discontent among the Mountaineer fans?

[Swamp Daddy]

I've heard some rumblings that WVU fans are already finding travel to Big12 games tiresome . Interesting. A few of them are still on the UL boards and grumble a bit. On the other had UL to the ACC was super nice for travel as distances are about the same and we traded some northern travel for some more southern travel.

Swamp Daddy

[donovan]

Swamp Daddy, I think you are pretty spot on and it is certainly in the West. What I hear you saying and I to a great extent am feeling, is the old, long time, loyal fan is getting pushed out of college football. I use to listen to football on radio. OK yes, it was a crystal set, Mr. Billybud, but nevertheless, I loved it. Now if you are willing to pay more money by ten times than a ticket use to cost, you can watch it on TV. Going to games is costly.

One of the overlooked issue here in the West is, cities are not close together. You hear people talk about East coast travel and within two hours they can be in every American History city for the first 187 pages of the book. Out West, not the case. Gas, planes, hotels are exorbitant if you are just putting it into the price of a ticket to see a game. Without exaggeration, when I go to a game, other than Oregon State or Oregon, it's a $500 bill plus the price of the ticket. So it is always done with an excuse...I want to see the grandkids, I say....and Mrs. d says, "hmm we don't having any grand kids that live by UCLA. "Well, maybe they will go there someday. Is there college football in Alaska during fishing season? I just say, Yes, the same teams that play at Nordstrom's. I digress. But the truth is, fans are being shoved out by corporate dollars that to a great extent put fans in the seats, that may have a good time, but will seldom know what the score is.

PS...UL may take the whole thing in Basketball...they looked very good and our seemingly at their prime.

[billybud]

Indeed...football is getting expensive.

With big HD televisions, the fan experience watching on TV isn't bad at all. For guys living down in Florida coming to FSU for a game, there is the gas (or flight), two nights minimum hotel rooms at inflated prices (250-300 room), the cost of tickets plus booster fees, parking, etc.

I live here and am finding out that I enjoy football on the 60 inch almost as much as going to the game...add in the traffic hassle, and my prostate's seeming need to push me to the men's room too often, and I find it an easy gift to let my son use the tickets except for the big game (Florida, Clemson, or Miami at home).

We are moving from a model of most folks watching a game in person (the 1960's) to a model of most folks watching on TV, streaming to IPad's and smart phones.

[Eric]

It's hard to beat the experience of the gameday in person, but there's an opportunity cost attached. Like Billybud and Donovan were saying, you have to drive down there plus the pricy tickets plus parking plus time out of your day off from work. And for me, I miss all of the other action on Saturday which is basically a mini-holiday for me . I sound like a bad Michigan fan, but I'd rather sit on my butt at home and watch the HD feed of the games than spend 5-6 hours on one game, plus being short X amount of dollars. I had an opportunity to watch Michigan play Illinois, but it was 40 degrees and torrential rain in a game that probably wasn't going to be very competitive. Staying home for that was a no-brainer.

But as for Big 12 country, West Virginia is way out of place. But for Western teams, that is mostly the norm. As Donovan alluded to, nobody blinks when a team from Texas and California are in the same conference, but when you have a team from Texas and a team from Connecticut in the same conference, fans do a double-take when they are mostly the same distance apart. It's easy to just think, "Boston and Miami are in the East, so they belong together," but Boston College and Miami are 1,000 miles apart. It's also easy to think, like for the old WAC, that having Tulsa and San Jose State in the same conference made sense since they are both "Western", but they're very far apart.

This is also partly why divisions are going to be key in the Superconference era. The logistics of having Oklahoma and Washington in the same conference aren't going to be easy and some of the fan bases will get a little testy, not to mention the strain it puts on every other sport for travel costs.

[Swamp Daddy]

Yep, a lot cheaper to watch on TV; and, no weather or travel hassles. Prices for in person attendance (where schools make the most) is now out of sight for me; and, also some of you have chimed in on this.

ESPNs trying to force you to buy all channels by mixing games around on them and always on some channel you don't have and that's also getting expensive.

I still use RADIO as my prime source these days. In the 80s there was a brief golden era for me as most games were on local TV.

It may be that if you are a Michigan fan the big 10 network will be your choice; other conferences will no doubt follow this model.

Sure makes me one of those crying for the "old days".

