Penn State Tries to Boost Football Attendance By Making Fans Buy Tix to Crappy Games

CBS Philly reports that if you’re a Penn State football fan who wants to see the Michigan game this year, you’ll also have to buy tickets to see the Eastern Michigan game. Apparently, the stands in Happy Valley aren’t quite as full as they used to be.

Ticket prices for single games range from $70 to $140, and there’s no discount with the bundles.

Athletic Director Dave Joyner says it’s all a move to stop a steady decline in average attendance. That’s been slipping, down from almost 109,000 per game in 2007 to under 97,000 last year. Joyner says it’s an attempt to increase the fan experience, and to make things more interesting.

Which is true if the “fan experience” means “paying for a game nobody really wants to see, or else it wouldn’t be required.” And hey, in the wake of the scandals that have plagued the school the last few years, what better way to rebuild relations with your fan base?

Or it’s an attempt to maximize revenue in an era of declining revenues. That sounds less awesome but more likely, don’t you think? In any case, nobody mentions the word here that rhymes with “Shmandusky“—so it’s fair to observe the decline in attendance occurred about the same time as the Great Recession and apparently never quite rebounded. That, at least, can’t be laid at the fault of a pedophile assistant coach.