March 20, 2011 - 4:37pm
Football ticket sales prove to be recession proof
BY OLIVIA CARRINO
A recent University study shows that the troubled economy has not deterred college football fans from tailgates on game days.
Fans of college Football Bowl Subdivision teams continue to purchase tickets despite incurred financial losses in the current recession, the report shows.
Rodney Fort, professor of sport management at the School of Kinesiology, said college football remains profitable.
"Fans are crazy about college football," Fort said. "Many individual schools and quite a few colleges have seen record attendance, and record attendance per game was set by quite a few conferences.”
Fort added that though there are many people who have been hit hard by the recession, college football fans often still maintain their disposable incomes.
In a study in the June issue of the Journal of Intercollegiate Sport, Fort examines the impact major recessions have had in the last 50 years on the economy in the context of FBS college athletic departments.
The results of the study indicate that though the recession has not affected football ticket sales, a drop in the payouts for the Bowl Championship Series was noted in 2001.
Football athletic programs seem to bypass economic downturns, but athletic departments are currently choosing to limit spending. Fewer teams are opting to stay in hotels when traveling for away games, which they now often do by bus rather than by plane.
