From the Bench-Razorback Stadium Expansion Aimed at Appeasing Young Generations

[Robert Shields]

Razorback Stadium Expansion Aimed at Appeasing Younger Generations

Robert Shields

When the LSU game was removed from the Little Rock schedule, I wrote that it was time for all the Razorback football games to be moved to Fayetteville.

The recently announced expansion of Razorback Stadium only reinforces the fact all games will be there in the very near future. In fact, it is such a certainty, they might as well have included the announcement in the news release.

The new stadium expansion in Fayetteville will only compound the monetary burden of playing in Little Rock.

The only reason to keep a game like Samford or Alcon State in Little Rock is to make the Fayetteville ticket package look better. In other words, you keep the trash games in Little Rock so that the Fayetteville season tickets holders get discounted the trash game from the season package and then you put the onus on War Memorial Stadium to deliver a crowd for the game no one wants to go to.

But I don't think the UA will keep a game in Little Rock in perpetuity for that reason, nor should it.

In a previous life, I was involved in demographics, generational analysis, statistics, modeling, and projections. I was born to parents of the Greatest Generation, and my father landed at Normandy 48 hours after the invasion. Sobering how a few hours can make all the difference.

Unlike most who were born with parents from this generation, I was not a Baby Boomer. I am Generation X. There are three words that I usually tag with my generation, and those are cynical, skeptical, and often at times grossly ambivalent.

The Gen Xers are the group that questions everything from Elvis dying to did we really land on the moon. In general, most Gen-Xers do not accept anything at face value. We were marked by things like the Cold War, Watergate, and watching our Americans being held hostage for 444 days in Iran that left us cynical and skeptical.

We suffered through our own financial crisis as the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation went bust. Today's kids probably only know of the FDIC. The government formed the Resolution Trust Company to remedy the Savings and Loan default situation. In the end, basically no savings and loan or thrift survived. Today's kids probably have not even heard of those terms.

We also had our own stock-market crash referred to as Black Monday when the market lost 23 percent of its value in one day. But no one seems to remember it or cares about it, and I think that goes to the ambivalence of the generation in which we all thought we were one push of the button away from being nuked anyway.

And now back to how this ties into Razorback football.

Each generation appears to become less and less social. Today, a large percentage of those who attend Razorback football games belongs to Generation X. The Greatest Generation, which loved going to the games and really made the program, is dead or can no longer go. The Baby Boomers are also getting older and probably traveling less frequently. Even though we all envision traveling more when we retire and some do, the reality is that when you go on a fixed income, you stay home more and your health starts to fail.

Then you have the Millennials.

They are the generation marked by 9/11 and the Great Recession, which some speculate will make the generation risk averse. Some speculate that the generation is much less likely to go to large social events because of terrorism. I don't know if I believe that.

I refer to the millennials as the Victim Generation. It's the generation where everyone got a trophy and it's the generation that likes to show that it cares about everything. It's the only generation that thinks it can be killed by a zombie apocalypse, while Generation X is more likely to fear cancer.

All this is to say from a projection perspective, the right expansion is happening.

The older generations are getting older and are less likely to attend games as a whole. If it can be watched on TV instead of traveling to see it, with the gross ambivalence of Generation X, it will be watched on TV. Hence the decline in attendance across the nation.

Then you have the Millennials, which is the customer base for stadiums of the future and is the group that learns its news in 140 characters or less or a short YouTube video in a matter of seconds. It's not a group that is going to spend four hours much less a weekend dedicated to a football game, so you have to make the experience as though they missed nothing else.

Jeff Long frames attending Razorback football as a "game-day experience." I believe when he says that, which he has about a million times, he means we can give you the same thing that you get at home plus a football game.

So the expansion being almost all luxury seating makes sense. They probably need to tear out even more general seating and add more luxury boxes. This will be the trend for the foreseeable future. The prince and princesses who have grown up sitting in this environment are not going to sit outside as adults where their hands might get cold while they are texting.

Then there is ticket pricing. The UofA also announced the amount you spend to attend games is mostly going up. There is a point when you enter the economic death spiral where as you raise prices you lose customers, so to keep the same level of revenue you raise prices again on the remaining customers which in turn causes more to leave.

But I don't think that is the point where the UofA is right now, and obviously the head bean counter does not think so either. But it's another reason why I think more general seating in the future is removed and replaced with more luxury seating.

Luxury seating costs more, but the UofA is not targeting the state's general population as fans for attending the games. That time passed with the before-mentioned older generations.

