The missus and I moved to Omaha for my work and we decided to go native and go to a Huskers game. We got tickets to the Nebraska v. Illinois game last night and it was like we were teleported back into Lane in the late 00s and early '10s. Everyone was on their feet the entirety of the game, the noise and intensity in the crowd was there for the entirety of the game and it felt electric. Definitely things that Lane has been missing on a regular basis for a while. The stadium was packed from kickoff to the end (Friday night top-25 matchup didn't hurt.
A couple of takeaways though:
- The LED light show at the end of the 3rd quarter was awesome. I would love to see that in Orange and Maroon
- The drone show accompanying the light show was fantastic. Again, I can imagine some of the images that VT could utilize and it would be a helluva show
- No beer sales which was interesting. I don't drink during games usually, but strange that Nebraska hasn't adopted it.
- I wish we had an O-line like either of those teams. Both teams are good, just Illinois had it all the way to the end.
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I would kind of prefer this after yesterday. I was not enjoying the "cheering" coming from my section as the game went on. Nobody that has the power to actually change anything can hear you when you yell your idea for what our game plan should be every play on offense.
Put a team on the field that doesn't just immediately lead to misery drinking and I might not mind it anymore. It really does take a lot of the fun out of going to see a game in person, both the drunk fans and the team on the field.
Alcohol sales has little to do with the fan behavior. Remember "Hokie Respect" during the Ocainspring cluster?
After WVU sold beer they made something like $4M extra in revenue. We had to do the money grab to keep up.
I wish we would have put that money into hiring new coaches (mid-CornFu cluster).
I agree with your last point. Put a competitive product on the field and give the fans a reason to cheer.
Why wife has a theory that while alcohol sales have provided a fair bit of income to the AD, they have hurt the overall experience. People can get drunk before hand and come to the game where they can keep drinking and get even more drunk, then they either feel like crap and don't cheer as loud, say obnoxious things, or leave because they don't feel good.
Regardless of the cause, butts don't stay in the seats because the on the field product is so wishy washy and mostly not enjoyable to watch.
I said "we're leaving" probably 5 times but the game was so good to watch. We finally left a bit early, otherwise it would have taken us FOREVER to get home to Omaha from Lincoln.
As for being drunk in the stands. One gentlemen near me was approached and then led off by the cops as the game ended. He was arrested for public drunkenness'. So I would still drink in moderation.
IMO, there are a lot of reasons for the declining fan experience from what we were used to in the 2000s/early 2010s. First off, the program has obviously fallen and there's a palpable frustration among the fan base. Games just aren't as enjoyable when you're losing consistently and have been going on 12 years now, other than a few blips here and there. The Lane Stadium experience has become Sandman and that's it. It's really a shame.
Second, the changing nature of the university and the student body as we have grown. The student population previously had a lot more kids whose parents were VT grads or who grew up VT football fans and came to VT because of that. The new student body doesn't likely remember a good VT football program in their lifetime, and we have gotten away from legacy admissions who grew up going to VT games with their parents. That has had an enormous effect I think on the overall interest in the football program. The game is now a 100% excuse to get shit faced drunk for many, and now continue it into the stadium. I miss the days when the students were laser focused on the game, standing and being loud, participating in making noise or key plays on third downs. Just not seeing that same passion anymore.
People don't want to watch a bad product. Over the last 10 years Virginia Tech has been a bad product and the school has done nothing to improve the in game fan experience. And they still have the audacity to reseat and charge more and whine that we don't give enough.
No amount of money will help a situation that keeps hiring the wrong people. That is the disconnect here.
To be fair, there were plenty of drunks in the '90s.
Oh agreed. There were drunks in the 2000s/2010s as well though maybe to a lesser extent. But the last game I was at in Lane in 2022, I was shocked at the overall drunkenness of a lot of the students and even general fans. A lot of fighting/shoving too.
Past generations of drunks had 4 hours to sober up a little not to get worse
And that's my wife's point. People can get drunk tailgating, but forcibly got sober unless they snuck booze in. Now they can just get even more hammered until they don't feel good, they leave, or we get obnoxiously drunk fans.
Unless they snuck booze in? Hate to break it to you but it was easy and generally considered acceptable by those around us who did the same. Keep it clean and don't get shitfaced and all was cool. Now, we weren't around students at that point, and had our season tickets for several years with most of our neighbors the same year to year. And we did stand when we should, yelled like idiots all game long, and honestly believed we were playing the game when our noise would result in a false start or something. We also didn't show off our little airplane bottles, mixed them with cokes and stayed until the end of the game, win or lose.
