Is it worth it to stay on campus during Thanksgiving break? I know that the OSU game is that Saturday, but I’m just wondering how many students typically stay on campus during the break.
I’d imagine there will be quite a few students around, but far from a full contingent. Keep in mind that about 2/3 of Michigan’s in-state students come from 4 contiguous counties in southeast Michigan (Oakland, Wayne, Washtenaw, and Macomb, in descending order of representation on campus). The Washtenaw students are locals–they can go see their families for Thanksgiving and make it to the OSU game without ever leaving town, or at least without leaving Washtenaw County. The kids from Wayne, Oakland and Macomb live roughly an hour or less from campus, so it’s no big deal for them to celebrate Thanksgiving with their families and come back for the game, either staying in Ann Arbor after the game or going back home after the game and returning to Ann Arbor Sunday evening. And most of the rest of the in-state kids live roughly 2 hours or less away, in places like Flint, Lansing, Grand Rapids, Holland, Kalamazoo, so it’s a similar deal for them–many will see their families for Thanksgiving but come back for the game, others won’t come back for the game. For OOS kids it’s a different calculation. Some won’t have it in their budgets to go home for Thanksgiving; this is true of most of the international students, whose families mostly don’t celebrate U.S. Thanksgiving anyway, but it’s also true of some U.S. students. Others live within driving distance, e.g., Chicago or Ohio; many of those will go home, some may come back to see the game, some won’t. Others for whom going home means a plane ticket will mostly either not go home at all, or will go home for the full extended weekend; I’d imagine fewer would fly home and then cut that visit short to come back for the game, but no doubt some will.
Also keep in mind that some students just aren’t into football, and some may not be too into their families. I’d also expect a higher percentage of freshmen to go home because there’s more parental pressure to come home during the first year away (parents can be needy that way), and because most freshmen live in the dorms which can feel like a bleaker place to be with many of their friends gone. Most upperclassmen live in off-campus houses or apartments, and staying in your own house or apartment while some of your roommates are gone doesn’t seem like as big a deprivation.
We live in Arizona and will have two sons at Michigan (undergrad and law). Instead of flying both boys home, my husband and I are flying to Michigan for Thanksgiving, driving to relatives in Ohio for the holiday, and then driving the boys back for the game. Probably not useful for most families. I don’t know if they otherwise would have wanted to stay for game versus coming home. It is an incredibly exciting game, but of course more exciting if we were to win!
Uh… “if we were to win”?
Depends greatly on how the team is doing. If 5-6, expect many to just skip it to spend an extra days off campus. If both teams are good, expect more to stick around, but that will also incentivize scalping.
This is imo one big reason for declining student ticket sales across the country. Rivalry week is now thanksgiving break. All this empty talk by admins like schlissel saying the college is behind the students always, but then they go and screw the students like this. The game used to be the week before thanksgiving and give a definitive end to season. Now it’s just the game before the conference title games before the 4 team playoff. ADs and their corporate henchmen are so out of touch it’s unreal.
No, being able to text for an hour during the game isn’t that critical, especially when i’m already standing next to my friends. No, the bigass tvs aren’t that much a deterrent. Scheduling delaware st at noon, the rivalry game on thanksgiving break as at best a “round of 16” game, being unbelievably cheap about bringing booze and even water into the stadium, ticket prices way beyond inflation, seating policies that cut us off from our class and friends, the AD saying “fuck em” about students at donor meetings, players who less and less have anything in common with the real students, corner endzone seats…they shouldn’t need all these national surveys to figure out why attendance has plummeted.
http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/index.ssf/2015/07/michigan_tickets.html#incart_river
@steellord123 - attendance is back on the rise; student attendance increasing nearly 50% this year. Lowering the ticket prices, Harbaugh (and to a lesser degree Hackett instead of DB) and the better schedule all contribute for certain.
I’m not sure how much the teams record will matter for interest in the OSU game. “Throw the records out” as they say; it will be a hugely exciting tilt.
@wayneandgarth yes i read that too, it’s a good thing for sure. However, it’s still 3-4,000 fewer than when my cousin went to UM and ran on the field after beating OSU to make the rose bowl. See what i’m getting at? The experience is way diff now. With those factors you mention, student sales should be at 25,000 but a lot has changed in 10 years
Next season it will drop back down potentially several thousand, as i can almost guarantee prices will go up above inflation again and MSU/OSU won’t be on the schedule and even the nonconference is worse. A lot hinges on how the team does, but even with a good season…Back then you’d have washington/iowa/wisconsin/MSU on the schedule then ohio/notre/penn state (before sandusky) the next, none during holiday break, with the conference title on the line on campus, and it worked in a way things cannot now. If you want someone to blame, it’s not the students, it’s not the HDTV, it’s the money grubbing corporate whores who run athletics
The record will definitely matter as far as how many students skip or sell their tickets on a holiday weekend, just like 2 years ago. This isn’t alabama where 90% of students are in easy driving distance from home and football is life
It’s easy to say the AD won’t care because ratings don’t require ticket sales and one big donor like ross means no one else matters, but espn has lost 8% of customers the past few years and cable ala carte looms. When that happens, picking up maryland/rutgers will be especially dumb and so will losing 4,000-14,000 students every year for sake of a “wow” tv moment like conference title game