Attendance Issues

[GWAVE1]

2 hours ago, ReitzFan said:

I would like to bring another perspective to a table in regards to dwindling attendance at high school games no matter what the level. One reason for the decline in attendance would be the increase in other entertainment and sporting options for people. This is mainly due to the increases in the number of people subscribing to a cable television or to satellite TV. More a TV options equals more people who are less willing to go out to a ball game on a Friday night.

Another part of the issue will be the fact that college ball games are now being scheduled on Fridays and being shown on TV. Friday night used to be exclusively for high school football and Saturdays for a college football. Now you have the NFL expanding their television presence and the colleges playing on other days than their traditional Saturday ball games. Again more choices for the consumer equals or less Revenue at the high schools on Friday night.

Another reason for the decrease in attendance at high school football games on Friday night is video streaming of high school football games. Many high schools have now set up their own streaming services and in West Tennessee one radio station has set up a video streaming and offering multiple high school games on live video. What this is doing is that the average fan instead of paying six bucks and going to watch the local high school play and buying hot dogs, popcorn, and soft drinks at the concession stand, they are now staying at home and watching that same game on TV at no charge.

I personally would like to see live video and television broadcast severely restricted. If there is a broadcast organization that wants to do a television or video broadcast of a ball game, they should in turn have to pay a broadcast rights fee to the schools involved in that game. During the postseason ,  the TSSAA already mandates  that a rights fee  has to be paid  for a broadcast entity  to do a live streaming video  or a live broadcast of a ball game . If this policy was enacted for regular seadon games, at least the schools would get some of their revenue back in the form of Rights fees.

The bottom line for me is that live video broadcast and live television broadcast of high school games are most definitely hurting the attendance at the games and thus hitting the school's right in the pocketbook.

I think you are on the money.  

[13sports]

Schools do not have to allow the games to be broadcast.  Most believe the publicity outweighs any potential loss of revenue.  Many schools have begun to produce their own broadcast.

 

[ReitzFan]

5 hours ago, 13sports said:

Schools do not have to allow the games to be broadcast.  Most believe the publicity outweighs any potential loss of revenue.  Many schools have begun to produce their own broadcast.

 

Publicity and exposure should bring Revenue in to a school, not drive it away and that's what happens when you have games that are video streamed live.

[TryNotToSuck]

10 hours ago, ReitzFan said:

I would like to bring another perspective to a table in regards to dwindling attendance at high school games no matter what the level. One reason for the decline in attendance would be the increase in other entertainment and sporting options for people. This is mainly due to the increases in the number of people subscribing to a cable television or to satellite TV. More a TV options equals more people who are less willing to go out to a ball game on a Friday night.

Another part of the issue will be the fact that college ball games are now being scheduled on Fridays and being shown on TV. Friday night used to be exclusively for high school football and Saturdays for a college football. Now you have the NFL expanding their television presence and the colleges playing on other days than their traditional Saturday ball games. Again more choices for the consumer equals or less Revenue at the high schools on Friday night.

Another reason for the decrease in attendance at high school football games on Friday night is video streaming of high school football games. Many high schools have now set up their own streaming services and in West Tennessee one radio station has set up a video streaming and offering multiple high school games on live video. What this is doing is that the average fan instead of paying six bucks and going to watch the local high school play and buying hot dogs, popcorn, and soft drinks at the concession stand, they are now staying at home and watching that same game on TV at no charge.

I personally would like to see live video and television broadcast severely restricted. If there is a broadcast organization that wants to do a television or video broadcast of a ball game, they should in turn have to pay a broadcast rights fee to the schools involved in that game. During the postseason ,  the TSSAA already mandates  that a rights fee  has to be paid  for a broadcast entity  to do a live streaming video  or a live broadcast of a ball game . If this policy was enacted for regular seadon games, at least the schools would get some of their revenue back in the form of Rights fees.

The bottom line for me is that live video broadcast and live television broadcast of high school games are most definitely hurting the attendance at the games and thus hitting the school's right in the pocketbook.