Some of us now record games for others and put them on tape or disc and trade them.

Swamp Daddy

PS - and I'm hoping for the final 4 in BB if not winning it all - most of that on local TV

[Cane from the Bend]

It's hard to beat the experience of the gameday in person, but there's an opportunity cost attached. Like Billybud and Donovan were saying, you have to drive down there plus the pricy tickets plus parking plus time out of your day off from work. And for me, I miss all of the other action on Saturday which is basically a mini-holiday for me . I sound like a bad Michigan fan, but I'd rather sit on my butt at home and watch the HD feed of the games than spend 5-6 hours on one game, plus being short X amount of dollars. I had an opportunity to watch Michigan play Illinois, but it was 40 degrees and torrential rain in a game that probably wasn't going to be very competitive. Staying home for that was a no-brainer.

But as for Big 12 country, West Virginia is way out of place. But for Western teams, that is mostly the norm. As Donovan alluded to, nobody blinks when a team from Texas and California are in the same conference, but when you have a team from Texas and a team from Connecticut in the same conference, fans do a double-take when they are mostly the same distance apart. It's easy to just think, "Boston and Miami are in the East, so they belong together," but Boston College and Miami are 1,000 miles apart. It's also easy to think, like for the old WAC, that having Tulsa and San Jose State in the same conference made sense since they are both "Western", but they're very far apart.

This is also partly why divisions are going to be key in the Superconference era. The logistics of having Oklahoma and Washington in the same conference aren't going to be easy and some of the fan bases will get a little testy, not to mention the strain it puts on every other sport for travel costs.

Well, there is the other side of that point of view, too . . .

Miami may play Boston College, once in a season, for two years on, two years off . . . however, Miami also plays; fsu - Ga Tech -Va Tech - Virginia - Duke - North Carolina . . . every season . . . whereas West Va plays their entire away conference schedule in the west.

A bit more than a slightly different scenario.

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[Eric]

Certainly, I was just using that as one example where people assume that because a school is either eastern or western that they're close enough to share a conference. If Miami were to play every other team in the Northeast, then it could be a problem for Hurricane fans.

[billybud]

Eric...The Hurricanes have a large number of fans in the northeast. That section of the country helped populate southeast Florida and they still have strong family ties. The jewish communities and Puerto Rican communities of SE Florida and New York are especially close.

Additionally, Miami recruits the northeast heavily for students. It was the reason that Shalala at Miami originally insisted on Syracuse instead of VT.

[WoVeU]

I think the Mountaineer groaning will go in waves but mostly trend up. For some the new venues are an enjoyment. For others the new sites, while interesting, is not as valued as the historic sites and the known. When I went to the UT game I was surprised at how much these fans are a click and how many rites and ritualistic things they adhere to. New places seems to take away from their, "we go here, then here....do this and then do that." I also noticed how many of these people are retirees (which makes sense) and I think some of the historically reasoning in schedule making will have to be rethought. Home, away, home, away (not concrete, but the general pattern is there might have to go away. Many of these people are RV'er types and still many are road trippers. 3 or 4 away games would fit them better. Other people fly of course, and the pattern is of no matter, flying is just a pain in general. A fan flying compared to the team isn't a comparison at all. A commercial flight must be times as taxing as a chartered flight. Security, layovers, delays, and cancellations...Oh Lord, Hell on earth!

In the end though I think we will see less blue and gold in the away stadiums. As some fans go from 4 to 1 or 2 road games, I think newer blood will get more opportunity to get Mountaineer tickets...on the road. I do think there will be charter flights from Morgantown, Charleston, Huntington, and Parkersburg in the future and fans will adjust and use these. But I still think attendance will trend down.

For me, no fan of crowds, or sitting outside and slamming beer, or participating in rah-rah rituals...I like the flat screen and the couch. And drinking my beer from my kegerator (complete with frosted glass) and eating from my microwave and/or oven!

[Derek]

My Grandfather used to watch TV with the volume on mute, and turn the radio up REALLY loud (caused he couldn't hear so well) while listening to Larry Munson.

@Memories.

[Dossenator]

My grandpa always muted the tv during sporting events and would turn on the radio to the local broadcast of the game. During baseball season he would have a game on tv (muted, unless it was Harry Carey or Joe Buck) and have 2 or three radios going with various games. When a game got interesting he would turn it up and the others down.