SEC Wants to Enhance In-Stadium Fan Experience, Could Pay Millions So Fans Can Tweet, Text

SEC Sports Spotlight The SEC wants to make sure fans can check Facebook, surf the Internet and text their friends during college football games.

Apparently, in-stadium football game attendance dipped at nine out of the 14 SEC schools in 2012 — even though the conference led the nation for the 15th consecutive year with an average attendance of 75,538 fans per game. The coaches and administrators at the SEC’s annual spring meetings are showing concern for the low attendance at football games and have created the Working Group on Fan Experience as a result.

The group is tasked with figuring out how to get more butts in the seats at SEC college football games. It’s no surprise that high ticket prices, lack of parking and limited watching access for other games have kept fans watching games from the comfort of their own homes.

Among the solutions the group has come up with are to add instant replay in stadiums, change the student ticket allotment and patching up the spotty cellphone and Wi-Fi service in and around the stadiums.

Fixing the cellphone and Wi-Fi service will cost around $2 million per stadium.

“Our next generation of fans is used to staying connected. They should be able to communicate in real time with somebody on the other side of the stadium,” said Dave Hart, the athletics director at Tennessee. “It’s quite an investment, but we have to make it.”

So, enjoy checking in on Foursquare, Instagramming pictures of your tickets and tweeting about the game while you could be watching it live, because someone paid a lot of money to give you those freedoms.

Photo via Facebook/SEC Football from B/R