Deleted Account 5,203 Report Share Posted October 3, 2014 GMan asked the question, and the response is really too long to put in the Chatbox. So here are the reasons: Virginia performed a disastrous reseating in May 2008. The Hoos were coming off that fluky 9-4 season in 2007, and despite taking that for what it was (Chris Long and Jameel Sewell playing out of their minds), the AD and Virginia Athletics Foundation (VAF) saw that as a perfect time for a cash grab. Historically, the VAF ticketing scoring rubric had been very strongly weighted in favor of long-term giving (which sucks for Hoo fans that aren't stepping into the grave). With the cash grab, the VAF restructured its formula that put a higher emphasis on amount than long-term giving. This uprooted many people from those nice 40-to-40 seats and put them down near the end zone. The indirect result was that (1) fans were removed from their buddies, with whom they'd sat for a decade and (2) families ended up being split up [for example, Uncle A and Uncle B give similar (but not the same) amounts to sit together, but were pried apart in mid-stream after donations had already been made]. Thousands of fans who were not on the positive end of this change vowed to never come back to another game. And since the product has been generally crappy since 2008, there's not been much of an incentive Here's a chart that shows a bit of what I'm talking about (disregard 2013's totals, because attendance fell off the cliff after that Oregon blowout): http://www.dailyprogress.com/news/six-years-after-reseating-uva-football-on-track-for-record/article_443baf16-1d90-11e3-8b05-001a4bcf6878.html?mode=image&photo=2 The 2008 numbers are a bit skewed, because UVA's record turnout was for that 2008 obliteration at the hands of USC. Without that, UVA's average attendance would've been right at 50K for 2008. And it has been getting worse ever since. You also see the gigantic spike in revenues. The cash grab worked. UVA is a greedy, money-hungry university that cares little more than (1) are our incoming students ranked in the Top 10% of their class and (2) MONEY. Hence, the brutal scheduling of home-and-home series against extremely good opponents (always with the first game at UVA). There were 8 home games last year, which equals loads of money, because people are coming out to see Top 10 opponents, NOT to cheer for UVA. In short, the Athletic Department couldn't care less about its fans. Fans are only important in terms of how much revenue they generate. The perfect example happened this last week. For a month, the team and athletic department knew that the Hoos would be unveiling the new helmets and white-on-white uniforms for the Pitt game. Eli Harold suggested a white-out after last Saturday's game to go along with that. Jon Oliver, AKA "Cocaine Cowboy" (http://articles.dailypress.com/2004-05-23/sports/0405230007_1_south-florida-roanoke-times-searches) publicly came out and dismissed the notion of a white out. He did this DESPITE knowing of the team's uniform combination for over a month. It's all money. Money. It's the reason I go to 1-2 games fewer per year than I used to. I went to 1 game last year. I've gone to 1 game this year (free tickets), and it's awfully likely that the UVA/VT game on Black Friday will be the only other one. They don't care about the fans. The fans don't care about them. redtiger 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bearcat Bob 491 Report Share Posted October 3, 2014 It is just not football. Littlepage and company pulled a similar stunt with the baseball seating about 5-6 years ago. I know several long time baseball supporters who lost their "blue" seats to fat cat donors who rarely show up at the games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GMan 3,569 Report Share Posted October 4, 2014 UVA's problem with the AD sounds much like what VT fans suffered through under the AD which will no longer be mentioned. Whit Babcock is the complete opposite. He's a breath of fresh air into a stale AD's office. He's already made a ton of changes in his barely six-month tenure and he has listened to the fans more in that time than the AD which will no longer be mentioned did in his 17 years at VT. Ryan4VT 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bearcat Bob 491 Report Share Posted October 5, 2014 Friday, we received an email from the UVA ticket office in reference to our baseball season tickets renewal. Now we have to pay an additional $150 per ticket (which all goes to VSAF). There is no guarantee that we will keep our seats which we have had for 10 years. There was a note explaining that we could "donate" more than the $150 per seat. That would be "taken in to consideration" when assigning reserved seat locations! We do not use the seats ourselves that much because of the distance but we make sure that somebody uses our tickets every game. We had a 97% use last year (yes they keep up with that as well). And it still does not matter...show them the money! Deleted Account 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RCITYHOO 110 Report Share Posted October 16, 2014 Been to every game this year (home games) and it's a good hall to drive from Radford to C-Ville 5 of the first 6 weeks. Very disapointed in the crowd, I'm up top and ticket prices are not that bad, have good seats, good people (My fall family)and i have watched some good football win or lose I'll support the players. Remind me again who or what is not about the MONEY? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deleted Account 5,203 Author Report Share Posted October 16, 2014 GMan asked why the attendance at UVA was so poor, and I let him know the interconnected reasons why. Yes, money makes the world go round. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bhs7695 185 Report Share Posted October 16, 2014 There isn't much difference with regards to football attendance at other schools except the SEC and how they are doing the seating now. VT started the priority seating it in '03 I believe and WVU started it last year. Old timers hate it, but the money talks and BS walks. Over time it will even itself out. The biggest problem schools have is how to create a game day experience that fans want to come to every time instead of staying home to watch multiple games on HD. Granted having a good football team helps a lot too, but the previous VT AD took all of the fun out of going to VT football games because he wanted to be a bitter old man with an ego problem. Hell, the guy didn't allow school internet based media access to games and he caught hell for it from visiting schools (not just TSL). Did he care? Not for the longest time he didn't It was pointed out to me the other day by a co-worker (who is a WVU alum) how ACC football attendance overall is hurting and that VT lost their 93 game sellout streak last season. How quick I was to ask what the current sellout streak was at WVU. Then I paused a second and said: "Oh that's right, never mind." I then quickly pointed out that WVU actually reduced their stadium capacity to 60K with those boxes they added recently and how they still can't sell it out every week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GMan 3,569 Report Share Posted October 16, 2014 VT also reduced their stadium capacity in 2012 by making the club seat area in front of the pressbox a bit roomier. It dropped from 66,233 to 65,632. BTW, it was 94 games, not 93, in a row that sold out... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bhs7695 185 Report Share Posted October 17, 2014 In reality they haven't sold out since they added those club level seats anyway, but they don't count thoses. I've never seen that indoor club more than half full. These say 93 games: http://collegefootball.ap.org/article/attendance-remains-struggle-across-new-look-acc http://espn.go.com/blog/acc/post/_/id/67462/acc-attendance-remains-steady Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GMan 3,569 Report Share Posted October 18, 2014 According to HokieSports.com, 94 games... http://www.hokiesports.com/football/lanestadium.html Look under "A Winning Tradition" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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