In recent poll, 83 percent of SEC fans say average fans being priced out of attending games
The SEC is proactive in the battle to keep fans coming to the stadium and has looked into creative ways to keep attendance high, including adding WiFi to their stadiums.
One thing that didn't come up as much was fixing the increasingly overwhelming cost of going to games. And – spoiler alert! – don't expect that to be high on the priority list for any school.
But many fans do feel the price of going to college football games is overwhelming. AL.com did an informal survey of SEC fans from around the country, and even some outside the United States, and the most interesting finding is 83 percent replied yes to, "Do you believe average fans have been priced out of attending college football games?"
That's a problem.
The survey was quite interesting, and worth a read. Another interesting tidbit was of fans who said they attend games, 70 percent spend more than $500 a year on those games and 45 percent said they spend more than $1,000 a year. Those figures are not too surprising either, if you've attended a big-time college football game. Of course the high price would seem more fair if they had to pay the players who are providing the entertainment and risking their health every week. Or if they weren't dragging in billions of dollars on television deals. The way it is, it just feels like gouging.
The good news for college football is fans still prefer going to games. Even with the comforts of watching at home, 61 percent told AL.com they prefer watching games in person. But in the same poll, 54 percent said they are attending fewer games than five years ago.
It's a significant issue, just not one that most schools are going to move to fix until they've tried every other possible solution.
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