I find it interesting at the UofA board meeting when this proposal was brought up that one Baby Boomer abstained from the vote and asked a question only his generation would -- who is the cost causer, who pays the cost, and in the end who benefits?

There are still questions to be answered for the generations that form the foundation of Razorback fans, and the UA better have the answers.



Send your generation identification to fromthebench@yahoo.com.

[Seebs]

In before moved to Vents and Ignorance folder.

[razoredge178]

I love when older generations like to take there little swipes at young people.

-1

[The_Iceman]

[The_Iceman]

Razorback Stadium Expansion Aimed at Appeasing Younger Generations

[El Duderino]

Who is this

[Grizzlyfan]

Millenials aren't going to be the ones buying the suites.

[navyhog24]

[Danimal]

The most interesting thing I've seen in this thread is the hottie saying "SHUT UP"...

[atekido]

If they wanted to appease Faillenials wouldn't they just tell them to go to A-state to watch games.  I mean the kids think they are supposed to howl as it is.

[MrKnowItAll]

[DeltaBoy]

Good Point Robert I know my own personal economic situation prevents me from coming to games but I generally spend 50-70 bucks a year on Hog Gear.  I see some major changes on the horizon cause the expanded TV coverage lets anybody just about stay at home and enjoy the game.

[Hogberry Snortcake]

Seriously, man?  Would you like us to get off your law, as well? 

[Polecat]

Hey Rey Pigsterio, your writing is getting worse

[Robert Shields]

Seriously, man?  Would you like us to get off your law, as well? 

It's my football now.

[The_Iceman]

It's my football now.

[razoredge178]

Millenials aren't going to be the ones buying the suites.

Oversight on shields part...

[hogcard1964]

Is this supposed to be about football?

[MissippHog]

Missed the mark.

[Großer Kriegschwein]

Ygtbmfkm

[The_Iceman]

Missed the mark.

Smallest gym in basketball history.

[zane]

[Chic-Hog-Oh]

.

[factchecker]

[tbhogfan]

[ke2743]

I like how Shields posts have become, "Meme of the week" threads.

[Dark Helmet Hog]

[RazorbackToTheFuture]

[Dark Helmet Hog]

[NaturalStateReb]

They're not targeting millenials; they're targeting upper middle class and upper class attendees.

They have a new name for the cheap seats--your living room. People aren't paying for the game; they're paying to be fawned over.  The event isn't about the players or the students.  It's now about the fans.

[Boardon Hamsay]

[WilsonHog]

They're not targeting millenials; they're targeting upper middle class and upper class attendees.

They have a new name for the cheap seats--your living room. People aren't paying for the game; they're paying to be fawned over.  The event isn't about the players or the students.  It's now about the fans.

Interesting perspective that makes sense.

[urkillnmesmalls]

Bravo!  Phenomenal.  As good as any I've seen.

This week has a plethora of good ones.  Glad to see people back at it.  I need to start getting into the fray, but somewhere along the way I got lazy.  Robert's latest offerings are inspiring me to make the effort to contribute.    

[(notOM)Rebel123]

Millenials aren't going to be the ones buying the suites.

Enough said....

[buldozer]

What a bunch of drizzle.... a lot of folks can't afford to travel to and attend games now, ticket price increases will increase that number. Ultra expensive luxury suits and cheap nose bleed seats are not solutions....

[War Boar]

[RollHogTide]

[War Boar]

Makes as much sense as ...

[DeltaBoy]

They're not targeting millenials; they're targeting upper middle class and upper class attendees.

They have a new name for the cheap seats--your living room. People aren't paying for the game; they're paying to be fawned over.  The event isn't about the players or the students.  It's now about the fans.

Amen

[BorderPatrol]

Where is Doug when you need him?

I must say, yall are stepping up yalls game big time with these responses.

bp

[The NewEra]

They're not targeting millenials; they're targeting upper middle class and upper class attendees.

They have a new name for the cheap seats--your living room. People aren't paying for the game; they're paying to be fawned over.  The event isn't about the players or the students.  It's now about the fans.

This is the only thing that makes sense in this thread so far.  But the video characters are a hoot!

[Fayettevillian]

I like how you claim to be the greatest generation.  How about the evolution of technology and the fact all of our games are on tv now? Or lets just focus on how young people are ruining things.

[Ex-Trumpet]

[Ex-Trumpet]

[Hoggish1]

Well, duh...  But didn't read.

[RazorbackToTheFuture]

[Boardon Hamsay]

[BadHog]

[longpig]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIO-bTIdJEI

[RollHogTide]