CFB Attendance

Spectator sports as entertainment is losing to HDTV and other, more bespoke modes of entertainment. I do not think this is a huge revelation.

I grew up watching sports when the national game of the week was all that was available and SportsCenter was the only way to get a peek at the rest of the nation. I had to watch the Braves, or Cubs, (TBS, WGN) or the ABC college football game. Like, that was it.

Now? We can stream just about any college football game available PLUS some Spanish league soccer. It only makes sense that others are not even choosing to become fans of CFB when they have other options I could not even dream of when I was a kid. I do not blame them.

It also follows that one reason for the rise in popularity of soccer is that is is now as available (maybe more) as the local college football team. It also follows that SportsCenter is losing popularity when twitter can stream the highlights of the day in real time. Instead of begging ESPN to please show the highlight of the day, CUSA’s twitter account can retweet it easily.

If NT wants to boost attendance it has to boost interest in football, college football, and then NT college football specifically in that order. That’s a lot to ask of Wren Baker in just one year. A winning team, good weather, and otherwise perfect circumstances mean that NT will get a nice bump here and there but the decline in spectator sport is more about the availability of other entertainment than it is about college football.

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