Love San Diego, but I love ISU football more. I even take off work to make home games.
ESPN, Fox Open Discussions for Next Big 12 Deal
- Thread starter tigershoops31
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To your point when Michigan was bad Ann Arbor wasn’t showing up to games same way USC fans weren’t. Also comparing LA to Ann Arbor as having an equal amount of things to do is the hottest of hot takes.
Can't wait for Ok State and TAMU to make the CFP while OuT finish middle of the SEC West (or whatever setup they have). Heads will explode.
I think that's a fair point - in USC's specific case if they were good I do believe fans would come. I don't think that's the case for other teams in the PAC.
I think it all depends on what you're talking about in terms of "things to do." People in this thread are counting driving hours away from the city center of LA as "LA." And it's also a matter of personal taste. I get it, you're an MSU fan so you're not going to say you love Ann Arbor. But I travel to Michigan for work regularly. It's a trendy city and kind of a cultural center for Michigan. It's basically an extended outer suburb of Detroit, so you've got access to pro sports and the kinds of things you can only get in large cities such as major concerts, shows, etc. You have the Great Lakes - granted not the same kind of beach as California, etc, but still a beach. You also have hiking in the National Forests in the northern part of the state, etc.
You've got just about everything (minus Hollywood) in Ann Arbor and the Detroit Metro area that you have in LA, there's just less of it. I've been to both and I had a better time in Detroit - though I admit that kind of makes me sound like a crazy person.
Oh I went to Michigan after undergrad so I spent several years there. Ann Arbor is an awesome city, way better then east lansing but even the biggest Michigan homer would never compare it to LA.
I live in the metro area and yeah there are plenty of things to do but it just isn’t LA or the Bay Area and the weather is only one factor.
I get that, but how is it different than any other industry? Gas stations, malls, clothing stores, target, etc. All of these are open and booming on a weekend everywhere. I'm not calling you out or saying you're wrong as it definitely affects the ISU fanbase and other midwest fanbases. Just pointing out that farmers make up a very small number of our state by percentage.
I think part of it is maybe a perspective from someone who grew up in a rural area and has never lived in a major city vs. someone who does. I agree with you - the folks I know in Ann Arbor or the Detroit Metro would not say it's better than LA. In fact, a lot of them do wish they could go to places like LA or NYC, etc. It seems like something a lot of people who live in "secondary" major cities want - probably because only the very largest cities have something different and exciting for them. It does make me wonder if people who live in places like NYC, LA, London, Paris, etc ever want to move somewhere else.
For me, growing up on a farm and now living in a city that is small relative even to Detroit, once you reach a certain size all cities are the same to me. I think there are a lot of people like that. We're the ones who enjoy our lives in rural or minor cities, visit the big city for a few days, and (to bring it back to the theme) go to college football games on Saturdays.
Also, I don't think people are using the socal life as an EXCUSE for not being as into CFB as other areas, just giving reasons that it does not get the viewership percentage as you would expect more options than your average area, and a lot of the population taking advantage of those options. SoCal has a high population so that is A draw to for networks, but...they certainly aren't getting the same per capita engagement as teams in the midwest or SEC country. That's my gut instinct, so if there are numbers to contradict that i'll gladly take back that statement. Just seems right from the info that I do have.
There are a lot of people doing exactly that - not saying you are or even necessarily anyone in this thread. But, the talking heads in the national media used it as an excuse for empty stadiums, even during big games. Their basic argument was - oh there are tons of fans of (Team X) but they just don't go to the games because it was such nice weather for going to the beach. These fans still care about and support their teams, they just have so many things to do they can't squeeze in time for the games. The national guys really only stopped this summer when USC & UCLA left for the B1G and the local PAC sportswriters still are doing it aggressively today.
I agree with you that you shouldn't expect the same per capita engagement out there and I don't think it's reasonable to say that you should judge a team's fan support as a percentage of people in the local metro area who support it. There are a ton of people in LA and most of them aren't there to watch college football.
