High school football not the attendance king it used to be

FROM KEITH GROLLER

This is a reprint of a column that appeared in our football section on Sunday. Evidently many of you have not seen it, but I think it's a concern that many schools share and there are some interesting comments from area athletic directors as we look ahead to the start of another school year and high school sports season:

Here is the column:

Friday night games are still an attraction, but don’t draw crowds of other eras

The Friday night lights still burn bright at area stadiums throughout the fall.

But the crowds gathering under those lights aren’t as large as they used to be.

Football is still the attendance king when it comes to high school athletics, but the king’s crown has lost some its luster in recent years as society in general, and the landscape of high school sports in particular,have changed.

The days of high school football generating enough revenue to support the rest of a school’s athletic program are long over, although it still is the best money producer.

“I looked at our numbers over the last three years and our total of football tickets sold has decreased every year,” said Whitehall athletic director Bob Hartman. “We went from about 11,000 tickets sold in 2007 to 7,500 last year. Since we try to balance our budget with our football receipts, that’s a significant drop.”

And it’s not just at Whitehall.

Northampton athletic director Mike Schneider said football attendance is down “about 25 percent over the last 10 years,” but adds that football is the one sport in his program that comes close to breaking even.

“Football is still big, but it’s not like it was,” Schneider said. “Across the board, attendance isn’t it what it used to be, and there are a number of factors for that. For one, there are many more sports now, and kids and families are going to their own games.”

Other factors include increased TV coverage of high school games and all college and pro sports, financial concerns and increased entertainment options for how kids and their families spend Friday nights. There also is a societal shift away from tradition and community pride and spirit.

If you don’t have a child or a relative playing in the game, you’re more likely to stay at home.

Times have changed dramatically from the 1950s when Allentown High, for example, was drawing 12,000 or better on Friday nights.

“We were the only show in town, and our games were a happening,” former Canary star and local football icon Bruce Trotter said in a 2007 Morning Call story.

Schneider said football “still comes the closest to being the hometown team,” but fewer and fewer people in the towns really identify with the “hometown team.”

Easton still packs ’em in

The one place where things haven’t changed, it seems, is Easton.

Red Rovers athletic director Jim Pokrivsak said Easton home games averaged 5,000 fans last season, including 1,700 student tickets.

Easton sells 1,500 season tickets annually, which, as Hartman said, “Is more tickets than many of us sell in general admission tickets.”

Of course, the Easton-Phillipsburg game remains the biggest single event in Lehigh Valley athletics, annually drawing 15,000 at Lafayette College’s Fisher Stadium.

“We’ve sold out of our allotment of tickets for the Thanksgiving game in each of the seven years I’ve been the AD at Easton,” Pokrivsak said. “We’ve never had to open up our ticket window to sell our tickets. They’re gone a couple of weeks before the game.”

Pokrivsak said the Easton football program produces $125,000 or more every year. The Thanksgiving morning contest generates nearly $35,000 alone each year, and overall, sports revenue comes close to $200,000.

Those are interesting figures considering the Easton Area School Board reduced the sports budget, along with many teacher positions and other things in its controversial, much-talked about cuts.

“I don’t know about how comparable schools around the area are doing, but my guess is that we’re at the top, or close to it, in terms of ticket sales and revenue generated,” Pokrivsak said. “Tradition still matters here.”

Pokrivsak said that all revenue generated by sports goes back to the district and has nothing to do with his sports budget.

“It’s not like we get more for sports when we have a good year,” Pokrivsak said.

Retain ‘neighborhood rivalries’

Good years in local sports are often like good years in major college and professional sports. Winning teams that earn additional playoff dates generate more revenue. Attractive matchups and weather also have an impact on the gate, of course.

That’s why the Lehigh Valley Conference is making sure that certain “neighborhood rivalries” take place every year in football.

The LVC is not going to three divisions for football, drawn on geographical lines, as it has in basketball, baseball, softball and other sports.

But the league is using those divisions to a degree, making sure that those teams play each other year. That means the four North Division members — Parkland, Whitehall, Northampton and Nazareth — play each other every year. So do West Division members Allen, Central Catholic, Dieruff and Emmaus and East Division teams Easton, Freedom, Liberty and Bethlehem Catholic.

“For many years, Whitehall and Northampton weren’t playing each other and we felt strongly that they should and that’s why we made the change,” Hartman said. “Our games with Northampton, Parkland and Nazareth are generally our best gates of the season.”

Hartman admitted that if bad weather is going to keep people away on a potential big night at the gate, schools may be more inclined to postpone. Remember, schools have just five home dates per season.

“I am fundamentally opposed to letting the gate affect our decision on a postponement, but football attendance remains very important to our budget,” he said. “We need to make the bottom line. So, sometimes it does come into play on a decision.”

When it comes to revenue, many options may be explored in the future. Some schools already have adopted pay-to-play policies.

Hartman said that while admission is charged only for football, boys and girls basketball and wrestling, more events could require a fee in the future.

Decline across all sports

Hartman, Schneider and Northwestern athletic director Jason Zimmerman are members of the District 11 Committee, and they see the decline in attendance across the board in all sports, at virtually all schools.

“We see that when it comes to district and state playoffs, certain schools and certain venues draw better than others,” Schneider said. “We had two Philadelphia-area 4A schools play in the state boys basketball finals this year in State College and nobody came to the game.

“Some schools will always draw better than others. Some schools travel better than others. But if weather comes into the picture, people just would prefer to stay home and watch on TV. We see that in football and basketball.”

High school sports have always had their largest appeal in small-town, rural communities such as Hickory High in the movie “Hoosiers.”

But Zimmerman has seen a decline in attendance at Northwestern Lehigh, a school in a rural setting where the school is the centerpiece of the community.

“Basketball attendance has been down, but football has pretty much remained steady,” Zimmerman said. “We are fortunate enough to be in a community where the school is the hub and come Friday night in New Tripoli, you usually find everyone gathered in our stadium to not only experience a high school football game, but also break bread and socialize with their neighbors.

“We’re still lucky enough to have kept the interest of our local residents who may not necessarily have a child or grandchild in our program, but simply love seeing our kids put forth their best on a Friday night.”

Zimmerman, however, sees what everybody else is seeing — and that’s that people are into their own things now, and unless they have a family member serving as a magnet, they are not going to go the game in their neighborhood.

“Success of the teams is important, but not nearly as much as the fact that life seems to be so busy now where folks just don’t have the time to do leisurely things, let alone come see a bunch of hard-working teenagers play the sport of football,” Zimmerman said. “Plus, it seems like most, but not all, communities in the Lehigh Valley have lost that community spirit.

“You see young adults moving out of the area, you see new people moving in, and I’m not sure how many of them ever catch the spirit of their local school or community.”

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