The End of Football?

This past Saturday, I attended my first UCLA football game at the Rose Bowl. We were facing off against Michigan State, and our chances were looking good because of our 6-0 win streak. My double layer 50 SPF sunscreen was pushing against the beating sun as I stared across the field. It looked just like the movies. However, the thing that surprised me the most was the lack of attendance.

I don’t want to sound like a Debbie downer, but there were probably less than 200 people in the student section. Not even five rows were filled, and what was more surprising was how packed the normal section of the stadium was. Regular folk of the LA area mogged the crap out of us. I felt extremely bad and I suspect my friends, even though they didn’t tell me directly, knew it too.

This raises the question: Is this the end of football? I am not a huge football fan, and my perfect Saturday does not include spending five hours out in the hot sun. I don’t find the appeal of men crashing into other people, and then cheering when one of them runs a leather ball into a homerun. It’s simply not interesting to me.

A few days later, I read an article about how the head UCLA coach, Bob Chesney, was disappointed with the students, “The student section was slow to get in there, and then felt like they left a little bit early… I think that they got to do a better job too.”

It’s a difficult problem. You can’t force people to attend an event they don’t have enough interest in, and there are a few problems with the logistics. One, the football stadium is 40 minutes off campus so you need to buy a $15 Rooter Bus ticket to just get there. Second, it was the middle of midterm season. What a Bruin to do?

I know the answer: don’t attend. It’s an uncomfortable truth but it might be time for Football to hang the towel. I don’t know how long this will last but eventually, if no one shows up, there would be no more point in a Football team. Things come and go, and this time, it might be dear old Football.