I agree with you in terms of steaming games, especially in rainy weather. But I don’t agree with you in terms of what’s on TV for that night. I looked at the Friday nights college football schedule, and the only marquee matchup that’s worth staying in is UCF @ Cincinnati. I don’t think anybody will skip a high school football game just to watch Tulsa @ Michigan State in the first week of the season. Everybody now has the luxury of recording games/shows now.

I am somewhat confused when we are talking about attendance going down. Is it the average of the attendance in a football, or the total attendance (from all schools in Tennessee) going down? If it’s average, I can see it because there are more schools now than there was 10 years ago. I can’t buy into the “total attendance” because I would figure there are now 9 classifications in Tennessee, and everyone seems like they’re a playoff team, so it doesn’t make sense to me that the total attendance will be going down.

[dadriot12]

If you put out a good product, they will come. Henry County High School has filled their stands for the last 10-12 years off of great teams and great coaches. They also have filled your stands with great fans in the away games, most of the time having more fans than the home team. Great teams , great fan base.

[cbg]

3 hours ago, dadriot12 said:

If you put out a good product, they will come. Henry County High School has filled their stands for the last 10-12 years off of great teams and great coaches. They also have filled your stands with great fans in the away games, most of the time having more fans than the home team. Great teams , great fan base.

At 99.9% of the inner city schools you could have a state championship team and  you would be lucky to make enough money to pay the officials and police officers.  There is a major difference between suburban schools, rural county schools and the inner city schools.

[osunut2]

1 hour ago, cbg said:

At 99.9% of the inner city schools you could have a state championship team and  you would be lucky to make enough money to pay the officials and police officers.  There is a major difference between suburban schools, rural county schools and the inner city schools. 

Exactly right. Big difference between Nashville and Paris.

[MSURacer]

4 hours ago, cbg said:

At 99.9% of the inner city schools you could have a state championship team and  you would be lucky to make enough money to pay the officials and police officers.  There is a major difference between suburban schools, rural county schools and the inner city schools.

Hard to maintain a base of support without a sense of community, and that’s just difficult to come by in the cities. The only notable exception I can think of at the moment is Whitehaven. Orange Mound had a great atmosphere too back when they were a force to be reckoned with. I can’t really speak for the Nashville schools. Hillsboro had a good crowd when we were there in ‘08, but that was for a semifinal. 

In my opinion the inner city attendance issue just comes with the territory. That’s borderline unfixable, especially as the older generation with actual ties to these “neighborhood schools” dies off. Those that haven’t already left for the suburbs anyway. There just isn’t much support to be had besides player parents and kids looking to socialize. Any casual fans of the game are probably heading south to Rutherford or Wilco on Friday nights. 

[GWAVE1]

16 minutes ago, MSURacer said:

Hard to maintain a base of support without a sense of community, and that’s just difficult to come by in the cities. The only notable exception I can think of at the moment is Whitehaven. Orange Mound had a great atmosphere too back when they were a force to be reckoned with. I can’t really speak for the Nashville schools. Hillsboro had a good crowd when we were there in ‘08, but that was for a semifinal. 

In my opinion the inner city attendance issue just comes with the territory. That’s borderline unfixable, especially as the older generation with actual ties to these “neighborhood schools” dies off. Those that haven’t already left for the suburbs anyway. There just isn’t much support to be had besides player parents and kids looking to socialize. Any casual fans of the game are probably heading south to Rutherford or Wilco on Friday nights. 

That is one reason why playing teams like this is so difficult financially.  Most of these teams do not bring many fans to your home games and you are forced to find traditional rivalries or other schools that have a good following to make up the gate.  I am very fortunate to follow a team that has good fan support at home and road games.  Sure, it has dropped off but if the wins come I think it will pick back up.  

