Sporting-Event Attendance to Drop in 2013

For the 32nd consecutive year, The University of Alabama’s Office of Media Relations offers predictions from faculty experts for the coming year.

A combination of factors will result in sporting-event attendance dropping in 2013, says Dr. Andrew Billings, a University of Alabama sports communication researcher.

“The confluence of high ticket prices, better at-home media viewing and the desire to share athletic experiences with others via social media will result in more tickets being discounted and more seats being empty,” says Billings, the Ronald Reagan Endowed Chair in Broadcasting in UA’s College of Communication and Information Sciences’ telecommunication and film department.

“Virtually everything is available in some format, and social media sharing is more easily done at home,” he says.

Teams will see profits increase through television contracts rather than ticket sales. But don’t expect empty stands at the biggest of the big sporting events – the BCS Championship Game, for example.

“Megasporting events will retain large-draw status from the desire to say you were there, but smaller games will be much harder to sell, as more people will opt for the increasingly enhanced at-home sports viewing experience,” Billings says.