Concerns? Hawkeye ticket-buyers have a few

It isn't as if Kinnick Stadium no longer will be inhabited by guests this fall.

Iowa doesn't have a sellout for any of its seven home dates in 2014. It didn't have one last year, either, with a high crowd of 69,812 (Wisconsin) and a low of 64,201 (Missouri State) in the 70,585-seat venue.

The Hawkeyes were 23rd in NCAA football attendance in 2013, and will be close to that again this year. That's not too shabby. It doesn't, however, mean Iowa shouldn't and doesn't have concerns about why it no longer averages over 70,000 fans per home game the way it did from 2004 through 2012.

When I recently wrote a piece for TheGazette.com about the modern-day problems Iowa and everyone else in college football have trying to fill their stadiums, I got comments at the Hlog's Facebook page (I'd consider it a favor if you subscribed to it. It's free.) and emails. Here's a sampling:

A Facebook poster:

'Hate to admit it but there are many times when staying at home and watching the Hawks is so much better than being there. Especially when you get to avoid waiting in long lines to buy overpriced food/drinks.'

Another Facebook poster:

'4 season tickets + transportation would be somewhere around $2000. I'll take a once a year road game or trip to Kinnick but it's awfully hard to envision myself with season tickets until the kids are out of the nest. For that kind of cash, you could pay your premium cable/satellite bill for a year and get a 46-50' TV to watch the game on and probably have enough left over for beer.'

Another Facebook poster:

'Bathroom lines, no beer and narrow seats are what kill me.'

And one more from Facebook:

'Big screen TVs, any drink you want, replay + commentary, no baby sitter, no hotel costs and throw your own Hawk party at home. That's, unfortunately for the program, where we are at.'

From from an email forwarded to me by someone else who said he stopped taking his kids to Kinnick games because of vulgar language used by the fans in the stands:

'This F-bomb thing is exactly why I took my young teenage son to Kinnick for the last time. I've sat in many different locations in the stadium and it's all the same ... bad, bad language.'

The offenders, said the e-mailer, were 'not students or bums off the street.'

'We now enjoy the games from the comfort of our living room with no regrets. Kinnick is losing lots of money from folks like us.'

This was part of an email:

'I had always considered a Kinnick game the highlight of any stadium experience (including Yankee Stadium, JFK in DC, Fenway, etc.) ... I was a total sap for this experience, but not anymore.

'When I started going to games again six years ago I was stunned at how tawdry and commercialized the game-day experience is. Oddly one doesn't notice this so much at home, because one just mutes the TV for the commercials, talks to friends, and the cameras ignore the ubiquitous advertising, and also ignore the fact that the video boards are mostly advertising. ... This is not true at any major college or professional venue I have ever attended. It's not even close.

'Usually, when I attend a game, I meet a 'former' season ticket holder who is also attending a single game instead. The most notable such example was a small town dentist from northern Iowa, who was a drum major in the 1970s, and who lost his seats to the new seat licensing (annual donation scaling) scheme. He was embittered. He also was embittered by the new RV and tailgating rules, because he previously got together with fellow alums for each game.

'This was not a wild man, this was a small town dentist from northern Iowa with two degrees from SUI. He bought an RV just to go to games and see his friends. ... On one level, he now hates his alma mater. ...

'So: On balance, one of my fondest childhood and young adult athletic experiences — going to Kinnick — is now … meh. I dislike intensely the haphazard commercialization, the contempt for the longtime fans and alums and their traditions, the cynicism that buys video boards and then assigns 50% of them to more ads, the suppression of the tailgating scene, the lousy food that too is tied into Barta's promotional schemes.'

This probably looks like piling on, so I'll tack on this email I got from an Ohio State fan:

'As much as I love my Buckeyes, I will say that the best gameday experience I've had in B1G land was at Iowa. ... The fans cheered FOR the home not so much against the visitors. I was treated nicely by the fans in black around me, and the buzz was incredible. ...

'My point to all of this is if, through a promotion or fan appreciation game or something of the sort, they can just get people to Kinnick once I think they would be HOOKED. I became an Iowa fan that day and still am except for one Saturday each fall.'

My final word (for now)

: Kinnick still is an excellent venue in a good setting, and Iowa's team certainly doesn't lack for avid followers. But loyalty has its limits. It's up to Iowa to make 'fan-friendly' a term with teeth.

To me, the biggest issue is the students. A university is supposed to be for the students. All of the university. When fewer and fewer students attend games, you've got a long-term problem because you hook your lifelong fans when they're students.

But if people are finding something as basic to the Iowa game-day experience as tailgating has been damaged, you've got to make repairs or accept the bottom-line consequences.

l Comments: (319) 368-8840; mike.hlas@sourcemedia.net