How Much Are You Willing To Pay For The Game Day Experience?

When someone tells you there is nothing like the gameday atmosphere at places like Kinnick Stadium, they're right. I was fortunate enough to take in the season opener as Iowa topped Wyoming last Saturday. Being at a game is a different experience than watching one. But is that a good thing?

First of all, I love going to Iowa games. Kinnick has turned into such a cool area during game day that if you haven't been down in awhile you should really check it out. But watching the game live at a stadium isn't quite the thrill it used to be, at least for me. I blame it on the fact that football on TV is just so darned great to look at! We all have big HD screens in our living rooms now and the game of football has never looked better. So why do I want to sit in my endzone seat trying to see who has the ball? It's a problem that football is struggling with. The product is simply made for TV. How do you encourage fans to still go to the games?

Part of it is the atmosphere. Iowa City has it. From the tailgating in parking lots to watching the players enter Kinnick, Iowa City on game day is a special place. But is that enough? I thought about that as I drove home Saturday and mentally figured in my head how much money my game day experience cost me. THIS is the real problem that football, and really all sports have. You have the cost of tickets, parking, and concessions for you and in my case Saturday, three other people. We didn't even pack supplies to tailgate! Once again, we had a blast on Saturday. But I couldn't help but think how great the game probably looked on TV. And how much better my bank account would have looked if I had stayed at home.