It's literally 6-7 days out of the year you can plan on. Figure it out.

The late games don’t exactly help out with that.

Agreed, they don't, but the dates for this season were announced on December 4th of last year. If late games are a problem, and you want to plan ahead, book a room and wait until the week of the game to cancel it if it's not a late game. Booking a room almost always costs nothing. I know, extra costs but no one is making you stay downtown and some Air BNB rates are really fucking reasonable.

This is the night of the Ute gayme, in walking distance.

View attachment 23798

Nobody is going to do all that.

Why would I want to book a hotel room that costs $150 after taxes when I live within a 90 minute drive of the stadium. Give me a 4 pm or earlier start and I will show up. 7:30 pm games announced 10 days prior to kickoff and you (UW) can fuck off. I will be at home enjoying good food and beer for 1/10th the cost.

Costs, traffic, uncertainty around planning for times, and cheap, giant hi-res tv's at home have all contributed to making going to the games not worth it - except for 1-2 games a year that actually matter. You will see a sold out stadium for Oregon and WSU because those are the two games people care about.

 

[theLSkid]

I guess I don't understand the difficulty in people realizing it isn't part of the culture out west

No one out here gives a fuck

This is something I've said many times. Living in both the Midwest and the West Coast, you can tell the PNW does not give a single fuck about sports. The D2 I'm currently at in Michigan has more people in attendance than EWU, which is a top FCS school with almost double the enrollment of my school.

 

[theLSkid]

It’s a mix of blue hairs who attend the games for an outing to see old friends and millennials who really don’t give a fuck. The passion is gone and it will stay that way until the blue hairs that remember the 80’s and 90’s are gone and a new era of Husky Football begins. Right now, there is too much of a mix.

The 90’s aren’t coming back. I accepted that a long time ago.

It's not the mix that's the problem. Young kids who used to play football and want to go to Husky games now play soccer and want to go to the Sounders. There's no new era out there. It's the over 40's and the millenials who played football who are carrying the crowd these days.

Not to mention the UW demographic has changed. The kids like myself who grew up 30 minutes away, grew up playing sports. Went to games as kids. Got decent grades and grow up to have businesses in the area arent the ones that are the main student body any more.
The UW decided long ago that out of state and out of country tuition brought in more money, and the local ones who can get in are the nerds who are there to play school. Those students grow up, and move away, or if they hang around, they are too busy hanging out at Starbucks on Saturday.

My kid who went to games with me since he was 5 is now in Tempe rooting for the Bitchforks.

The average male student who got a 3.2 in high school and grew up watching UW can’t get into UW anymore. I think this definitely hurts the fan base, although a lot of those kids (myself being similar) are still UW fans.

That's such bullshit that states (people paying the taxes) can do this to their in-state kids. What does it take now in-state to get into UW? If it's bad in Washington, try getting into a UC school in CA. You essentially can't. You could have the highest possible GPA, a perfect SAT, be a multi-letter athlete and do all kinds of charitable activities and still not get accepted into a UC school. It's criminal. However, and I'm not entirely sure of the details but, CA is now offering the first 2 years of JC for free and then you are guaranteed to be accepted into a state school; still not a a UC school but not an entirely terrible deal. There are probably some gotchas but there always are.

You get free JC tuition if you are an in-state resident AND qualify for any FAFSA Pell grant money. The difference between Washington and UC schools is that California has a LOT more 4 year options. Sure, you won't get into Berkley if you're a white male, but you can go to SDSU and fuck co-eds just as hot and less likely to be 'misgendered'.

 

[Kingdome_Urinals]

I actually agree more with Derek's original point. The Huskies were red hot in the 1990s because fans felt that we were finally at the very top of the sport for the first time.

The thrill of beating Oklahoma, Nebraska, Michigan, etc. in the '80s or '90s was as big as it would be for beating Clemson, Bama, or Ohio St. nowadays.

If you knew that Trevor Lawrence was going to get sacked four times by your dominant DL with a pick 6 to boot, or that Tua would be looking at several three and outs you would be jacked out of your mind.

Football is dying...sniff. Okay, GTFO. Go to your Sounders games and get your Kyle Seager bobblehead.

 

[RoadDawg55]

It’s a mix of blue hairs who attend the games for an outing to see old friends and millennials who really don’t give a fuck. The passion is gone and it will stay that way until the blue hairs that remember the 80’s and 90’s are gone and a new era of Husky Football begins. Right now, there is too much of a mix.

The 90’s aren’t coming back. I accepted that a long time ago.

It's not the mix that's the problem. Young kids who used to play football and want to go to Husky games now play soccer and want to go to the Sounders. There's no new era out there. It's the over 40's and the millenials who played football who are carrying the crowd these days.

Not to mention the UW demographic has changed. The kids like myself who grew up 30 minutes away, grew up playing sports. Went to games as kids. Got decent grades and grow up to have businesses in the area arent the ones that are the main student body any more.
The UW decided long ago that out of state and out of country tuition brought in more money, and the local ones who can get in are the nerds who are there to play school. Those students grow up, and move away, or if they hang around, they are too busy hanging out at Starbucks on Saturday.

My kid who went to games with me since he was 5 is now in Tempe rooting for the Bitchforks.

The average male student who got a 3.2 in high school and grew up watching UW can’t get into UW anymore. I think this definitely hurts the fan base, although a lot of those kids (myself being similar) are still UW fans.