I think it is reasonable to judge a team's fan support based on people who show up to games and those who watch on TV. You could have a dramatically smaller percent of locals who are fans and still have higher raw numbers of people in seats and TV viewers in some of these major cities.
I think there are a lot of people who watch the games but don’t want to waste 4-5 hours in traffic and dealing with the in game experience. So those people might be hanging out at a sports bar or watching at home and then as soon as the game is down they head out for other activities as opposed to the people at the game who have to spend another couple hours in traffic. Also while it sounds like Ames is a fantastic in game experience a lot of stadiums make the in game experience literal hell.
I guess. You win, woo hoo. Cali has a beach and you did fun stuff in a desert once.
You still havent named 1 thing you can do In LA tha you cant do anywhere else.
Hell you just said you did things in the desert that were fun. Like you cant do those anywhere else, Most of which probably can be done on some recreational land in Iowa, or the dunes other places like Michigan or Colorado.
You also say that traffic is the problem in LA, to get to games, but then amazingly there is no traffic to get to any other activity apparently, even when some of those things are just as far or farther drive.
I dont doubt there are a lot of things to do. I just dont know if there is that much more to do relative to the number of people vs what there is to do other places to do relative to the number of people.
Hell I know tons of people that get together and target shoot on weekends, all kinds of guns. Hundreds of rounds of ammo each. I am sure that is not a very popular thing in Cali, especially LA, at least not by anyone other than the local gangs. Point is people have hobbies, and activities wherever they are, from mud trucks to dance classes, from catfishing to operas, people do what they do where ever. I have been to milk can cook outs several weekends, I am sure they dont even know what those are in LA. I have had huge fireworks shows and parties, with shrimp boils, and target shoots. I have had a hog roast, halloween party. All of which Im sure are not real popular in LA. Point being, you find things to do wherever.
A lot of the things there is to do in LA I probably would have no interest in, just like a lot of people would have no interest in activities I might be interested in.
Except Florida has generally great weather too during football season and great beaches and lots and lots of other entertainment attractions on par with Cali. If not on par, very close. Yet they seem to support Florida, FSU and Miami and to some extend UCF and USF.
FSU and Miami stadiums have been empty the last couple years because again, they aren’t good. If the Cali teams put together some good seasons and are regularly ranked they will have full stadiums like they did during the Pete carrol era
But everyone is convinced they're all going to the BiG or SEC in the future.
If they're crappy and no one shows up or watches them on TV why is everyone wanting them?
Then ISU fills Jack Trice and we're nobody's child?
If only we had a beach I guess I wouldn't GAF.
This seems like a really stupid argument to be having.
I'm going to the beach.
I'm going to the beach.
FSU and Miami have not been even close to as empty as The Rose bowl, close to the Coliseum maybe.
Both USC and USCLA have been deploying tarps the last few years.
The Rose Bowl might as well tarp 75% of the stadium.
To be fair - I have 4 hours of driving to Ames and back (2 hours each way) on gamedays, plus generally 5-6 hours of tailgating after I got there. I guess I'm not sitting in traffic so it's a little less stressful but the amount of time is the same. A game is a full day event for me and I've been doing this since 2009 when I graduated. I did it even when our team was terrible and know many others who do it too. I'm not saying most ISU fans are like that, but many are. I think there are lot of fans of B12, B1G, and SEC schools like that.
I wouldn't doubt there are people who don't go in person due to the hassle. I've missed some games at the end of those 2-10 seasons myself. At least from my perspective though, it's a sign of a program on the decline when you can't even get the stadium a quarter full for major rivalry games like USC-UCLA in 2021.
Go ahead and compare attendance numbers and they aren’t that far off. Again people show up when the teams are good and you lose a lot of fans when they aren’t. Even the blue bloods aren’t immune. But we can agree to disagree.
