A recent article in The Tuscaloosa News, carried the headline “SEC’s 14 schools divide millions”. During the 2017-2018 fiscal year each of the 14 members received over $43.1 million in revenue from the league office. The source of these funds from television contracts, bowl games, the College Football Playoff, the SEC football championship game, the SEC men’s basketball tournament, NCAA championships and a supplemental surplus fund. In the previous fiscal year each school received around $40.9 million. In the last two fiscal years, each of the member schools received in excess of $84 million. By any standards this is a lot of money, yet these same member schools continue to beg for contributions to their respective athletic programs.
Big time college athletics have become a big business. The motivation for success revolves around the amount of dollars that can be generated. It is for this reason that television companies can dictate to the universities when they will play games and at what time. There was a time when the fans that supported their team were an appropriate constituent—not anymore. A football game that has a starting time of 8:00 or 8:30 PM will not end until close to midnight and the impact on the fan be damned. Fans who live 3-4 hours from the university will not get home until the wee hours of the next morning. Basketball games that begin at 8:00 PM will not end until around 10:00 PM and then these same fans will have a 3-4-hour drive home. Television access drives when games will be played and that’s the bottom line. If, as a fan, you do not like it, stay home; and that is what is happening around the country. The attendance at games has been declining as more and more people are making the decision to watch the game on television rather than travel to see the game in person. It is quite possible that this phenomenon will continue, and the numbers of fans will be on a downward slide.
I have been buying season tickets for both football and basketball at The University of Alabama for over 40 years. The price of the tickets has continued to increase and even though both my wife and I are retired members of the faculty, we paid over $1,500 for four tickets to seven home football games for the 2018 season, and our seat location has gotten progressively worse. Our tickets are at a discounted rate, thus the amount that someone who is not affiliated with university would pay would be about 20% more. In addition to the cost of simply getting into the stadium, there is also the cost of parking and concessions. A package of M&M candy costs $4, a soft drink $4 or $5, a bottle of water $3, and a hot dog $5. Parking can cost anywhere from $20 to $50. It is apparent that attending a sporting event at a major university is going to cost a significant amount of money. Is it worth it? Indeed, there is the excitement of being in attendance; however, the constant barrage of noise can be rather disconcerting. At any lull in the game due to timeouts, media timeouts, injuries or change of possession, blaring music blasts through the sound system. It is not the bands playing, it is music that students want to hear. I recall at a meeting of the Basketball Tip Off Club, the head coach was asked if something could be done about the loud music being played during timeouts. His response was that it is what “the kids want”. Maybe this will be what it comes to. Older folks who pay to attend these games will stop attending and “the kids” will get what they want, but the revenue coming from the season ticket-holders will not continue to support the team. Both football and basketball are revenue-producing sports, and administrators of the university, athletic administrators, and head coaches need to work out a balance on what defines the atmosphere of a major college game. The atmosphere includes the cost of attending, the cost of concessions, the cost and inconvenience of parking, and the incessantly produced noise. If there is not some attention given to these issues, the decline in attendance will continue and the revenue streams from these sources will also continue to decline.
Major sports in major universities generate a lot of money and the current climate seems to be very favorable, yet this comfortable bubble may not remain inflated. There are no guarantees that will keep these resources coming at the rates that they are currently experiencing. As noted, there is evidence that people are not attending games on a consistent basis. The cost of attending is prohibitive to many of the average fans and this base may continue to decline. The current heyday is good, but nothing lasts forever.