[82lsju]

Y'all are overthinking this.

There are:

2.7 million people within half an hour drive of Stanford Stadium.

5.8 million people within an hour drive of Stanford Stadium.

9.0 million people within a two-hour drive of Stanford Stadium.

maybe with no traffic.

We live ~6 miles from the stadium.  The last couple of years it has taken ~20 min to get from our driveway to our tailgate site arriving ~2.5 hours before kick-off.  Back when we had larger crowds to could take +/-40 minutes, and yes lots of that was literally the last mile.  Some in our group come from SF and San Ramon.  They both allocated ~1.5 hours "door to tailgate".  Getting home can be an entirely different story if much of the crowd is there until the end and leave after the game, our SF and San Ramon friends could spend over two hours getting home, not much fun, especially for a game that gets out at 11pm (or later).

Our group continues to shrink.  At our peak it was ~25 people, now we're ~10 for a good game.  People have dropped for the usual reasons, late kick-offs, unknown kick-off times until 6/12 days before the game, and the last few years poor on-field performance.  We're also all about the same age(+/- 10 years) and starting to age out and have never had "replacements" join our group.  

Last year we had some drop due to not really caring about playing teams from the ACC (and yes they know that was the only option for the team).  My main reason for still buying tickets and going to the games is seeing my friends and tailgating with them (we tailgate in Lot 2 so we have a great and convenient location).  I live close to the stadium and tailgate in Lot 2.  If I lived in SF or San Ramon I doubt I'd still be buying tickets, I'd organize events to watch the games with my friends in someone's home.

I'm also not clear what improvements in the "game day experience" would be to draw in new potential fans.  My Stanford football game day experience is not worse than the other local football game days I have gone to (49ers, Cal, SJSU).

[82lsju]

Y'all are overthinking this.

There are:

2.7 million people within half an hour drive of Stanford Stadium.

5.8 million people within an hour drive of Stanford Stadium.

9.0 million people within a two-hour drive of Stanford Stadium.

maybe with no traffic.

We live ~6 miles from the stadium.  The last couple of years it has taken ~20 min to get from our driveway to our tailgate site arriving ~2.5 hours before kick-off.  Back when we had larger crowds to could take +/-40 minutes, and yes lots of that was literally the last mile.  Some in our group come from SF and San Ramon.  They both allocated ~1.5 hours "door to tailgate".  Getting home can be an entirely different story if much of the crowd is there until the end and leave after the game, our SF and San Ramon friends could spend over two hours getting home, not much fun, especially for a game that gets out at 11pm (or later).

Our group continues to shrink.  At our peak it was ~25 people, now we're ~10 for a good game.  People have dropped for the usual reasons, late kick-offs, unknown kick-off times until 6/12 days before the game, and the last few years poor on-field performance.  We're also all about the same age(+/- 10 years) and starting to age out and have never had "replacements" join our group.  

Last year we had some drop due to not really caring about playing teams from the ACC (and yes they know that was the only option for the team).  My main reason for still buying tickets and going to the games is seeing my friends and tailgating with them (we tailgate in Lot 2 so we have a great and convenient location).  I live close to the stadium and tailgate in Lot 2.  If I lived in SF or San Ramon I doubt I'd still be buying tickets, I'd organize events to watch the games with my friends in someone's home.

I'm also not clear what improvements in the "game day experience" would be to draw in new potential fans.  My Stanford football game day experience is not worse than the other local football game days I have gone to (49ers, Cal, SJSU).