Ryan Thorburn has the data on pathetic Duck ticket sales in the RG here;
According to data provided by the athletic department, the average renewal price of a season ticket is down by 3.9 percent, with 65 percent of seats decreasing in price and the other 35 percent remaining flat at 2015 rates.
As of Monday, Oregon had sold 36,840 season tickets, which is down from last year’s total of 37,404. The program’s record was 43,295 in 2011, the season after Chip Kelly’s Ducks played for a BCS national title.
Apparently Eric Roedl is having a hard time finding people who want to watch Willie Taggart get paid $3.5M to churn his players brains to mush, or listen to Dana Altman berate his players for supporting #BlackLivesMatters during his national anthem. Roedl has already put the screws to UO students for another $10K, but that’s petty change across the river. Looks like these coaches and Rob Mullens locked in their fat long-term contracts with UO just in time.
Meanwhile there’s a great interview with UCLA QB and Econ major Josh Rosen, here. Rosen puts the lie to all the crap we’ve heard from the Duck athletic department and its “Faculty Athletics Representatives” over the years about how its OK we don’t pay the players, because they’re getting such a great education:
Rosen: “Look, football and school don’t go together. They just don’t.”
Rosen: Don’t get me started. I love school, but it’s hard. It’s cool because we’re learning more applicable stuff in my major (Economics)—not just the prerequisite stuff that’s designed to filter out people. But football really dents my ability to take some classes that I need. There are a bunch of classes that are only offered one time. There was a class this spring I had to take, but there was a conflict with spring football, so…
B/R: So football wins out?
Rosen: Well, you can say that.
B/R: So that’s reality for student-athletes playing at a major university?
Rosen: I didn’t say that, you did. (Laughs.) Look, football and school don’t go together. They just don’t. Trying to do both is like trying to do two full-time jobs. There are guys who have no business being in school, but they’re here because this is the path to the NFL. There’s no other way. Then there’s the other side that says raise the SAT eligibility requirements. OK, raise the SAT requirement at Alabama and see what kind of team they have. You lose athletes and then the product on the field suffers.
Look, football and school don’t go together. They just don’t. Trying to do both is like trying to do two full-time jobs. — Josh Rosen
B/R: Wait, some players shouldn’t be in school?
Rosen: It’s not that they shouldn’t be in school. Human beings don’t belong in school with our schedules. No one in their right mind should have a football player’s schedule, and go to school. It’s not that some players shouldn’t be in school; it’s just that universities should help them more—instead of just finding ways to keep them eligible.
Any time any player puts into school will take away from the time they could put into football. They don’t realize that they’re getting screwed until it’s too late. You have a bunch of people at the universities who are supposed to help you out, and they’re more interested in helping you stay eligible. At some point, universities have to do more to prepare players for university life and help them succeed beyond football. There’s so much money being made in this sport. It’s a crime to not do everything you can to help the people who are making it for those who are spending it.
B/R: But those same players go make money in the NFL after being prepared by their college programs.
Rosen: Some do, absolutely. What about those who don’t? What did they get for laying their body on the line play after play while universities make millions upon millions? People criticize when guys leave early for the NFL draft, and then rip them when some guys who leave early don’t get drafted. [They say,] “Why did you leave school if you weren’t going to get drafted?” I’ll tell you why: Because for a lot of guys, there is no other option. They were either leaving early (for the NFL) or flunking out. To me, that’s a problem within the system and the way we’re preparing student-athletes for the future away from football. Everyone has to be part of the process.
B/R: How is it, then, that some guys graduate in three years? Deshaun Watson graduated in three years from Clemson. So did his roommate, Artavis Scott.
Rosen: I’m not knocking what those guys accomplished. They should be applauded for that. But certain schools are easier than others.
B/R: It can’t be that simple.
Rosen: If I wanted to graduate in three years, I’d just get a sociology degree.
Of course football and school go together real well for Willie Taggart and Rob Mullens. If it weren’t for the school part, they have to pay their players.
“… listen to Dana Altman berate his players for supporting #BlackLivesMatters”
More likely people are tuning out because of the players choice here, not the coach. “Keep your politics out of my sports” is not an uncommon thing to hear around these parts, but then again, maybe my selection pool is biased.
Maybe not:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/oct/4/nearly-one-third-americans-boycotting-nfl-because-/
So, based on attendance declines, Duck athletics is doing significantly worse than UO academics, and much better than the Oregon Bach Festival and Lane CC. Kind of middle of the road.
I hope that the Duck Athletic Fund and Uncle’s open wallet are enough to pay the bills.
Honest voices are generally disruptive and institutions don’t tolerate that. Still, kudos for speaking the on the ground truth.
I guess this bleacher report had high impact as this is all over ESPN today – with most people disagreeing with what he said.
Probably just offended sociology majors.
If this interview had happened at UO that quarterback would never be allowed to talk to another reporter.
And the Ducks would give the reporter the “Jacoby Treatment”
Not buying that football players work any harder than gymnasts, tennis players or soccer players.
… or academic students…
Oh, I am quite sure — from much observation in my classes — that the athletes work much harder at athletics than do the vast majority of students at academics.