It’s been tough for me too. I care more about every sport but football and basketball and i hate the chancellor
I feel you brother. I’m attributing much of my malaise to the current state of affairs in DC. My daughter has less rights than her mother did at her age and the war on intelligence/research will set us back a decade or more. I’m reminded of Butch Davis’ time here when the genome scientist from UNC won the Nobel Peace Prize and got $1million but Butch was being paid close to $3million!?!
I think overall interest was up when season tickets sold out months ago for sure. I think outside interest is up still. I do not think interest is currently up among the core UNC fanbase at this moment.
Its because many of us feel his hiring was the (almost) final nail in the coffin of the Carolina Way. Dean turning over in his grave. Hube the only remnant of it left and even he seems to be swimming upstream.
Im sure that's the reason for some. It's not a reason for me necessarily. I just find it very hard to find connection to the athletes in college sports as the rosters turn over incessantly. Maybe I'm petty, but I would actually like the kid wearing pur jersey to have some remote idea of where Franklin Street is.
Yeah, because NASCAR is clearly the success model to emulate.
It's very hard to to pull for a an ever changing roster of mercenaries. Not that I think the players are at fault, but without continuity It's hard to keep interest as a fan.
I agree. I also think its going to be very hard to build a base of people willing to make the financial commitment necessary to fund these things at a high level. But we shall see. I do know that a lot of the pockets that the RC has relied upon for many years will be far less interested in giving in this environment.
Like you, I remember players such as Mike Pepper, Pete Chilcutt, Kevin Salvadori, Scott Cherry, Shammond Williams, Jackie Manuel, Seth Trimble, Jeff Saturday, Mack Hollins, Javonte Williams, etc. progress from where they were as freshman to becoming valuable, highly contributing.
I suspect college sports are going to lose a lot of popularity across the board because of the factors we've been talking about: it's hard to root for a team when you don't know any of the players. Even pro teams don't have this much turnover. It's especially hard to get excited in the offseason when everyone is new.
It is always possible that cfb will kill the golden goose. Cbb certaintly is not as popular as it was 40 years ago. But as of today, cfb media rights are higher than they have ever been, and in-person attendance (and suite purchases) remain very strong. The sport is printing money right now, which is strong evidence of its health (especially from an antitrust perspective).
OK, you know more about the whole business than I do. It's true that I'm more of a hoops fan, and the factors I identified there are going to be stronger in hoops. Obviously one sees the players more in hoops, and there can't be that much turnover on a football team because of sheer numbers.
Of course CFB isn’t doing better than the NFL. The NFL is the most popular sport in this country by a mile.
