Will Seahawk Mania Steal Attention from Husky Stadium's New Era Season?
Will Seahawk Mania Steal Attention from Husky Stadium's New Era Season?
Back in the late 1970s through the mid 1980s, the Seahawks and Huskies both enjoyed support from rabid fan bases. It was a real rarity for a major metropolitan city, But these days, as Seahawk mania sweeps the region, can the Huskies compete with their new stadium?
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Just reading the line "Seattle sports scene dominated by Pete Carroll" would've made me barf just a few years ago. But now...
I enjoyed the piece, Derek (thanks for writing it), although I would underscore a couple other factors that negatively impact Husky Football attendance (besides the Seahawks). The first is that UW grads over the past decade have only seen crap on the field. I remember my fraternity brothers and I purchasing season tickets en bloc after we graduated. Why? Because the team was good. Not so anymore. If anything, UW grads in their 20s and early 30s are more drawn to the basketball team because the football team sucks.
Second would be a changing demographic - specifically, the rapid rise in popularity of the Sounders. People have a limited amount of dollars & time to commit to sporting events, and now we're competing with a new soccer fanbase that didn't exist ten years ago.
In these two video clips, watch the amount of people seated in the west endzone. It was full.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZekkCsuChU
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MI3YojC75Y0 (see the 15 & 27 second mark) -
the team may not have an identity (Hi Woody!), but I hear the kids love the black uniforms (whatever that means).
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It's silly to say soccer is hurting UW football attendance. That's just another excuse. It's the lack of an exciting, winning program. That's all it ever was and all it will ever be. Oregon had shitty attendance in the 70s and 80s. USC had shitty attendance in the Hackett years. Stanford still had shitty attendance,but it is up 30% + over Harbaughs first year.
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I was at that 83 game on a crisp Christmas Eve but my dad was dead
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I'm hearing that hydro races and dancing grounds crews are a good way to keep up attendance.
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Hello there.Passion said:Just reading the line "Seattle sports scene dominated by Pete Carroll" would've made me barf just a few years ago. But now...
I enjoyed the piece, Derek (thanks for writing it), although I would underscore a couple other factors that negatively impact Husky Football attendance (besides the Seahawks). The first is that UW grads over the past decade have only seen crap on the field. I remember my fraternity brothers and I purchasing season tickets en bloc after we graduated. Why? Because the team was good. Not so anymore. If anything, UW grads in their 20s and early 30s are more drawn to the basketball team because the football team sucks.
Second would be a changing demographic - specifically, the rapid rise in popularity of the Sounders. People have a limited amount of dollars & time to commit to sporting events, and now we're competing with a new soccer fanbase that didn't exist ten years ago.
In these two video clips, watch the amount of people seated in the west endzone. It was full.
-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZekkCsuChU
-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MI3YojC75Y0 (see the 15 & 27 second mark)
Soccer is for Euro wannabe hipster douches that hate actual sports.
Football is not competing with soccer for attendance. It's two totally different market segments. -
How did you get Dad to the game?RaceBannon said:I was at that 83 game on a crisp Christmas Eve but my dad was dead
And crisp was right! Must have been pre-global climate warming.
On December 24th, 1983, the closest available weather station to Seattle, WA (SEATTLE BOEING FIELD, WA), reported the following conditions:
High Temp: 27.1F
Low Temp: 11.1F
Average Temp: 19.4F
Dewpoint: -4.3F
Wind Speed: 4.9 Knots
Precipitation Amount: 0 Inches
Snow Depth: n/a
Observations: n/a
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This is exactly it. People who whine about the Sounders hurting Husky football don't understand the persuasive power of winning. The fact is that during Sark's tenure, UW has come nowhere close to "contending". They have beat the Pac bottom feeders in ugly-ass games (see CAL) and have gotten absolutely destroyed in most games against the better teams in the PAC. Despite the "rushing the field", beating Oregon State at home is not that interesting. Despite the "big win" against Stanford last year, it was pretty clear that they would have beaten UW in 19 out of 20 games. Seattle teams come out in droves when a team is exciting. If the Dawgs catch fire next year, the rabid fan base will follow them as well.MikeDamone said:It's silly to say soccer is hurting UW football attendance. That's just another excuse. It's the lack of an exciting, winning program. That's all it ever was and all it will ever be. Oregon had shitty attendance in the 70s and 80s. USC had shitty attendance in the Hackett years. Stanford still had shitty attendance,but it is up 30% + over Harbaughs first year.
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"Euro wannabe hipster douches?" That is so far off that I don't even know where to begin. Your views are based on the very close-minded belief that football fans have no interest in soccer, and soccer fans have no interest in football. First of all, a lot of professional white collar families in Seattle, Bellevue and other burbs love the Huskies (because many attended UW and/or grew up rooting for UW), but they also have kids that play soccer. Soccer has grown as a youth sport across the United States over the past 20 years. Click on this link and read the paragraph entitled "Youth Soccer": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soccer_in_the_United_States#Youth_soccer.
I know plenty of people that like soccer and football. Why do you take the 1950s views that they're mutually exclusive? In fact, I would argue that American football has more in common with soccer than baseball. You want to know the other sport that is beginning to draw youth attention away from football? Lacrosse: http://www.washingtonhslax.com/history/. Lacrosse is HUGE on the east coast, and it's expanding across the country.
Another thing to consider - injuries. People that grew up playing football NOW want their kids to play soccer or lacrosse or any number of other sports. The rash of injuries (particularly permanent brain damage) has a lot of people to nudging their kids in a different direction. Plenty of parents that love football are taking their kids to Sounders games because either a) they enjoy the sport, b) they want their kids to prefer soccer, or c) both.
And if you still think that soccer is limited to "Euro wannabe hipster douches," I suggest you strap on your overalls and read this: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/sports/soccer/29sandomir.html?_r=0 or this: http://www.businessinsider.com/soccer-popularity-2012-9
Per my original point, the lines are becoming blurred. Football will remain popular in the United States as far as the eye can see. We all love it (and I love it much more than soccer). But it's ignorant to say there is no cross pollination between fans of the two sports. -
That is so far off that I don't even know where to begin.
But I'm sure you'll manage write a TL;DR post anyway....
Soccer isn't hurting UW attendance, UW is hurting UW attendance. Portland has a much bigger per capita soccer loving population than Seattle, yet the Ducks are the hottest ticket in the state. Somehow they managed to sell out last year when the Timbers were competing for their $'s
