the last 2 years? I am a tiger fan in Jacksonville, Fl, and I recently attended the 'orange & blue' game in Gainesville w/ my father-in-law. They announced the attendance as 45,000 something. I saw recently in an article that LSU only had 3,000 in attendance for their spring game. 3,000??? What's the deal? I would say the Final Four had something to do with it but I noticed it was about the same last year. What's going on down there? Has it always been this way? Now that I think of it, I didn't attend one spring game when I was at LSU.
They aren't games under Miles - they are controlled scrimmages. Hot as hell and not worth sitting through for a lot of fans.
You answered your own question. No one knew the basketball team would be playing when the spring scrimmage was scheduled. I don't think Les likes spring games very much. He surely hasn't made the scrimmages very interesting for the fans. Nor do they promote it like most football programs do.
If LSU turned it into a game and made a big deal out of it, they would have more success with attendance. Under Dinardo, LSU drew 20 to 30K people. It is just not that big a deal. I just think folks in Louisiana have better things to do with their day than go watch a football practice if LSU's sports marketing department does not create enough buzz to make us think otherwise.
Florida's spring game was a controlled scrimmage. Not to many teams have actual games anymore. "Hot as hell" - i don't buy that excuse. Maybe it was the final four, but I looked at last year's attendance and it wasn't much better. I just think that it's a little embarassing that, of the final top 25 teams last year, we were last in spring game attendance.
let's see - mens basketball and womens baketball both in the Final 4. maybe, just maybe, those diehard fans that were either in Indy or Boston watching hoops would have been sitting in TS for the spring game. oh, and let's not forget about katrina! not trying to be a smart ass but it's not rocket science.
Why does this read like if Skip actually did promote a Spring game, you would be complaining about him "Cashing in" or "Sticking it to the fans"? LSU does in fact have more fans during the Football season than Florida does, period.
I didn't think I would incite a response like this. Just asking a question. Now, I will also try and not be a smart ass and ask why the attendance was so low last year. No katrina, no final four (men's). I'm just trying to figure out why my hometown, which has always been football first and football second, can't draw a crowd for the spring game (scrimmage or whatever). This is the only LSU football you can see until fall. Maybe I'm just too fanatical. I'll take my beating now.
