I agree with most of that. But on the other hand, there are several out of town posters here who used to go to almost every game. Now they are absent for almost every game. I know life such as kids gets in the way. But where are those that came after them?
There is already the issue of overall attendance decline across college football, the obvious explosion of media and access to other things to do/watch, economic changes...
But for me, I think it's a lack of commitment to the program across the board. I'm not pegging this on one person. We had such a unique opportunity to be the attractive team to root for. The Dome, having it on campus (which would be appealing to a graduate), exciting offense and dynamic players. You knew that we could beat anyone that was coming to the Dome.
I think McNabb, and P for a while, covered up the degradation of the program. Freeney took us for a ride in 2001. But the writing was on the wall.
I think I have a unique perspective in that I've been a fan since I was very young and lived in upstate. Then I went to Cuse for undergrad/grad and then moved to NYC. I've been basically the embodiment of all three types of fans we want in the dome.
The time during P's final years into GRob's years (and I mean this in timeframe, not blaming these guys) in hindsight, was a tremendously pivotal time for this program, and college football as a whole. The arms race blew up, conferences were changing and media was (and still is) flipping on its head.
And we severely missed out. Our lack of investment not only led to our bottoming out, but it came at a time when it was more important than ever to be top of mind for those that would have the SU fanaticism instilled in them.
I think that lost generation is killing us that would be the folks from out of town still making the trek, passing along stories, being the propaganda machines our parents were for us.
And the worst part is the school crapped on the locals and the upstaters while trying to appeal to the NYC market.
Now, if that's what got us into the ACC, I guess it's a necessary evil. Can't argue with the new revenue stream. But it sure seems like those two things should not have been mutually exclusive.
But from my vantage point, now, the school has to start with the Syracuse people, then the upstaters along the major interstate corridors and then, when we are winning, pull in the folks that are 4 or 8 or 12 hours away. I'm telling you right now a losing or average product will not get them back.
Can you complain about lack of support from out of town folks? I think it's fair to an extent. It's a heavy burden to bear for locals that have been treated like crap. I just don't think expecting them to show up as a group to do their part, so to speak, will bear any fruit. They will always be the last to come aboard.
It's a tough spot and we need a lot of work to get folks back, from every pool of potential ticket buyers.
[Edit 1: punctuation and spelling]
