People just aren’t going to sporting events like they used to.
Attendance numbers have steadily declined for almost all sports across the country during the past few years. Flip on the TV to any random ballgame and there are simply more empty seats than there used to be.
The empty-seat epidemic has been attributed to everything from constant ticket price increases to the widespread availability and convenience of games on high definition television. Fans come out for winning teams playing big games, but only a few select arenas and ballparks still fill up on a day-to-day basis.
Since LSU boasts “college baseball’s greatest fans,” it’s only natural to assume Alex Box Stadium is one of those venues.
Well, not so much.
Despite season ticket sales being announced as slightly higher than last season, LSU has seen its average actual attendance decrease by nearly 10 percent (571 people per game) through the first 32 home games of the season. The usage rate (actual total/paid total) has dropped to a dismal 50.37 percent, down almost 5 percent from last season.
It’s not just the midweek games against cupcake opponents, either. The Tennessee series this past weekend drew far and away the biggest crowds since opening night against UNO, and there were still plenty of tickets that went unused.
There are plenty of explanations for the drop off — this season’s Tigers aren’t as good as the bunch that set a school record for wins last season, the weather has been lousy and more games have either been televised or streamed online.
Now these are all reasonable excuses to not attend a game, and that’s precisely my point.
An exceptional fanbase packs the park rain or shine, regardless of how well the team is playing. The first image that comes to mind is Chicago fans filling up Wrigley Field to watch an awful Cubs team on a chilly evening in the Windy City.
If LSU ever goes through that type of prolonged failure, Alex Box will become a ghost town, aside from a few lunatics who take a break from posting on TigerDroppings to go hurl insults at Paul Mainieri and his players in person.
Well, “in person” aren’t the right words to describe people yelling from the stands, but it’s something of a step up from anonymously posting garbage on a message board like a pissed-off teenager.
Ironically, these same people are the reason LSU baseball fans seem to have an air of elitism. They blast most LSU football fans as being too casual and fair-weather when Tiger Stadium is nearly empty in the third quarter against Kent State, and then they contribute to a near-50 percent usage rate on baseball tickets the following spring.
They targeted the student section all football season for ruining their precious band songs and not showing up all the time. However, according to ticket statistics obtained by The Daily Reveille, the average usage rate in 2013 for general admission and reserved section student tickets was 74.02 percent and 70.59 percent, respectively.
In fact, the only football game in the past two seasons that the student ticket usage rate plummeted below the current usage rate at Alex Box was a rainy afternoon kickoff against Towson in 2012.
It’s easy for those in general admission to blast the students for not showing up because their student tickets are counted by actual attendance instead of paid. Meanwhile, the rest of the crowd beats their chest about a 90,000-plus announced attendance with only 60,000 people actually in the building.
With that being said, student attendance at football games did fall slightly from 2012 to 2013. I’m not an advocate for the students — it’s been years since I sat in the student section instead of the press box — but it’s my job to point out the hypocrisy.
The point is not that LSU tackle football has a better fan base than LSU baseball or vice versa. It’s that ebbs and flows in attendance affect all but the most exceptionally loyal followings, and this is the part that won’t be easy to hear — LSU isn’t one of them.
The doctor is now out.
James Moran is a 21-year-old mass communication senior from Beacon, N.Y.