by Craig. » Sat Sep 18, 2010 6:56 pm
I think a lot of it comes down to personal attatchment. A lot of college football fans have either attended or have close ties to people who have attended the college or university they support. Then add in college tickets from what I have seen, are generally cheaper. Its not surprising.
Pro football teams charge stupid amounts for tickets, and outside of the original group of teams, they rarely sell out.
Jacksonville is actually a good example, they for the first time in a while actually sold out a home game last week against Denver. Why? Tim Tebow. The guy played all of 2 snaps, got 2 yards rushing and was the biggest reason for the ticket sales, he's the home town boy, and a big reason florida was such a great university team and that loyalty brought in the fans.
The other thing is the atmosphere in the stadiums. Some places in college, (Alabama, LSU, Florida, Texas Ohio State) I would hate to have to play in as a visiting team, you cant hear a thing on the field. Some NFL stadiums can be sellouts and yet they are virtually silent, (New England, San Diego, Cinnci and so on) It just seems the NFL wants to discourage atmosphere.