SPORTSBIZ -- JOEL HAMMOND
Confirmed: All those empty bowl-game seats have been empty
Blog entry: January 5, 2012, 12:50 pm | Author: JOEL HAMMOND
The Birmingham News looks at how the bowls that already have been played have fared in attendance, and it's not all that pretty: Through 30 games prior to Wednesday's Orange Bowl, the announced bowl attendance this season averaged 49,000 fans, down 3% from this time a year ago. At this rate, the average will dip below 51,000 for the only the second time since 1979, according to USA Today. Ten years ago, there were 25 bowls that averaged 53,392 fans per game. In each of the past three years, with 34 or 35 bowls, attendance is hovering at 50,000 or lower, roughly a 6% drop in the past decade.
The Mid-American Conference for the first time this season received five bowl bids, and in half of them — the GoDaddy.com Bowl still is to come — attendance has increased.
A look at bowls with local ties:
Gator (Ohio State)
2010: 68,325
2011: 61,312
Change: -10.3%
New Mexico (Temple)
2010: 32,424
2011: 25,672
Change: -20.8%
Potato (Ohio University)
2010:25,449
2011:28,067
Change: 10.3%
Little Caesars Pizza Bowl (Western Michigan)
2010: 32,431
2011: 46,177
Change: 42.4%
Military (Toledo)
2010: 38,062
2011: 25,042
Change: -34.2%
What, no ‘You're either with us or against us' today?
If you read this blog regularly, you know I was unimpressed by Cleveland Browns president Mike Holmgren's performance after the Colt McCoy concussion fiasco. Well, Holmgren and Browns general manager Tom Heckert conducted their year-end meeting with the media today, and unfortunately for my purposes, there were no more outlandish proclamations about playoff tickets. Here were a few highlights:
We know what we have to fix. We're not going to blow it up and start all over.
There isn't an area on offense that we won't look hard at and (attempt to improve).
On Peyton Hillis' saga: That's tough for a new head coach. You have a lot of things to worry about; one of them wasn't who's going to be my starting halfback. It was an area where it became unstable, and it decimated us.
(Other people find) that there's a little bit more to the head coach gig than calling plays as a coordinator. There's a learning curve. I know this about Pat Shurmur. He is good, and he is smart. He will do what he has to do, in an unselfish way, to get the team going in the right direction.
It's hard to give up play-calling duties for Shurmur (or any coach).
I expect to be a much-improved football team next year. Three of the teams in our division are in the playoffs. When we get into the playoffs, then you can make a better judgment of a timetable to get to the Super Bowl.
On how to close the gap within the division: I thought this year, and I might get killed for it, that we were much more competitive against those teams. They're fine football teams, and have been good for a long time.
If you're not following me on Twitter, what are you waiting for? And, I trust you're listening to Crain's podcasts?
And, of course, email me with any news tips you see fit for this space.
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