[MSURacer]

3 hours ago, GWAVE1 said:

That is one reason why playing teams like this is so difficult financially.  Most of these teams do not bring many fans to your home games and you are forced to find traditional rivalries or other schools that have a good following to make up the gate.  I am very fortunate to follow a team that has good fan support at home and road games.  Sure, it has dropped off but if the wins come I think it will pick back up.  

I've always been impressed with the support the Sumner County schools get. In our experiences of having played Beech, Gallatin, and Hendersonville at various points over the past decade, I don't think I've ever been underwhelmed with their fans whether home or away. They each still have that small town feel toward high school football that's getting increasingly difficult to find. 

Regarding the rest of your post, I agree completely. We are all too familiar with poor gates within our region and trying to find "money games" to fill out the schedule. We do pretty well for the most part, but I'd still love it if we could find some of those local traditional rivalries like you guys have. 

Edited July 4, 2019 by MSURacer

[GWAVE1]

1 hour ago, MSURacer said:

I've always been impressed with the support the Sumner County schools get. In our experiences of having played Beech, Gallatin, and Hendersonville at various points over the past decade, I don't think I've ever been underwhelmed with their fans whether home or away. They each still have that small town feel toward high school football that's getting increasingly difficult to find. 

Regarding the rest of your post, I agree completely. We are all too familiar with poor gates within our region and trying to find "money games" to fill out the schedule. We do pretty well for the most part, but I'd still love it if we could find some of those local traditional rivalries like you guys have. 

Henry Co has one big problem...location.  Other than that, one could not complain about anything surrounding the football program.  The support is obviously there.  Good fans and very friendly.  Team is always tough and the food is fantastic!  Last time I went there, the town had the colors out and seemed like every other person was dressed in Patriot red.  Paris has that appeal like some of the smaller towns like Hartsville.  Both have diehard fans and approach the game like a spectacle.  If I had no allegiance, one of those two would get my support.  But....I do and I am very proud of my Green Wave.  Summer Co takes its football pretty serious and like you said the rivalries are good.  The 4 big high schools have a good following and the kids want those bragging rights.  Portland and White House have their big game as well.  Westmoreland gets left out a lot but I know several who follow them up on the hill.  Williamson and Rutherford get the lion’s share of the props but I think Sumner is not too far behind them in terms of quality ball and some of the games are more intense.  

[MSURacer]

52 minutes ago, GWAVE1 said:

Henry Co has one big problem...location.  Other than that, one could not complain about anything surrounding the football program.  The support is obviously there.  Good fans and very friendly.  Team is always tough and the food is fantastic!  Last time I went there, the town had the colors out and seemed like every other person was dressed in Patriot red.  Paris has that appeal like some of the smaller towns like Hartsville.  Both have diehard fans and approach the game like a spectacle.  If I had no allegiance, one of those two would get my support.  But....I do and I am very proud of my Green Wave.  Summer Co takes its football pretty serious and like you said the rivalries are good.  The 4 big high schools have a good following and the kids want those bragging rights.  Portland and White House have their big game as well.  Westmoreland gets left out a lot but I know several who follow them up on the hill.  Williamson and Rutherford get the lion’s share of the props but I think Sumner is not too far behind them in terms of quality ball and some of the games are more intense.  

Appreciate the kind words. Gallatin’s wave yard is certainly no slouch. In addition to the fans I love the setting  with it being off campus and no track. Springfield’s old stadium had a similar unique feel to it. Our game at Gallatin in ‘16 was beyond memorable. I Look forward to returning one day. A playoff game would be awesome. 

Very true on location. We’ve been on an island for as long as I can remember. It’s actually not as bad as it used to be. Back in the 90s our region included Glencliff, Hillsboro, and Hunters Lane in addition to the (then) 3 Clarksville schools. 

As for traditional rivalries, the few ones we did have (Dickson County and JCM) are either literally or essentially dead. 

The city of Clarksville will forever be a mystery to me. I generally respect Northeast and CHS, as they’re usually at least decent, but that city should be producing 1 or 2 5A powers each year with the talent it has.

Edited July 4, 2019 by MSURacer