That was then, now is now and a different kind of experience prevails.
Yeah- we drank at the game as students back in the '80s- though it was usually in flasks not mini bottles as it was 'pre-metal detectors'; but since I graduated it's always been just drinking at tailgates and using the game to sober up (relatively lol) as we almost always drive back to Richmond after the game(sometimes we sleep a few hours in the car after a night game to avoid the traffic). Trying to get a hotel usually ends up in Roanoke anyway and at that point I'm a third of the way home so we just keep going. Did this last fall even after working all day Friday, plating in one pool tournament from 7-1130pm Friday night, another tournament from midnight to 6 am; popping back to my house for 45 minute nap then drove to the game, tailgated, went to game, and drove back- got home at about 1230am Sunday!
I remember one of the coke vendors in the 90s yelling, "MIXERS! MIXERS HERE!"
Yup. they were good at grabbing attention and you know they got good tips because of it.
I miss having the vendors in the stands.
Also, I brought a colleague to the game. He said "it was a cool experience, even though they kinda suck." Just not the overwhelming praise you usually get from first timers. This reaffirmed something I'd noticed several times in recent years, which is just the total lack of energy in the stadium. The sellout was impressive, but the noise level is maybe 40% of what it used to be. I've even noticed how i don't find myself cheering as much anymore. Just totally complacent and accepting that a loss is almost inevitable. This has been a pretty sad realization that the Lane stadium i grew up in might just be gone forever.
Nothing hit quite like a dairy club milkshake on a hot ass day.
Also miss the ASME gadgets they'd make and take through the stands.
I think it's less about have fewer legacy students, and more about technology these days.
Even bama is having issues with student attendance.
Definitely a big factor as well. Gen Z's attention span is way lower thanks to social media. All that stuff was in its infancy in our college days and wasn't nearly the same distraction.
Also, watch some old game broadcasts on YouTube sometime. TV from the 90s looks like it's from 1957 compared to what TV looks like today. It's not just a "those darn kids today" situation. Going to a football game is a fun experience, but it's not the best way to actually see what's going on in the game. Also, I don't have 40,000 drunken idiots in my living room.
Usually it's just the one.
Yeah and I remember watching VT games in the 90s, there were a ton of games that just weren't televised. We had big Big East games on CBS and then some games on ESPN, but a lot of games you just couldn't get on tv. Now you can get literally every game streaming and in HD. I myself have gone from rabidly attending VT games 10-15 years ago to now preferring to watch from the comfort of my own living room and avoid the crowds and costs of going to the game.
From what I've been told - no personal experience here, just when I've spoken to others who have travelled to away games - Nebraska and LSU were supposed to have had the best fans. Sounds like NE is still on top.
Nebraska fans are some of the best as long as you aren't Colorado fans, they will be super nice to everyone (they are less polite against texas, but not hateful like they are to CU)
They will self police themselves, and want to show everyone a great time
I have friends who went out to the game when we played Nebraska out there. They were not able to buy a beer or drink before the game. Nebraska fans bought them to show them a good time and be welcoming. Of course Nebraska also expected to win the game.
Can confirm, Nebraska fans are S-tier.
Took this pic on the way out of the stadium. Just good times.
Best road game Ive ever been to, and I have been to every away ACC team. Nebraska fans are awesome.
I'm missing smu and FSU so to make it to all of them is impressive.
Also had a great experience out there. Incredibly nice fans. After the game, I had to start turning down drinks, it seemed like every Nebraska fan wanted to buy us a beer.
We did meet some fans that had rocks thrown through their car windows in Boulder...so yeah, I don't blame any Nebraska fans that aren't very hospitable to Colorado fans :-) that rivalry seems very intense.
Still have a Nebraska t-shirt i bought out there.
I can also confirm Nebraska fans are awesome. Even when they sucked I went to watch Ohio State blow them out one time the stadium stayed relatively full even though they were down like 4 scores. Fans are also comparable to how i see Tech fans, generally welcoming to everyone except their rival. A few of them still had some bad memories of VT beating them but it was a fan base that knew their team well.
Nebraska in 2008 is one of my favorite road game experiences. Nebraska fans are legit great hosts. I had people coming up to me in the airport, IN CHICAGO, in between my connection from Lincoln to home and introducing themselves as Nebraska alums and checking to make sure that I had a good time. On the way home. After we won. All because they saw that I was wearing a VT polo. Highly recommend everyone take in a game there if you can. Maybe do it in September too, the weather we had was perfect for a night game.