That's such bullshit that states (people paying the taxes) can do this to their in-state kids. What does it take now in-state to get into UW? If it's bad in Washington, try getting into a UC school in CA. You essentially can't. You could have the highest possible GPA, a perfect SAT, be a multi-letter athlete and do all kinds of charitable activities and still not get accepted into a UC school. It's criminal. However, and I'm not entirely sure of the details but, CA is now offering the first 2 years of JC for free and then you are guaranteed to be accepted into a state school; still not a a UC school but not an entirely terrible deal. There are probably some gotchas but there always are.

Agree that it has gotten ridiculous. Nobody wants to go Ajax tho. They want to go have a real college experience.

 

[UWhuskytskeet]

This board likes to think of itself as the home of rabid fans but the majority never attend a game. Quit being little bitches and actually show up to the stadium.

The student section was 95% full and they stayed until the end. Having school in session helps.

 

[PostGameOrangeSlices]

This board likes to think of itself as the home of rabid fans but the majority never attend a game. Quit being little bitches and actually show up to the stadium.

The student section was 95% full and they stayed until the end. Having school in session helps.

If I got to 3 ish games a year and otherwise get loaded at home can I bitch?

 

[UWhuskytskeet]

This board likes to think of itself as the home of rabid fans but the majority never attend a game. Quit being little bitches and actually show up to the stadium.

The student section was 95% full and they stayed until the end. Having school in session helps.

If I got to 3 ish games a year and otherwise get loaded at home can I bitch?

Yes but only because I do the same thing.

 

[PostGameOrangeSlices]

This board likes to think of itself as the home of rabid fans but the majority never attend a game. Quit being little bitches and actually show up to the stadium.

The student section was 95% full and they stayed until the end. Having school in session helps.

If I got to 3 ish games a year and otherwise get loaded at home can I bitch?

Yes but only because I do the same thing.

 

[PurpleJ]

Maybe people who are passionate about husky football and live with Skagit, Snohomish, Kitsap, King, Pierce, Kititas, and Thurston Counties should actually put money where their mouth is and attend the games, show up on time, make noise on defense. It's literally 6-7 days out of the year you can plan on. Figure it out.

The late games don’t exactly help out with that.

Agreed, they don't, but the dates for this season were announced on December 4th of last year. If late games are a problem, and you want to plan ahead, book a room and wait until the week of the game to cancel it if it's not a late game. Booking a room almost always costs nothing. I know, extra costs but no one is making you stay downtown and some Air BNB rates are really fucking reasonable.

This is the night of the Ute gayme, in walking distance.

View attachment 23798

You said 6-7 days out of the year, now multiply that by two and you have your number.

It isn’t about the money, in fact I personally don’t need to get a room if I come up for a night game. I got connects like that. Most people do not.

But even so, it’s still a big time commitment like you said yourself. That’s almost the entire weekend and some people have kids and other commitments. Then you also have to consider that we? insult our fans by scheduling scrimmages with Fucknut State 1-2x a year and it makes season tickets even less worth it.

Moral of the story is the TV networks win the day and the AD doesn’t help matters with the non-conference dreck. NOGAF about the fans these days and maybe Jen should fucking do something about it. Until then, it’s single game tickets and watch the rest of the games in HD at home where I can drink and smoke weed/cigs as much as I want while posting on HH in my soiled sweatpants. Eat my ass with a spork if you don’t like it.

 

[Baseman]

It’s a mix of blue hairs who attend the games for an outing to see old friends and millennials who really don’t give a fuck. The passion is gone and it will stay that way until the blue hairs that remember the 80’s and 90’s are gone and a new era of Husky Football begins. Right now, there is too much of a mix.

The 90’s aren’t coming back. I accepted that a long time ago.

It's not the mix that's the problem. Young kids who used to play football and want to go to Husky games now play soccer and want to go to the Sounders. There's no new era out there. It's the over 40's and the millenials who played football who are carrying the crowd these days.

Not to mention the UW demographic has changed. The kids like myself who grew up 30 minutes away, grew up playing sports. Went to games as kids. Got decent grades and grow up to have businesses in the area arent the ones that are the main student body any more.
The UW decided long ago that out of state and out of country tuition brought in more money, and the local ones who can get in are the nerds who are there to play school. Those students grow up, and move away, or if they hang around, they are too busy hanging out at Starbucks on Saturday.

My kid who went to games with me since he was 5 is now in Tempe rooting for the Bitchforks.

The average male student who got a 3.2 in high school and grew up watching UW can’t get into UW anymore. I think this definitely hurts the fan base, although a lot of those kids (myself being similar) are still UW fans.

UW denied my kid w/a 3.5 from a private HS and decent test scores. A 3.2 barely gets you into the Coug these days.

 

[Emoterman]

These are the attendance numbers for Alabama the past two years:

100,495 Arkansas St
101,821 TAMU
101,471 Louisiana-Lafayette
101,821 Missouri
101,821 Miss St
101,681 The Citadel
101,821 Auburn
100,710 New Mexico St
101,821 Southern Miss
99,590 Ole Miss

Doesn't matter who they're playing, presumably what time of day, what the stakes are, they pack that motherfucker every week. Tuscaloosa has a population of 100,000, Seattle 750,000. Tuscaloosa is one hour away from Birmingham, a metro area of 1.1m, Seattle 4m. Median household income of Birmingham $32k, Seattle $45k.

Our fans just suck, in general. But Depeche Mode reminds us that people are people, so it likely has a good deal to do with poor branding/calls to action/engagement.

 

[PurpleJ]

It just means more. Also, they win titles and I’m guessing they actually build enough roads to make traffic not suck there. So there’s that.