Ian Allan
I was shocked by the Atlanta-Kansas City game. Not so much by how one-sided the score was -- it's apparent that Herm Edwards' gang is pretty horrible. But by how few people were watching.
The crowd is listed as being 62,434, but that's paid attendence. All I saw was lots of red seats. Capacity for the Georgia Dome is listed as 71,228, but I would guess that it was about 25,000 tops. Looked like a preseason game -- a below-average preseason game.
Not sure what's going on there. Sure, Atlanta is a lesser team with a rookie quarterback -- no chance of making the playoffs. But this isn't a 3-10 team playing in mid-December. The Falcons are actually 2-1 right now. I don't get it.
—Ian Allan
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Posted by Brian Barrett | Sep. 22 at 10:10 AM
Don't forget, this is Atlanta. Home of the no sellout baseball playoffs. I imagine the economy might be playing a role here as well but why was the paid attendance so high? I think that we're going to start seeing some measurable drop off in pro sports attendance because people just can't afford to be ripped off in this type of economy. Interesting feature on Real Sports a few weeks back about the long-time Yankee fan who's four season tix were $3 a piece when he first bought them and now with the new stadium they're $800 a piece. He got a bill from the Yankees for $250,000 for next season. It sounds like the NY Giants are doing the same. Alienating the everyday fan and only allowing corporations to afford season tix. They might be able to get away with that in NYC but it won't fly in most places as reality sinks in for the economy. I'm absolutely fed up with what they've done with Sunday Ticket. They charge you an extra $100 (above the $275) to get the games in HD. That's a lot of money considering that it costs DTV nothing extra to show the games in HD and I already pay $10/month extra just to receive HD programming. They lost me on that one. I paid the $100 just because the games are unwatchable in SD on a HD tv but I'm gone after the football season. That a 15 year loyal Directv subscribe who will now become part of the churning masses signing up for the best short-term deals available. I suspect I won't be the only one. Brian
Posted by Tamra Britt | Sep. 22 at 10:19 AM
My family has had season tickets since the Falcons came into the league. We are just tired. Tired of the mediocrity. We pay close to 4k a year for tickets, but at this point it's just easier to sell the tickets and watch them on TV. It's more comfortable to watch a bad team beat another bad team from home.
Posted by L DALE GANDER | Sep. 22 at 04:07 PM
Typically, local television buys enough tickets so that the game is not blacked out. It is rumored that is how San Diego avoided being blacked out in Week 1, when the NFL gave them 'a deadline extension' and miraculously enough tickets were sold. Those local stations make a lot of money on Sundays from local advertisers, and they don't want to lose that revenue or the relationship. Shelling out a few grand to buy up some empty seats is no big deal to them - but it doesn't put bodies in those seats.